| Most retailers go to wholesalers every morning or | | | | current day, but an estimation of the average price is |
| every second day to buy the goods they need for | | | | officially displayed for each product. Sellers display no |
| their customers. Fruit and vegetables are perishable | | | | prices and transactions are always preceded by |
| and keeping them a few days requires quite heavy | | | | negotiations. To get information, buyers can visit |
| infrastructure. That's why retailers tend to come | | | | several wholesale sellers, or alternatively ask some of |
| very regularly to have the freshest products they | | | | their friends who has visited other sellers. Usually, |
| can. It is very important for them to provide their | | | | retailers spend some time in the bar, discussing with |
| customers with a range of products that is | | | | others, or use their cell phones to ask prices to their |
| sufficiently diverse and where the goods are present | | | | friends. |
| in a regular way, even though there are sometimes | | | | To achieve their goal of gathering the products, a |
| unpredicted shortages. They can also profit of | | | | retailer needs to go and visit wholesale sellers. The |
| oversupply by getting very cheap goods from | | | | retailer has no representation of prices: it can |
| wholesalers and sell them to attract clients. Their first | | | | compare the values among wholesale sellers, but |
| interest is thus to find the wholesalers, from whom | | | | doesn't keep this knowledge from one time to |
| they could purchase the products they need at a | | | | another. |
| cheaper price. | | | | When a retailer decides who it wants to visit, it send |
| The constraint of continuity in products forces them | | | | a message to the wholesale seller, proposing to buy |
| to have habits on the market itself: either they go to | | | | a product. This message queues among other |
| certain wholesale sellers who always have a wide | | | | retailers' and is answered to buy the wholesale seller. |
| range of products or they have relations with several | | | | A retailer is characterised by two behavioural aspects: |
| sellers who will help them fulfil their needs as well as | | | | its degree of loyalty and the time it stays on the |
| they can. In there case, having a friendly relation with | | | | market. It can be either loyal or selfish, and the |
| a seller can enable them to order from one day to | | | | difference of behaviour, which is implied, will be |
| another, or to know about shortages to come a day | | | | described in the next section. It can stay for a short |
| in advance. | | | | or a long time. There are 4-negotiation period on the |
| The other constraint for the buyers is time. Most of | | | | market. A short-time retailer can stay for 3 periods; a |
| them have to go back to their shop as early as | | | | long-time retailer can stay for 4 periods. |
| possible to have their fruits ready for the first | | | | Retailers (mainly loyal ones) have a regular wholesale |
| customers. Hence, they need some information on | | | | seller on the market, which is initialised randomly. For |
| the market situation but cannot go around indefinitely. | | | | the first model, the regular wholesale seller is always |
| In this market, there is no global information for the | | | | the same along the simulation. |