Merchants at the beginning of the $2008$ Christmas season were worried consumers would not be willing to buy as much as they had in previous years. As a result, these retailers purchased fewer items for their inventories. Manufacturers sold less because the retailers did not want to have as large an inventory as usual. Manufacturers had to lay people off because their production was down and many consumers actually did have less money to spend. This is an example of how forces directly affect marketing.

Select one:

a$.$ economic

b$.$ social

c$.$ regulatory

d$.$ technological

e$.$ competitive