Notions Regarding the Quality of Products and Services - A Tool in Economic Activities

In the world economy of this beginning of the millennium can be highlighted certain trends such as rapid renewal and unprecedented diversification of the supply of goods due to increasing penetration of technical progress in production, globalization of markets, increasing customer requirements, and lately the emergence of rationalization. strict use of all resources, a necessity required by the economic and financial crisis at the end of this first decade.
Under these conditions, the quality of the products through its economic effects firmly determines the competitiveness of the companies considering the fact that any consumer, before purchasing a product, checks by a brief control the quality of the purchased product in relation to the purchase price.
As humanity becomes more aware of the interdependence between goods, man and the environment, it becomes increasingly important the systemic approach to this relationship, along the entire trajectory, from production to consumption, taking into account both current requirements for consumer protection and the environment. surrounding. Commodity science provides knowledge about commodities and establishes the relationships between human needs and their world, in a variety of situations, by studying the properties of commodities in close connection with their quality.
This paper includes a series of important and topical issues, connected with classical and modern disciplines, where they are taken over and adapted to its specifics, elements that allow the study of the fundamentals of trade science and is useful to those who study or are interested in the issue of goods.
The approached theme is a fundamental one for the economic education, it integrates the notions of quality, utility, necessity, economic-social efficiency, being subordinated to the one studied by the discipline entitled in the past Merceology. Etymologically, the term merchandise derives from the Latin word merx = merchandise (mercis = of merchandise) and the Greek word logos (science, knowledge). Linguistic correspondents in other languages ​​are: study of commodities (English), warenkunde (German), merceologia (Italian), tovarovedenie (Russian), connaissance des marchandises (French).