corner the market: meaning and explanation
The original meaning of this idiom was related to controlling the price of a particular commodity by buying most or all of the supply.
Nowadays, the idiom is used more generally. If a company corners the market, then they are much more successful than all of their competitors at selling a specific product or in a specific market. e.g. It only took the company a few years to corner the market in ethical smartphones.
Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?
Listening exercises
Dictation #1
Accent: Scotland
About the sentence
…our highly competitive pricing…
Highly competitive is a useful collocation to use when you want to describe a low or cheap price in a positive way. e.g. We pride ourselves on the fact that our prices are highly competitive.
Dictation #2
Accent: North America
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Dictation #3
Accent: England (RP)
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Extra practice
Here are some questions/links to help you learn the new vocabulary:
- Can you give an example of a company cornering the market? Or an example of a company attempting to do so, but failing?
- What strategies can a businesses use to attempt to “corner the market.” How can a company gain a dominant position in a particular industry or niche?
- What are the downsides to one company cornering the market?
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
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