Read the given passage carefully and answer the following questions.

Trade is essentially the buying and selling of items produced elsewhere. All the services in retail and wholesale trading or commerce are specifically intended for profit. The towns and cities where all these works take place are known as trading centres.

The rise of trading from barter at the local level to money-exchange on an international scale has produced many centres and institutions, such as trading centres or collection and distribution points.

Trading centres may be divided into rural and urban marketing centres.

Rural marketing centres cater to nearby settlements. These are quasi-urban centres. They serve as trading centres of the most rudimentary type. Here, personal and professional services are not well-developed. These form local collecting and distributing centres. Most of these have mandis (wholesale markets) and also retailing areas. They are not urban centres per se but are significant centres for making available goods and services which are most frequently demanded by rural folk.

Periodic markets in rural areas are found where there are no regular markets and local periodic markets are organised at different temporal intervals. These may be weekly, bi-weekly markets where people from the surrounding areas meet their temporally accumulated demand. These markets are held on specified dates and move from one place to another. The shopkeepers, thus, remain busy all day while a large area is served by them.

Urban marketing centres have more widely specialised urban services. They provide ordinary goods and services as well as many of the specialised goods and services required by people. Urban centres, therefore, offer manufactured goods as well as many specialised developed markets, e.g. markets for labour, housing, semi-or finished products. Services of educational institutions and professionals such as teachers, lawyers, consultants, physicians, dentists and veterinary doctors are available.

Which of the following services is generally NOT a characteristic feature of the urban marketing centres?

Local collection and distribution

The correct answer is Option (2) → Local collection and distribution

• Urban marketing centres provide specialised services such as consultants, veterinary doctors, markets for labour, housing, and finished products, along with educational and professional services.

• Local collection and distribution is a feature of rural marketing centres, as they act as local collecting and distributing centres with mandis and retailing areas.

Hence, local collection and distribution is NOT a characteristic of urban marketing centres.