to saturate the market
1
5.3
- phrasal verb
:
saturar el mercado
- They continue to saturate the market with different phones every six months with different names that no one recognizes or is attached to.
Examples
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After offering deep discounts for months, the store finally saturated the market with its sales and noticed a drop in profits.
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You mean saturate the market?
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The reality, as we've seen in suburban areas where Walmart has saturated the market, is the demise of small businesses and Main Streets, the marginalization of communities, and the creation of low-wage jobs, which often replace better jobs.
Blog text (23) -
In order to increase its customer base, the company decided to saturate the market with its new product line.
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The smartphone manufacturer aims to saturate the market with its latest model to ensure it dominates sales in that segment.
Synonyms
127
2.1
To fill a place with more things than it can handle
55
5.2
Make something so full of liquid or color that it can take no more
1
4.5
To put more goods in a shop or warehouse than can be sold
1
6.5
Fill a market or area with too much of something so people lose interest
To fill a market with too much of a product so it becomes unwanted
How Supplied
1
5.3
28
3.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase's meaning is directly built from 'saturate' (to fill to capacity) + 'market' (group of customers), so the idea of filling the market with a product is transparently derivable. This compositional pattern is common across languages (e.g. Spanish 'saturar el mercado') and the definite article is non-essential, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would understand the expression.
Etymology
Saturate the market comes from the picture of pouring water on a sponge until it is completely full. If you saturate a market, it is like the market is soaked with a product and cannot take more, so no more customers buy it unless prices fall. That's why the phrase means 'to supply so much of a product that no more can be sold'.