3 ms·

while completely agree with your point, the emergence of such corporate biggies can damage some local small businesses, I would like to present a different sid

while completely agree with your point, the emergence of such corporate biggies can damage some local small businesses, I would like to present a different side of the same argument (can't help being a devil's advocate :)). Such big companies and the services that only such big companies can provide have also enabled the development of many new businesses. Its usually those who are complacent and could not adapt to the new business realities who usually get destroyed.

loewenskind 16y ago
>the services that only such big companies can provide What services would these be? :) Honestly, I think for a capitalist model what Adam Smith envisioned would be better: a bunch of small companies competing with each other. What small benefits the bigger companies do bring are offset by the problems they bring [1]. [1] http://www.truth-out.org/topstories/10210vh5 http://www.truth-out.org/topstories/10210vh5
- skowmunk 16y ago
  I live in a relatively small city - of 40,000. It simply can't support a Barnes & Noble. If there were no Amazon I would have been at the mercy of the whims and capabilities of the very small local book shops in town to get books. Or drive 1 hour to go to the nearest Barnes & Noble. But, even Barnes & Noble can't stock all the books that Amazon makes available. With Amazon, if I need, I can get it the next day. I have a very small company that I run off my regular job hours. I wanted to do some marketing, get some paper, some other supplies, print stuff in the middle of the night and post some flyers around town. If Walmart weren't open and didn't have the supplies, I would have been limited to what I could work out during the regular hours of the small businesses there. The horror is, I don't know why, many of them simply shut off at 5, books shops and some others. Thats crazy. There was this printing I used to get done at a local business, to be honest they were incredibly sweet to deal with. But their lead time was 3 days at best for printing some 1500 flyers. With OfficeMax in the same city, 2-3 hours, sometimes 30 minutes. It gave me incredible flexibility to change things on the fly - typos, content or whatever. These were the real situations I faced. Without them, my business might not have been impossible, but definitely quite a bit more complicated. And, of course, everything has its pros and cons.

loewenskind 16y ago

>the services that only such big companies can provide What services would these be? :) Honestly, I think for a capitalist model what Adam Smith envisioned would be better: a bunch of small companies competing with each other. What small benefits the bigger companies do bring are offset by the problems they bring [1]. [1] http://www.truth-out.org/topstories/10210vh5 http://www.truth-out.org/topstories/10210vh5

skowmunk 16y ago
I live in a relatively small city - of 40,000. It simply can't support a Barnes & Noble. If there were no Amazon I would have been at the mercy of the whims and capabilities of the very small local book shops in town to get books. Or drive 1 hour to go to the nearest Barnes & Noble. But, even Barnes & Noble can't stock all the books that Amazon makes available. With Amazon, if I need, I can get it the next day. I have a very small company that I run off my regular job hours. I wanted to do some marketing, get some paper, some other supplies, print stuff in the middle of the night and post some flyers around town. If Walmart weren't open and didn't have the supplies, I would have been limited to what I could work out during the regular hours of the small businesses there. The horror is, I don't know why, many of them simply shut off at 5, books shops and some others. Thats crazy. There was this printing I used to get done at a local business, to be honest they were incredibly sweet to deal with. But their lead time was 3 days at best for printing some 1500 flyers. With OfficeMax in the same city, 2-3 hours, sometimes 30 minutes. It gave me incredible flexibility to change things on the fly - typos, content or whatever. These were the real situations I faced. Without them, my business might not have been impossible, but definitely quite a bit more complicated. And, of course, everything has its pros and cons.