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> This is empirically false, there are many ways a large business can lock down a market/resource, or very nearly so, and prevent competition from smaller upsta
by infamia 7y ago
> This is empirically false, there are many ways a large business can lock down a market/resource, or very nearly so, and prevent competition from smaller upstarts. Look no further than two-billion-dollar-a-day-revenue Walmart, whose signature practice is running competitors out of town by undercutting them and sustaining the losses until they close.
The Rise of Amazon as a serious threat to Wal-mart is a great example of the aforementioned principle in action.
- throwanem 7y agoIn what way is the hope of liberty much advanced when one empire replaces another?
- infamia 7y agoAmazon and Walmart are fighting each other, which is better for you and me. Also, it isn't all giants fighting it out. The rise of the dollar stores signals the return of the local small store that was once filled by the local mom-and-pop shops.
- throwanem 7y agoI'd think of dollar stores more like Queen Anne's lace - a hardy but not very worthy weed that quickly recolonizes disturbed regions, replacing but not reconstituting the diverse ecosystems that previously existed there, and easily outcompeting any attempt those plants might make to reestablish themselves. Granted, Queen Anne's lace is a good source of nutrition for bees and wasps - a trait which dollar stores sadly do not emulate, cf. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dollar-stores-and-food-deserts-the-latest-struggle-between-main-street-and-corporate-america/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dollar-stores-and-food-deserts-... So I have to say that, in my estimation at least, the plant comes out ahead. But even so, it's a mistake to confuse a thriving mass of Queen Anne's lace with a thriving ecology.