Yes, stores that push the products made by them over other alternatives are worse for the customer and harmful to the market. I don't think there's anything wr

Yes, stores that push the products made by them over other alternatives are worse for the customer and harmful to the market. I don't think there's anything wrong with stores recommending something in general. For instance, I don't think there's anything wrong with the "amazon's choice" label that Amazon uses. This feels different to me, because as I said originally, this isn't Amazon recommending their brand. Amazon still ranks search results based on some combination of popularity and (probably) profitability. To return to the in-store scenario: let's say you asked someone in Target to recommend crackers. The employee has a recommendation, but to hear it you first need to be shown the Target brand crackers, and then the employee will give you their recommendation.