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While holding a lease on prime competitor real estate seemingly strictly for the purpose of stopping competition from moving in feels very, very scummy; it also

by 015a 2y ago

While holding a lease on prime competitor real estate seemingly strictly for the purpose of stopping competition from moving in feels very, very scummy; it also feels like it isn't the whole story. Competitors don't need to move in to the vacant K-mart. There are always other options; those "other options" is how 99% of grocery stores get opened, Walmarts don't "move in" to old K-marts by-and-large. Is the local government unwilling to rezone? There's probably something else going on. My first suspicion is that the story is simply wrong: generally, when you read something that's so comic-book-villain evil, something about the story is being misrepresented or is just wrong. It would not surprise me to hear if this Vons actually did have competition that the author conveniently missed, forgot about, etc.

class3shock 2y ago
Except corporations do comic-book-villain-evil crap all the time. Forcing the government to buy food for your employees because you don't pay them enough to eat? Hi, my name is Walmart. Using your customers as guinea pigs for science experiments without their consent? Hi, my name is Facebook. Use lies, fraud, and bribery to extort money out of the government while supplying critical national defense services (and get caught and fined 1B)? Hi, my name is Raytheon (an RTX company). Corporations will do anything and everything they deem that will make them money with the only constraint being the least possible adherence to law they can get away with.
miltonlost 2y ago
awww, how recently were you born to think that a corporation doesn't do villainous deeds as often as they can?
- 015a 2y ago
  I'm not doubting that Albertsons is holding this lease, nor am I doubting that the reason they're doing it is to directly stifle competition. I literally said this in my comment. What I will absolutely cast doubt on is that its the whole story. And, in fact, my suspicion was correct: as this other comment states, the story has a variety of inaccuracies [1]. Its honestly hard being so right all the time. My intuition is just too good, its a curse tbh. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42047004 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42047004
yencabulator 2y ago
There are lots of small towns in valleys that literally cannot expand outward from the one highway that passes through them. Needing a large flat lot in a mountain town is a huge challenge. The article discusses this.
mmooss 2y ago
From the OP: "Land use restrictions are common in the supermarket industry, because it costs about $10 million and requires a good plot of land to open a new store. It’s much easier to open a store in a building already suitable for a grocery store than to build something from scratch."
insane_dreamer 2y ago
Of course another store could open -- but it greatly raises the barrier to entry if the competitor has to build on new land from scratch; most won't do it. Or maybe they'll open some small store that isn't really a threat to the Vons > when you read something that's so comic-book-villain evil, something about the story is being misrepresented or is just wrong seriously? companies pull stuff like that all the time to try to shut out the competition. It's not much different than Microsoft bundling IE with Windows to kill Netscape -- forgoing revenue on something it could charge for, to kill the competition and then have a pretty lousy browser for a long time

by 015a 2y ago

class3shock 2y ago

Except corporations do comic-book-villain-evil crap all the time. Forcing the government to buy food for your employees because you don't pay them enough to eat? Hi, my name is Walmart. Using your customers as guinea pigs for science experiments without their consent? Hi, my name is Facebook. Use lies, fraud, and bribery to extort money out of the government while supplying critical national defense services (and get caught and fined 1B)? Hi, my name is Raytheon (an RTX company). Corporations will do anything and everything they deem that will make them money with the only constraint being the least possible adherence to law they can get away with.

miltonlost 2y ago

awww, how recently were you born to think that a corporation doesn't do villainous deeds as often as they can?

015a 2y ago
I'm not doubting that Albertsons is holding this lease, nor am I doubting that the reason they're doing it is to directly stifle competition. I literally said this in my comment. What I will absolutely cast doubt on is that its the whole story. And, in fact, my suspicion was correct: as this other comment states, the story has a variety of inaccuracies [1]. Its honestly hard being so right all the time. My intuition is just too good, its a curse tbh. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42047004 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42047004

yencabulator 2y ago

There are lots of small towns in valleys that literally cannot expand outward from the one highway that passes through them. Needing a large flat lot in a mountain town is a huge challenge. The article discusses this.

mmooss 2y ago

From the OP: "Land use restrictions are common in the supermarket industry, because it costs about $10 million and requires a good plot of land to open a new store. It’s much easier to open a store in a building already suitable for a grocery store than to build something from scratch."

insane_dreamer 2y ago

Of course another store could open -- but it greatly raises the barrier to entry if the competitor has to build on new land from scratch; most won't do it. Or maybe they'll open some small store that isn't really a threat to the Vons > when you read something that's so comic-book-villain evil, something about the story is being misrepresented or is just wrong seriously? companies pull stuff like that all the time to try to shut out the competition. It's not much different than Microsoft bundling IE with Windows to kill Netscape -- forgoing revenue on something it could charge for, to kill the competition and then have a pretty lousy browser for a long time