monopoly ?

[aaronkupen]

Oh man, I miss Stop-N-Shop. And Shaws.

Darn you and reminding me of how much I miss New England! D:



Don't get me started on local utility companies...

Hey, we're the gas company and we're going to make you pay a stupid monthly service charge on top of your usage, and there's nothing you can do about it cause WE OWN THIS TOWN HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I hate this place. :|

Yah Utilities are actually government approved monopolies in a lot of cases.

And since when is a company trying to beat their competitors (thereby arguably eliminating them in the long run) automatically make a company a monopoly? I'd say every company is in the process of doing this.

Where does the line get crossed with you people? When a company starts to get successful, then "oh jeez now we can start calling it evil and a monopoly".

 

[hikaricloud]

I will say with my computer business, that my goal is to eliminate some cruddy competition. Not just to get more business, but to get rid of some of the hacks around here that screw people over. Does that make me attempting to become a monopoly? I don't think so, it's a standard business practice.

Besides, I wouldn't want all the town's computers to fix. I could never do it on my own in my little apartment, lol.

 

[aaronkupen]

I will say with my computer business, that my goal is to eliminate some cruddy competition. Not just to get more business, but to get rid of some of the hacks around here that screw people over. Does that make me attempting to become a monopoly? I don't think so, it's a standard business practice.

Besides, I wouldn't want all the town's computers to fix. I could never do it on my own in my little apartment, lol.

This is pretty refreshing that I'm not the only person with a similar mindset on this issue.

 

[synergy]

It wouldn't be good old Capitalism otherwise.

A monopoly exists when they can set price and supply at will because they have sufficient control over the market to allow such. Walmart is absolutely at the will of consumers...especially with the kind of retail it is (cheap crap...). You can't say that if Walmart price structured like a monopoly does and cut supply to manipulate demand that consumers wouldn't be jumping ship in a heartbeat to Kmart or Shopko. I knew my economics degree would come in handy some day But don't take my word for it: Monopoly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[carnageX]

You're right, they are close to a monopoly.

It's not like we have any other grocery stores.
It's not like we have any other electronics stores.
It's not like we have any other general stores.
It's not like we have any other pharmecies.
It's not like we have any other drug stores.
It's not like we have any other clothing stores.
It's not like we have any other sporting good stores.
It's not like we have any other book stores.
It's not like we have any other toy stores.

...

Agreed...

microsoft was fined(or at least talked about being fined) for not putting other internet browsers on their OS even though other browsers are easily downloaded.....so if people call stuff like that a monopoly i think a store doing things just to PURPOSELY kill competition and take over is a monopoly

They were fined by the EU, which was totally unnecessary. What I wonder is why hasn't Apple been fined for doing this with Safari?

 

[aaronkupen]

They were fined by the EU, which was totally unnecessary. What I wonder is why hasn't Apple been fined for doing this with Safari?

It's because Microsoft is a bigger cash cow, and it always easier to pick on the same company without having to come up with new justifications rather than dig into a new one.

 

[carnageX]

True, but sadly is a load of BS, IMO, especially since Apple is gaining more market share with Mac now.

 

[aaronkupen]

True, but sadly is a load of BS, IMO, especially since Apple is gaining more market share with Mac now.

Oh I'm not saying I agree with their motivations, I'm just saying its easier for a government to keep picking on the same entities. It also generates less public backlash because their respective peoples are already used to hearing these same company names over and over. If they started picking on AMD and Apple now, there might be some more questioning involved.