Duopoly = a situation in which two suppliers dominate the market for a commodity or service.
Democracy= a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
So there were these two supermarkets, Woolworths, who always displayed their price signs in red and Coles who for some reason displayed all their price signs in Blue.
The two dominated grocery supply and indeed most other supply. In fact both of them had made concerted efforts to eliminate their competitors big or small
It was getting towards end of year sale time, but the sales had came early because Coles, who had dominated supply, got their nose out of joint because the small independant suppliers refused to carry some of their product lines. In fact some of the little guys thought they stank but were prepared to negotiate if asked.
The big two did not want to compromise and in fact viewed the little suppliers with disdain. A huge media smear (read big guy little guy) campaign ensued.
In fact as the prices came down and the advertisements increased toward the sales end Coles and Woolies hopped into bed together and made a deal that if they could not make the sale then they would preference the other big supplier and send the consumer to their enemy arther than the small players because having small players in the markets was not in either of the big two's interests.
The big two were not very happy about the other emerging big guy either ...Aldi... who wrote all their ticket prices in green.
The big two made out that Aldi wanted to import ingredients and products from all over the world even though the big two knew that it was a fact that they would also need to import overseas products.
The little suppliers found their niche markerts and with enough customers asking for them, promised to carry specialty lines.
Specialty lines that the big two would not carry because either it interfered with their big suppliers monopoly
.... or it interfered with their very small board of director's core goals and philosophies and the ceo's of the big two knew better than to upset their big suppliers or their boards who could make heads roll at the flick of a switch.
So came the last day of the sale..... bloody signs every where...some of them full of BS.. but most of them smellling of
poo.. and strangely pork in barrels???
The big two were sure that they had thrown enough mud to regain their duopoly
...... however when they counted their tills at the end of the day it became apparent that there was money and sales missing from their bottom line.....
Many consumers had not swallowed the BS with some switching supermarkets even though previously they had been loyal patrons and even more consumers choosing to shop with a local independant stores.
Much to the ire of the big two who were utterly and completey discombobulated.
But being smart marketers even though both initially would not negotiate with the little independant stores realized that now they needed too.
The only people more confused than Coles and Woollies were the media who had been paid good money to deliver a result.
Over the next few days you can be sure that the media will try their best to fix things up for the big two
( I notice that the latest "ads" seem to be initimating that the world suppliers may review how much we have on tick and the rates that we pay for that tick and down grade us to weekly repayments rather than regualr monthly instalments..... (Ross Greenwood told me so it must be true) :-))
I await in anticipation for his next effort
It is my opinion however that the big two are on notice that consumers are not the fools they thought we were and
negotiation and compromise are much more important to the consumer rather than domination.
There is and always should be a place for little niche stores and maybe the big stores are just that ....tooo bloody big.
atheism is a non prophet organization
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