Emz said:
Therumancer said:
Honestly, their logic is similar to that used by small neighborhood stores. The store on the corner can charge so much more for a stick of butter, or a quart of milk, because it saves you the time, trouble, and gas of having to travel accross town to get it.
I disagree with this part of your post. Supermarkets are able to go lower compared to a corner store due to how much profit they make. They aren't just charging as such just for convenience. Besides I always drive to a supermarket - more variety. I prefer variety over convenience when it comes to food.
Conveinence stores prey on people who don't want to take the time to go to a supermarket. You know, the wife needs a quart of milk for dinner, your watching TV, and don't want to drive accross town to get it even if they have 20 differant brands. You'll miss your show, and besides for that one thing your liable to lose more on gas than you pay the corner store.
Conveinence stores are also deceptive in how they operate. While there is the illusion that a lot of them are operated by mom and pop, a lot of them operating as massive chains. They buy in bulk as well, share warehouses, and everything else.
In some cases it's obvious when your looking at chains like "Cumberland Farms". In other cases it's less so. One of those little "secrets" is that there are a few companies based out of India and Pakistan in paticular that run chains of stores, they just don't use a logo or the same letterhead, but they DO wind up joining the collective. I've read a few things on it over the years, and it's one of those issues where there are racist accusations since the businesses refuse to let people not of the right ethnicities join the effort.
At any rate that's part of why you have the stereotype of indians running corner stores and such, and why you rarely see them in direct conflict with each other, areas with more than one store in close proximity typically have enough traffic to justify it.
Basically someone wants to start a store, perhaps even making the arrangement to run a business before they even come to this country, the corperation does the scouting much like a fast food place, and says "we think a store will do well here". Then the person pays to opt into it like a franchise, calls it whatever they want, and is involved with all the other stores in the group for bulk purchuses and such, it's just that instead of all the stuff going to a few big stores, it's scattered between a lot of small ones.
At least that's what I've read at any rate. Nothing especially malevolent about it unless you consider the racial allegations, which are basically akin to say a black guy approaching Mcdonalds to open a resteraunt, and being told they won't let him do it because only white people are around to own and operate Mcdonalds.
Of course that's hardly all inclusive, there are doubtlessly a number of companies operating like this under the radar that are ethnically based, that's just one of the big "examples" I'd mention.
None of this of course has much to do with video games or Microsoft's logic.
