Retailers not manufacturers control retail pricing. This wasn’t always the case. Learn how politics informed commerce and ultimately enabled Walmart.
Retail Pricing, Fair Trade Laws, and the Rise of Walmart
Posts Tagged → antitrust
G.E. exits consumer light bulbs and the definition of a conglomerate
G.E. was the definition of a conglomerate–and now it’s not. Learn what the corporate structure is, its’ strengths and weaknesses through a G.E. case study.
Conornavirus and a fragile food system
On March 23, a day when the United States registered 135 coronavirus deaths, Sanderson Farms, America’s third-largest poultry processor, announced one of their workers tested positive for the virus. It was the first reported case from a major meat processor. Three days later, Smithfield Foods joined the fray by announcing an additional case at its… Continue reading
Why did Dean Foods go Bankrupt? A Porter Model Analysis reveals the truth.
In November 2019, during an economic expansion, Dean Foods declared bankruptcy. The nation’s largest dairy company, with the number one white and chocolate milk brand, could not make money. In January 2020, Borden Dairy followed suit. Most post-mortems dealt with the fact that both companies produced dairy — a product that fewer and fewer people… Continue reading
Fair Trade: The arcane reason small retailers can’t compete with chains
If you want to understand why small retailers struggle in modern America, you need to understand one thing: fair trade laws. Today, fair trade is typically presented in the context of international trade. Essentially, a regulation that allows producers in the developing world to compete with large multinational conglomerates who have massive scale and purchasing… Continue reading
Review: The Curse of Bigness by Tim Wu
Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, spent the last decade establishing himself as one of the pre-eminent antitrust thinkers. In the Master Switch and The Attention Merchants, Wu used a wide-angle lens to examine the implications of the rising information cartels on American business and society. In The Curse of Bigness, Wu takes… Continue reading
Yelp, Antitrust, and Google
Google, Amazon, and Facebook are modern-day railroads. The technology companies are three of the few organizations that own and control our modern infrastructure. Connor Dougherty published a nice look at how Google’s monopolist position impacts the businesses that rely on the infrastructure it owns. Like farmers and railroads before, web service providers like Yelp are effectively… Continue reading
Book Review: Rana Foroohar’s Makers and Takers
In 1946, over a decade before he became the architect of the Vietnam War, Robert McNamara was hired to rehaul the Ford Motor Company. It was in desperate need of help. The iconic corporation was hemorrhaging about $9 million a month. McNamara, an accountant by training who rose to prominence by applying statistical methods to… Continue reading