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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost AT gilanet.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Undercutting prices
  • Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 22:31:12 -0600


Always enjoy your posts. To put a finer point on it, price wars (to drive out
competition) in a small local market do cut down on total business when
customers don't find the variety and volume that attracts them. But it's the
result of that loss of total market customers that's important. It invariably
means less sales for all, including those who did the price cutting. AND
since they end up selling less than before, they lose every which way. Point
being, the only conceivable reason for price wars is to drive out
competition. That hurts the market and the customer.

Market growers generally work on a very thin profit margin. Of course if we
want to think of all this as price-fixing, then they could simply band
together in an umbrella association and all sell the same produce at the same
price. No price-fixing there, since there's only one company (the
association) doing the selling.

I'd like to agree about the other stuff, but we have nothing like unregulated
capitalism, since government is knee-deep in everything. Everything. We can't
name a single area of commerce that government isn't involved in. If you sell
used books, you have taxable income, maybe state too, and don't forget sales
tax and other red tape. Of course it isn't worth it if you have all that
paperwork just to make a few pennies.

> it's everyone's
>right (by law) to sell whatever they like for whatever price
>they wish to charge.

But if they're in a contract with a private or publicly run market, that
market has the right to set rules and sign contracts under those rules. Now
if you can go sell someplace by the side of the road, you can probably do as
you please. IF your city, county, or state don't outlaw it.

paul AT largocreekfarms.com
http://medicinehill.net
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 9/22/2004 at 5:29 PM Pat Meadows wrote:

>On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 12:43:52 -0600, you wrote:
>
>>
>>Ditto on hurting everyone in the end. Besides the ethical part, when some
>vendors are driven out it cuts down on the variety and volume of produce
>that people come to find, and that in turn cuts down on the overall number
>of people coming to buy.
>
>All of which is true. And I personally wouldn't undersell.
>
>But - it was my impression that in a society of largely
>unregulated capitalism such as ours - that it's everyone's
>right (by law) to sell whatever they like for whatever price
>they wish to charge.
>
>Used books are a good example of this. We wanted to sell
>used books for one reason only: to make a few honest
>dollars. There's no way you can do it: too many people are
>selling them for pennies just because (I think) they don't
>like to throw away a book but they want to get rid of the
>books.
>
>But OK: that's their right, by law, no?
>
>Pat
>--
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