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Comment by koolba | Hacker News Reader

Because that’s what has traditionally allowed western countries to have a wide availability and inventory of goods vs communist economies.

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But why does the availability have to be wide? Maybe those stories can do few things, but do them well. Sell staple foods and healthy choices.

Because than people won’t come to your store. People buy where they can purchase the maximum of their shopping cart in a single place.

That is why you have loss leader grocers, where they pull people with dramatic discounts on specific items, but the total cart costs the same

I understand your point of view. But in cities of all sizes, it's easier to not have to do that. For example in NYC, a medium size city, you can easily go do your shopping in multiple places, and not at the same time.

Yes, and some people do that.

Some consumers go to specific stores to purchase specific qualities of brands.

But most do not, especially for convenience products. You get it where you can.

That's not how it used to work. That's still not how it works in my country. I buy my bread from a specialized shop, my cheese from another, and my fresh produce from yet another. I know people who only buy their meat from a butcher (I do it sometimes, but not always).

It really depends on the countries culture

Counter point: China.

Economic viability isn't what led to "wide availability and inventory". No, it's imperialism. It's exploitation of the Global South. It's paying slave wages through subsidiaries in West Africa to cocoa farmers while making sure those countries stay poor, for example.

We also wage economic war on our our anointed enemies like Cuba and then use the inevitable result of that economic warfare as a reason why our system is good.

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