Jan. 8, 2021

I used to be able to get Russel Stover Mint Dreams at some local drugstores, but after some merged awhile back, they no long carried them. So now I sometimes order them online. I was going to order two boxes of 24, but saw I could avoid shipping charges of more than $10 by ordering 3 boxes. I intended to make them last, eating at most one a day. But the day after they came was the violence at the capitol, and I have been been eating at least three a day, for comfort. An advantage of buying them in the winter is that it avoids them coming with ice packs, which I have plenty of now. Better for the environment to avoid them when I don't need them.

This shows a common problem with lack of competition.  Theoretically, I would think that a company that has a big market share can afford to stock a wider variety, not just items that have a big market.  But what actually happens is that they no longer have to worry as much about attracting customers who might otherwise go elsewhere to get a special item.  I saw this when I lived in Birmingham, Alabama around 1992.  Almost all the grocery stores there were owned by Bruno's, under several different names.  I had no problem when I lived in Huntsville, AL finding whole wheat bread w/o preservatives and other artificial additives.  I could not find this in Birmingham, which was much bigger than Huntsville.