An aside, going to sleep now, have to be up for work in 8 hours, so signing off for now 
Interesting discussion, will continue tomorrow.
Very interesting. And yes, you have me thinking about the other side of the equation as well. I don’t think there’s anything shady or illegal about exclusivity arrangements, but you’ve at least got me thinking about them in terms of their ethical value. Especially if we extend this discussion to prescription medications, and then I fall squarely in your camp that exclusivity deals are horrible and anti-consumer. Which then makes me reflect on why I don’t otherwise (but mostly I can answer that by mentioning that games and Martha Stewart cookware aren’t things that will save your life, and are things for which there are tons of alternatives).
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Most of the Martha Stewart products avaialble through target.com are books. There are a scattering of housewares–
but there are also ads.
Martha Stewart products are carried by Walmart – though of course they aren’t the same as those stocked by Macy’s, or whatever white store competes in that price bracket.
(Most of those stores are doing whatever they can to survive. One of the local Macy’s devotes a sizable fraction of its floorspace to Macy’s Backstage, which is “organized” and “stocked” like a TJ Maxx. Hoity toityness is what department stores did before the internet.)
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Reads thread…
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It was meant to be a generic example, not specific. Sorry if I wasn’t clear about that. I don’t actually know who sells what Martha Stewart products. But in general, the idea of certain chains selling specific designer brands “exclusively” is pretty well established.
Hey, it’s not THAT bad. We’ve having some good back and forth, and I think people are trying to look at things from all sides. Not just the back of the bushes.
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(okay i should really be asleep now)
But yes, this is why i like BB so much. There is some real discussion going on here. Often hard to be civil considering the intensity of things sometimes, but it generally works
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I’m just making fun. I’ve been playing video games since the early 80’s (maybe late 70’s, I don’t recall exactly). I’ve always considered myself a gamer. But in recent years, the culture, the growing toxicity. I still love gaming, but if I see two gamers arguing I just don’t want any part of it. I don’t think I am alone in the split feeling.
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It’s established with certain limitations, such as “first sale doctrine.” And, it’s further shaped by robust use of the Sherman anti-trust law-- something that has diminished since Bork’s 1978 book.
I’m not that eager for anti-competitive behavior to be re-established based on an imperfect analogy with what we once had.
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Well I’m ALL for bringing back strong anti-trust laws. On that we can agree.
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Hey buddy didn’t I meet you near Whiterun? Not sure if I believe you!
Dogg, Valve bundled Steam with every copy of Half-Life 2. Even if you bought it at a brick and mortar store you had to install Steam and connect to the internet. This was no accident.
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The idea that Steam is still a cool small company with a flat organizational structure is wild. They’ve been a monopoly for years and they have been stagnate for a very long time, famously screwing over developers for their own benefit since they were big enough to do it.
Epic literally went to developers and said “hey we can guarantee a more stable income stream” and companies took the risk with a underdeveloped storefront that was new because of it. It’s crazy that anyone would look at the 2020 Steam storefront as consider it good for games development or some untouchable high-quality storefront. It’s not. It’s not been for a very long time.
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There used to be butterflies here.
Uncle Gabe presents Stockholm Syndrome, Steam Sale Edition. From the lack of curation to the user reviews, the place is kind of a dumpster fire.
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While I have your attention, might I suggest https://www.mcmaster.com/calipers ? McMaster-Carr always have high quality products.
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