Retail and Access to Goods

Local bookstores and access to books was a specific example of a much larger trend. Access to retail products from cars and appliances to needles and pins used to be available only through local vendors creating a hegemony of access to goods in general with smaller hegemonies in specific areas. To flesh this idea out, I will focus on some specific examples.

When I bought my first car, many, many years ago, I walked into the dealership, found a car that I liked and paid sticker price for it. In those days the power was totally in the hands of the dealer. I had some power in the form of purchasing power. But, I was unaware of it. The dealer had all the information and a local monopoly on the kind of car that I wanted. They were not inclined to share any information with me other than the bits, such as good gas mileage, that would make me more inclined to buy that model. However, the information changed the availability of information, access to other dealers, and the balance of power. Now before I decide which car to buy, I can find an abundance of information on the web to help me make that decision. And I can compare prices as well. If one dealer doesn't have a deal that suits me, I can find another. And I can do all of this before I step onto the dealer's lot. When I do step on the lot I am informed about options both model options and purchasing options. My local dealer no long controls access to the cars I can buy. If the local deal won't deal, I can find another one.

Now let's go to the other end of the spectrum and consider vitamins, supplements and prescription drugs. For vitamins and supplements you used to have to go to a specialty store that, like the car dealer, gave you carefully selected information calculated to increase the chances of you buying the product. In addition, the vendor could charge as much as they wanted because price was determined, nor by competition but buy how compelling their information was. Now, with access to the web, you can get both better information and more choices of suppliers. Vendors know this and have resorted to many tricks to neutralize the information you have. They have carefully worded claims about the efficacy of the supplement. And they have taken price games to a whole new level. One of the vendors I am familiar with will double the price online and then offer half price deals. Another common approach is to offer one price for a certain pill count at a certain dosage with a certain expiration date. And then a different price for a different pill count at a different dosage and a different expiration date. They do this, I am sure, to frustrate your attempts to do comparison shopping. But, what is really going on is that we are seeing the death throes of another dying hegemony.

Things are getting even weirder with access prescription drugs. It used to be that you went to your doctor and got a prescription which you then took to a pharmacist to fill. Both the physician and the pharmacist represent restrictions on access. We will come back to the physician later. But for now, I will point out that the average person who watches TV will see numerous ads recommending medicines for them and further recommending that the see their doctor about the medication. So, doctors no longer always initiate prescriptions. The technology of television had begun to erode that somewhat.

In the case of your pharmacist, there is increasing competition from online sources. The CVS pharmacy competes with the CVS online perscription service CareMark. The online prescriptions are cheaper and more convenient as they are mailed to you. So, unless you actually need to talk to a person, the online alternative is hard to pass up.

In this post, I have given a few more examples where technology has eroded the power of traditional hegemonies of access. I could go on as examples of this pattern are everywhere. But, I believe the pattern is clear and in the next post we will look at an industry in transition and see if this pattern can give us any insight into what will happen.