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<p>SG/Randall Munroe - Most excellent point made!<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9/2/23 11:14 PM, Stephen Guerin
wrote:<br>
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<div>Economic Optics: Hotelling's Law (<a
href="https://leimao.github.io/blog/Breaking-Hotelling-Law/"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Ice Cream Vendors
on Beach Problem in Game Theory</a>) meets Fermat's
Principle.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
Economicoptics - just hard enough to pronounce on first
sight</div>
<br>
<img src="cid:part1.s7Q8jL5F.2KGRt0bW@swcp.com"
alt="image.png" class="" width="562" height="559">
<div><a href="https://xkcd.com/2821/" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://xkcd.com/2821/</a> from
a couple days ago<br>
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</blockquote>
<br>
<p>I have returned from a long (4 weeks) walkabout through
Red/Purple states... along the Front Range and then
Heartland/Prairie to Upper Midwest... coinciding (unexpected) with
the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and a cool patch in the
near-nationwide Heat Dome (with a couple of exceptions). <br>
</p>
<p>What this has to do with the topic at hand is not nothing but
probably oblique and obscure as seems to be my nature/style..<br>
</p>
<p>So a new Acronym TODR (too obscure/oblique/obtuse don't read):</p>
<p>I have been puzzling for at least a few years on a corollary to
or implication of Hotelling's Law which has to do with whether a
modified "free market" system might include Socialized
Commodification of goods and services which reach their Nash
Equilibrium (within some delta). <br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p><TO;DR vignette> Relevant to the above, is the Green
Dinosaur experience: Through most of our drive, Sinclair (green
dino) was the most frequent brand of gas station I
encountered... or maybe I was just attuned to it by their catchy
spokesmodel (last time I took a long drive up the rockies into
the cascades there was a dino-renewal effort underway where
every other Sinclair station was either removing an old dino,
had two dinos in place before removing the old or had a
brand-spanking-new shiny one already installed where an old
chalky one had been). Our 1 year old 20lb doodle puppy Hank
challenged every green Dino he saw (thus raising my awareness
further)... along with every bison and Harley (and there were a
LOT). <br>
</p>
<p>As a corollary</TO;DRv></p>
</blockquote>
<p>It feels that there are many goods (and services) which have
degenerated to a commodity. Fast Food and Fuel being the most
blatant (relevant to my recent experience), convolved strongly
with "branding" and "image" and "loyalty" programs, trying to
maintain/establish/invent/conjure a "difference that makes a
difference".<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p><TO;DRv>Mary's X/Millenial-cusp children were having a
debate one night with their neighbors (lawn chairs in the
driveway) about "which fast-food" restaurant was the best...
Every member of the group discussing this (except us) has young
children of the "Happy Meal"/"Whacky Pack" age... so which
little bit of "plastic junk" they got to collect this week was a
big feature... but also which of the chicken
nuggets/fingers/strips (and attendant sauces) satisfied their
pickiest eaters was also a feature. Chik-Fil-Et (sp) and
McDougals and Wendy's and BK were the most referenced, along
with a few Taco chains (El/Del/John's/???) I barely recognized.
Pizza was not considered FF by them but was almost exclusively
"ordered in" and the choice of Brand was mostly about how
convenient the delivery was. <br>
</p>
<p>Mary and I held our OK-Boomer Virtue-Signalling tongues (until
we retired early from the driveway conversation to gossip about
them between ourselves) and realized that being vegetarian
ourselves, the fast-food fitness function (FFFF) was different:
<i>Who has good-enough French Fries and/or Onion Rings... do
they offer a Salad option...</i> <i> how about that Impossible
Burger (BK has one and Starbucks has an Impossible Breakfast
Sausage-Sandwich</i>). A secondary (but important)
consideration is whether their drink cups are
foam/plastic/paper... all fry/ring packaging seems to be
paper/cardboard universally but I get the sense that burgers and
chicken-bits often come in foam clamshells? Salads always come
in plastic (or occasionally) foam clamshell.<br>
</p>
<p>As a matter of practice we are usually looking for funky local
Cafe/Diner/Coffee-Shop experiences which means (as you expect)
that we don't get consistent experiences. Generally the coffee
is good (though not a Starbucks Latte!) and most places do eggs
and toast pretty consistently well. We found several "gems"
along the way and a couple of "duds". We tipped heavy and
engaged generously with the staff on the off-chance that the
place and the staff will be there "next time" (if not for us,
for like minded travelers and locals). </TO;DRv></p>
</blockquote>
<p>We *were* seduced by the branding of convenience/fuel stops for
their customer experience and Restrooms more than anything.
<Virtue Signal> Of course, the fountain drink cups and
whether they had an easy method/policy on filling your own
ice/water container was important</VS> Their Sunflower Seed
brands were also a minor discriminator.<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p><TO;DR>We saw a LOT of convenience stores, a few
(thousand) big-box stores (from a distance, signs/facades being
so big!) and the new(ish) phenomena of Dollar
(General/Tree/-/???) stores that are some weird halfway between,
as well as the various "drug" stores (Wallgreens/CVS/HyVee/???)
catering a lot to the same clientele and offering similar but
different (limited) options. Every one of them was effectively
a a "Food Desert" or more appropriately? a "Food Swamp"? They
had foodstuffs but highly processed/packaged almost
exclusively. There was one exception/discursion in the
fuel-stop/convenience category which seemed to be a new
midwestern entry: Quik St*r (not Quik Stop) where there was an
array of fresh fruit, baked goods and deli-foods right up front
with the artificially colored/flavored/salty snacks and sugary
drinks pushed to the back. I overheard a stocking employee
tell another customer that they were spread across "several"
states and had "dozens" of stores and were "fairly new" (a year
or 3?). </TO;DRv></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Broadcast Radio was another experience. <br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p><TO;DRv>I like running the AM dial while driving cross
country to hear the local "dialect" (more content and style than
accent or idiom) with "trading post" sessions being the most
unique. 'I gots a pregnant breeding sow ready to birth a
litter and I'd like to make a trade for a good side-by-side quad
bike but not a honda, i have one now and they suck" or "anyone
able to take down my old 50' silo and haul it off can have it
for free as long as they take everything away and don't make too
much of a mess". The FM stations are more recognizeable by
their (published by some obscure side-band/stigmergic radio
signal?) genre... "classic rock", "jazz", "right wing talk",
"public radio", etc. than anything recognizeable to a
non-local</TO;DRv><br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I *do* think that "generic brands" attempt to cash in on the
larger idea by acknowledging that for some things there is no
residual "difference that makes a difference"... Someone surely
has done studies (in particular) on nationalized fuel vs
commercial... I also accept that "public franchise" is a way to
try to meet this, granting a private interest an effective
monopoly (and rights-of-way, etc.) with very narrow constraints on
what services they provide and how they conduct business.</p>
<p>Does deliberately "commodifying" some goods/services free up the
complexity/energy/neg-entropy for innovation elsewhere? Or is
this (seemingly) arbitrary/noisy scramble to differentiate on a
fine margin provide some kind of reservoir for these quantities or
a testing/development ground for more substantial/relevant
differentiation? My idea of "deliberate commodification" seems
to be an arbitrary *clamping* which may be totally wrong-headed in
a fundamental way and possibly unprecedented in
evolutionary/complex-adaptive systems?<br>
</p>
<p>Mumble,</p>
<p> - Steve</p>
<br>
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