Collective Competition

One interesting aspect of a densely populated city is that there's always room for one more. There are people everywhere, selling whatever. Even on the side of a busy road/highway, there are people selling stuff. It seems like there is very little thought put into location. It seems they would do more business if they set up closer to where people walk. But I guess they make enough to get by, because they're there the next day.

But what I really want to comment on here, is the businesses. Where I come from, it is not advantageous to set up shop, right beside your DIRECT competition. Yet over here, I have seen a row of little grocery shops (like about 20 or 30 of them!) side by side, all selling the SAME THINGS. As you drive by them, it is like watching the background of a cartoon. These people are investing a significant amount to set up a store. What inspires the entrepreneur to set up a grocery store between grocery store 16 and grocery store 18?

The other place I see this is in some of the specialty malls. Even specialty malls will cluster together. In one corner of Chaiang Mai, there is a collection of electronics malls. In each mall, are several levels of stores, all selling one of 4 things: Cell phones, computers, cameras, and cell phones. I will admit though, it is great for the consumer. Everything is in one place, including all the competition.

Oh ya, and then there's the store selling the BLATENTLY pirated software. Poorly scanned cd covers printed with poor ink jet printers. Its actually funny because as long as they obtain a licence to sell this stuff, it's all good as far as the government is concerned. The moral of the story (there are no morals): Stick to making things that can't be copied.