On Sunday 24 February 2002 09:25 am, Jim Herrick wrote: > The biggest gripe in many parts of MN has been the way they bring in a new > store and the smaller local stores are unable to compete, usually going out > of business. > > Tough luck, I say. Every one has value to add. > I think it's sort of inevitable -- and I don't decline to shop at chain stores -- but I do think it's sad whenever a local store goes out of business because a chain is able to undercut them in price . . . even when it's not (as sometimes happens) the chain deliberately selling things at a loss to drive the competition out of business. Note, for example, how Northwest chose to match Sun Country's fares -- and throw in NWA frequent flier miles and the assurance that if somebody missed a NWA flight, there'd be another along shortly -- but only for those routes that Sun Country was flying, and only for those days that Sun Country was flying those routes... ... until Sun Country stopped flying. I'm sure that if NWA had thought that it was necessary to drive Sun Country out of business -- and if they thought that they could get away with it -- they'd have undercut the prices. Now, imagine if somebody were to come up with an operating system that competed more directly with Windows than Linux does, at the moment, and didn't have the Open Source/hobbyist engine driving development . . . .