Was This Ethical or Not?

[Me Myself]

I am sure it´s no coincidence.

And a few weeks might be enough for the stores to get they wont be able to compete with the big leagues. Reality is that this is done all the time.

 

[Penumbra]

Several years ago, at a mini-mall near my home, there was a book store. One day, in a empty store, a super cheap book store opened- selling cheap paperbacks for a dollar each. Within a few weeks, the first book store shut down. And a few days later, the cheap book store also closed down. And after all that, a different book store opened up. I was convinced that the new book store opened that cheap book store to put the other one out of business so they could open up their new book store. I was never sure of this but it was a suspicion of mine.

I am wondering, if it is true that the cheap store was only opened to put the other book store out of business- was that ethical. I just don't think it was ethical, myself- but I wonder what others think of it.

Rather than call it ethical or unethical, I'd be interested in the question of whether the person that did this, if indeed the description is accurate, would proudly tell their children, neighbors, friends, and parents about how they operate their business.

I believe ethical businesses should be operated in a way that people can be proud of. If it doesn't pass the test about whether one could happily tell her loved ones what she does, then I think that raises ethical flags.

Businesses do this sort of thing all the time. If I'm a manager at a big business and a smaller business tries to capture my market share, then sure, I'd operate within laws to, for instance, lower my prices and profit margins in order to recapture market share and give my smaller competitor a lot of troubles.

But opening up whole new temporary businesses to crush an existing competitor, or temporarily operating at a loss to drive out weaker companies, although smart, crosses a line of what I'd be comfortable doing myself.

 

[Kathryn]

This is what WalMart does when it moves into an area.

It prices it's groceries far below the competitors' prices. Then after people start getting into the habit of shopping at Walmart for groceries, WalMart starts slowly raising the prices, but by then the local stores have been severely hurt.

At least, that's what I've read before - not sure if it's true or not, but considering how much I hate WalMart, I don't mind repeating that rumor! LOL

 

[connermt]

I just wanted to see what people thought of it. I was curious. You didn't have to answer, you know.

My response wasn't direct AT you, but at the question. Sorry if it seemed as though I was "coming at you".