
Starbucks vs. Dunkin': How Capitalism Gives the Illusion of Choice - atlasunshrugged
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/29/starbucks-v-dunkin-how-capitalism-gives-us-the-illusion-of-choice
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Excel_Wizard
>Calling a friend for after-work plans? That will be with an iPhone, most
likely (55% market share): or perhaps a Samsung (25%).

Does the iPhone really have 55% market share? I don't believe that for a
minute.

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jmisavage
This article is US specific. The iPhone has a higher market share in the US
than just about anywhere else.

[https://deviceatlas.com/blog/android-v-ios-market-
share#us](https://deviceatlas.com/blog/android-v-ios-market-share#us)

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pigscantfly
Pretty hard to believe that Instagram has a 2% social network market share.
Having looked at the source material for that particular chart, it dates from
Nov. 2017, not 2019 as stated in the article. It seems poorly researched and
overblown. How many car companies/coffee chains/social networks _should_ there
be? I don't see how anyone could answer that question from a logical
perspective.

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geophile
I don't understand the point of emphasizing corporations over brands. There
are many toothpastes available to me in any supermarket. They vary by brand,
and about five attributes (whitening, enamel protection, etc.) How would
things really be different if those brands were offered by more or fewer
corporations?

I generally prefer Starbucks over Dunkin' Donuts, but both offer a wide
variety of options.

~~~
kerkeslager
I don't understand why, as a consumer, you'd care about brands.

Corporations often differ in some fundamental ways. Since 2017, 100% of Dunkin
Donuts locations are franchises[1]. This puts a Dunkin Donuts location
somewhere between a local business and a multinational corporation in my mind
--when there are no local coffee shops available, I'll choose Dunkin Donuts
over Starbucks, because I'd rather support small business owners who are more
directly responsible to their customers.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkin%27_Donuts#United_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkin%27_Donuts#United_States)

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achenatx
it is irrelevant what companies offer the products. There is still choice of
product because of capitalism.

Socialist economies reduce the total product offering as well as innovation.

In a capitalist grocery store we have a choice of 10 types of apples. In a
communist grocery store there might not be apples.

