They have, for example, demonstrated that they aren't just automatons responding to the wares of advertisers and sellers. It's been so ever since consumer uprising of the 1970s. For example, in this, the most affluent time in man's history, more shoppers look for bargains than ever before. Almost everything sold is sold at '' discount'' or ''on-sale'' or carries with it a rebate. The middle man has been eliminated in many areas of the market.
Consumers demand and get their prices.
They have, in effect, declared the marketplace as much theirs as that of sellers. They cannot be taken for granted. Ask domestic automakers who lost their once-total control over the U.S. market. Consumers demand products they want, not what sellers want them to have. And they demand them at discount prices.