Over the next decade, their salons spread from California across the country. It's like the electronics industry. The discount salons developed techniques for getting the job done much more quickly, though less luxuriously and with minimal chit-chat. That tradeoff was fine for the new clientele of busy, price-conscious women. The market boomed.
Competition pushes prices down and spurs productivity-increasing innovation.
In a given case, maybe, but it's hard to imagine that all U.S. business is so stupid. A traditionalist filing by hand will take twice as long and charge at least twice as much. All the gains from investing in and learning to use the power file go to the customer, who saves both time and money. That savings creates the mass market on which discount salons rely. The same thing happens when companies in other competitive industries install computer systems to improve customer service.