There are good and bad aspects to an oligopoly, but if I had to make a choice, I would have to say that overall, I feel that oligopolies are good for the consumer.
Oligopolies create fewer choices for a consumer.
Some would say that this is bad, but I believe there can be, at times, too many choices that a consumer has to make. Let s take coffee for example. When you go into a supermarket to buy coffee, you have a multitude of choices as far as brand, flavor, and even where the coffee beans are grown. O clock Coffee, Savarin, Chock Full O Nuts, and others. But where to go if I go to Starbucks I am not much better off than the supermarket.