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. Try walking into Starbucks and asking for a cup of coffee. I would much rather be able to go into the grocery store and see three or four brands of coffee that I could buy, make a quick decision as to whether or not I wanted Colombian, decaffeinated, or regular and be on my way to the checkout. For now though, I ll just go to WaWa.
Oligopolies also lead to innovation with standardization.
Right now, there are many companies vying for position in the digital photography space. Most of the major players, like Nikon, Canon, and Kodak are developing their own standard for the digital storage card that the pictures are stored on. This will change, and it will come from the lesser companies that understand that if they do not compete as one, they will fragment the market too much for any of them to gain any ground in the market. An Agfa or HP camera owner can print the digital photos without using a PC by using the HP photo printer. The printer contains a slot for the memory card, so the consumer only needs to plug in the card and hit a button to print the pictures.