Rite Aid and Safeway have a continuing relationship with pharmaceutical suppliers on one side and consumers on the other. Buying from a trusted middleman, like Safeway, assures the customer of quality and safety in goods from a supplier once removed. By serving as a middleman, Safeway makes the consumer's relationship with the ultimate manufacturer like the relationship we have with the friend of a friend. Firms also seek seals of approval awarded by various organizations that evaluate quality and safety. Classic examples include Underwriters Laboratories, Moody's, AAA, and the Orthodox Union.
Some evaluators work on the other side of the market.
Consumers themselves turn to Consumer Reports, Zagat's, movie reviews, doctors, and so on to gain assurance of quality and safety. The Overlooked Market Nothing here should be startling. But a careful study of that intangible good, assurance, shows that the voluntary sector of society has developed many seemingly disparate ways of providing it. Unfamiliarity with these practices often leads people to overlook them altogether and to suppose that the only source of assurance is the tort system and government regulation. Traditional practices are of course extended to the Net.