Are you sure about 7/11 emptying people out? He sold ebooks, and I sold ebooks at HALF the price and he never emptied me and I continue to sell 10+ books a day, there is the first example of he not buying out and controlling the ebook economy. Keep in mind that my book shop was Very popular and everyone knows about it, including Meat, the owner of 7/11. There are numerous other examples. He sold lots of stuff that you can find in most malls if not for the amount of time you need to find stuff in malls checking shop by shop. His shop was EXPENSIVE, not the Standard. His prices were EXPENSIVE. there is the proof that he does not control the economy. If he does then his price would be the standard seen everywhere which was Not the case.
Now lets take a better example, Beacons:
Let us suppose there are 10 beacons sold per day around the server. If a big shop buys you out, people will go to the big shop, sure. But think, the consumers basically have indirectly bought the beacons from the original suppliers! The big shop has to buy it from you to have the consumers buy it from them. All they earned is a thin profit margin. The traffic stays the same, the amount of beacons sold are the same, and the beacons have to come from somewhere, and it is the original suppliers that is getting bought indirectly through the bigger shops. I don't see a problem here. It is basically like saying to the big shop "Here, take my beacons and sell them for me, you can make a thin profit".
Though I hold that the small shop owners always benefit from this dynamic, the newer players might suffer. But I do believe the price will not increase because there's always enough competition to keep them in check.
Now lets take a better example, Beacons:
Let us suppose there are 10 beacons sold per day around the server. If a big shop buys you out, people will go to the big shop, sure. But think, the consumers basically have indirectly bought the beacons from the original suppliers! The big shop has to buy it from you to have the consumers buy it from them. All they earned is a thin profit margin. The traffic stays the same, the amount of beacons sold are the same, and the beacons have to come from somewhere, and it is the original suppliers that is getting bought indirectly through the bigger shops. I don't see a problem here. It is basically like saying to the big shop "Here, take my beacons and sell them for me, you can make a thin profit".
Though I hold that the small shop owners always benefit from this dynamic, the newer players might suffer. But I do believe the price will not increase because there's always enough competition to keep them in check.