Oligopoly Meaning Lost Money For Many Businesses

 The term "oligopoly meaning" is a fairly modern one, having been derived from the phenomena of concentration of market power in a few hands. The term became famous with its mention in a 1976 book by the American economic philosopher Murray Rothman. In this book, Rothman explained that a company's wealth could be made by running several different" monopoly" businesses within a given metropolitan area. In practice, a city such as Chicago, Michigan, has three such "monopoly" businesses: the Sears corporation, the Ford Motors company, and the Bank of America Corporation.

How does a business earn the "oligopoly" label? Well, by establishing an oligopoly meaning over certain aspects of a given industry or geographic region, a company can control the price of that sector or area. For example, in a "trustee-owned" grocery store chain, the store owner cannot enter into a monopolistic contract with a competitor, like a duopoly. But he can set his own prices and attract customers by offering discounts to customers who use his company rather than another.

Monopolizing a market often results in lower prices for consumers because of the concentration of company power. The owner of the grocery store has the ability to fix the price that he charges and use tactics to attract new customers and increase sales. As the saying goes, the "captain of the ship" has control over the entire situation. So, in the case of supermarkets, if a shopper wants to buy a particular product at a certain reduced price, he may more likely choose the company that owns the supermarket rather than another.

Oligopoly meaning also relates to unpatriotic behaviour. In a truly functional economy, companies are competing to be a better provider to customers. If one business overcharges for a product, another business that is not as large or has less overhead can offer that product at a lower price so as to make a profit. If too many companies do this, the economy suffers.

Oligopoly meaning is also the definition of an unhealthy board game. The game tends to focus on the shareholders instead of the customers. A monopoly usually results in lower quality products, less variety, and inferior prices. The end result is a board that is unpleasant to play.

The true oligopoly meaning should be; "A condition in which the output of one business tends to gain an unfair competitive advantage over the output of another business." With our current economy in which banks have received bailouts from the government, there is no longer a free market for businesses to gain an unfair competitive advantage over other businesses. And since "monopolies" is also the definition of an economic downturn, this is a true definition of an unhealthy economic environment.

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