for Oligopolies: think of things like breakfast cereal, and canned vegetables; in fact, most of the things you purchase at a grocery store come from companies in Oligopoly competitive markets. I can only think of six breakfast cereal companies and only four canned vegetable companies. Each must act while considering the actions of the others. Once in a while, I have watched a show called storage wars. The key personalities in that show act like an oligopoly in that they are constantly concerned with what the other is doing. I want to comment on store brands because some mentioned them.In reality, there are no such companies as Best Kept, true value, or whatever the store brand is where you shop.Those are just labels put on by the packaging or canning companies that are the same as the companies that produce the product for the name brands. For your ten final points, post a reply to this in discussion and tell me, briefly, what you think about what I say above and below about store and name brands.

Name brands, for the most part, let's take Libby for example; own the process, but not all the intermediaries.They will contract with various local canning companies to produce and label their product.These canning companies will produce for them and anyone else that gives them a contract.They also do the store brands. Even when a name brand owns the intermediaries, they will package for others on contract.Kellogg for instance, owns most of its packaging facilities.Rather than let the factory sit idle when the name brand run is done, they will produce and package for anyone else, even competitors. So, they will do store brands that sit right on the shelf beside their name-brand product. A few were confused because of the number of products. The oligopoly is the company that sells the product, not the product itself. A couple answered this thinking about the grocery store, but the question was about what you buy in the stores, not the grocery stores themselves. Some of my students mentioned government barriers to entry as a characteristic. Although they sometimes happen, like in the airline industry, they are not always present. The government does not limit the number of canned vegetable companies for instance. Normally, the economies of scale, or intellectual property, like patents, are the barrier, as some of you mentioned. For the last 10 points, post a reply to this in discussion and tell me what I said about store brands.