Many businesses operate in the "monopolistically competitive" environment. As we learned in chapter 13, economic profits are possible in this setting, but only to the extent that a firm can continue to differentiate itself from competing firms or produce goods at a lower cost than competitors. For example, Starbucks recently announced that it plans to offer beer and wine for sale after 4 in the afternoon in some markets. Certainly this differentiates it from other coffee shops.

For this chapter's learning portfolio assignment, please:

• Identify a business operating in the monopolistic competition setting.
• List the assumptions of monopolistic competition and explain how the business fits in with these assumptions
• Suggest a way that this business could differentiate itself from its competition