Predatory Business: Difference between revisions
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== Real Life ==
* WalMart and other "big-box" stores are pretty much what inspired this trope, whether true or not. In fact, this page used to be called [[Volde Mart]], a portmanteau of WalMart's name with that of [[Harry Potter|Lord Voldemort]].
* Car and tire companies were accused of this in the early 20th century, mostly due to the demise of the electric urban streetcars. Fear of people not buying their products basically encouraged one of the earliest examples of Predatory Business. They would buy urban streetcar companies, then liquidate them to eliminate the competition. Fines for such were proposed... but they were able to get them all down to a ''dollar''. ''Each''. (Part Predatory Business, part [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]].) [
* Companies such as Monsanto have come under fire and have been seen as this by local farmers, due to neighbouring farms using seeds patented by such companies as these. Unfortunately, the patents are on ''self replicating'' products - meaning that if pollen from a patented plant blows over from a neighbouring plot into yours and starts producing a certain patented genotype or trait... ''they CAN sue you''. Even worse for "organic" farmers since they can not only be sued by Monsanto, but the unintentional hybridization with genetically modified crops renders their own crops non-"organic", driving them out of their niche market.
* Australian retail giants Wesfarmers and Woolworths seem to be taking their cues from WalMart, as [[Hungry Beast]] explains [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1et_HBmLYw here].
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