> How does your camera shop decide what to stock? How do they discover new brands to include?
In the case of camera shops, camera brands actively reach out to the stores and have a relationship with them. The camera brands send reps out to train the sales people on the features of new camera models.
Likewise, brands partner with supermarkets to sell their products. Thats not advertising. Nobody is proposing or talking about stopping businesses from forming relationships with one another.
So I want to start a new shop I need to hope the major brands deem me worthy enough to send reps out.
My point with supermarkets wasn't that those relationships would be banned it's that there is no point in providing variety if there is no advertising to encourage alternatives. So the optimal strategy would be for nestle to do a deal with Walmart to only stock their products. The public isn't being made aware of alternatives so the demand for them will be gone
> So I want to start a new shop I need to hope the major brands deem me worthy enough to send reps out.
If you started a new shop, you would want to reach out to the major (and minor) camera brands directly. Do you think shops, today, get inventory by advertising somehow? No. They get inventory by cultivating relationships with suppliers. Advertising has very little to do with it.
> there is no point in providing variety if there is no advertising to encourage alternatives
Of course there is. I've never seen any advertising for 95% of the brands I buy at the supermarket. But I still appreciate that their products are on the shelves, and I still buy them. If I visually imagine all the groceries I regularly buy, most of the products are from brands I've only discovered by chance at the supermarket. (Eg, milk, eggs, canned food, etc).
In the case of camera shops, camera brands actively reach out to the stores and have a relationship with them. The camera brands send reps out to train the sales people on the features of new camera models.
Likewise, brands partner with supermarkets to sell their products. Thats not advertising. Nobody is proposing or talking about stopping businesses from forming relationships with one another.