the.com/oligopsony
When only a few buyers run the show, so sellers take whatever price they're handed.
means A market structure where only a small number of buyers control purchasing, giving them outsized power to dictate prices and terms to the many sellers who depend on them.
from Built in the style of 'oligopoly,' from Greek oligos meaning 'few' and opsonia meaning 'purchase' or 'buying provisions' (from opson, the relish or food bought to go with bread, and the related verb opsonein, 'to buy food'). Economists coined 'oligopsony' as the demand-side mirror of 'oligopoly' — same few-controllers logic, just flipped from selling to buying — to describe markets like a handful of meatpackers buying from thousands of cattle ranchers.
- opposite of
- oligopoly, but for buying power not selling power
- classic example
- a handful of meatpackers buying from thousands of ranchers
- labor market version
- one big employer in town sets the wage, not workers
- etymology
- greek for few plus to buy