Distributors, Scaling Issues, and Retooling

[Guest]

First, I will give an "anti-suggestion". I recommend against automatic buy contracts that have been proposed. In real life, there exist distributors who have to handle the products and move them around to different customers. Extensive automation (which I am glad has been resisted) would eliminate this role.

I will go somewhat further. In real life, the producer sells in large lots, while many tend to purchase in small lots. In Kapilands, the market functions both as a market maker and as a distributor. If the market were changed so that a lot had to be purchased as an individual unit, it would allow the emergence of PC distributors (before anyone asks, I am aware that this may well create market spam).

On the subject of distributors, there are also the issues of scale. As I mentioned, in many cases the producer has to sell his goods to many retailers. However, the capacities of production buildings and retail buildings tend to warp this. In the case of groceries, however, the demand satisfied is so low that this situation is perhaps logical. Furthermore, a change dealing with this would be of such an extraordinary magnitude as to be impossible. However, I am still interested to know what people think about this issue.

Finally, I have one thought that may increase trade. If there were costs to switch from, for example, steel to chemicals, this could increase incentive to trade, as being self-reliant would lead to great waste. Naturally, this cost should be low or zero at low levels so that newbies can support themselves until they get bigger and can afford to purchase things such as steel from others.