Apple's Supply Chain Secret

Re:Apple's Supply Chain Secret by jacques_chester on Friday November 04, 2011 @12:24AM (#3194926)

I was thinking the same thing. Aggressive negotiation with suppliers is a feature of monopsonies.

Edit: I've thought about it some more. There are parallels but important differences.

The main one is products. Apple design the products themselves, have a very limited product range, and are more intimately involved in manufacturing than Walmart is.

Walmart has a much more complex supply chain problem. Thousands of products, with a changing mix based on seasons and perishability, taken from far more sources and distributed to far more locations.

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Re:Apple's Supply Chain Secret by pluies on Friday November 04, 2011 @12:51AM (#3194978)

For the ones (such as me) who went "mono-what?", a monopsony is the situation where one unique buyer buys from different sellers. It's the opposite of a monopoly, where an unique seller sells to different buyers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopsony

Thanks for teaching me something Jacques :)

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Re:Apple's Supply Chain Secret by jacques_chester on Friday November 04, 2011 @12:59AM (#3194990)

Je t'en prie.

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