Moomins

No, I didn't miss your point. I disagree with it.

Your statement that the immediate concern for a company is for the intermediate is incorrect. At the end of the day, distributors, wholesalers, & retailers merely provide a service for a company to deliver its product to the end user (consumer). Obviously the manufacturer's immediate business dealings are with the "middle man", rather directly with the customer, but none of this would occur if the "consumer" did not want the product in the first place.

A business that doesn't listen to the consumers of its products runs a perilous course. Even if we assume that a company only listens to its distributors/wholesalers, where do you suppose they are getting their information from? Similarily, when you talk to the distributor about acquiring new models to retail, what do you base your orders on? If one product line isn't selling, do you order more of it? Why not? Where are you getting you're information from? If the manufacturer doesn't listen to this info as it moves up the chain, what do you think will happen? Assuming it reaches that point, what difference does it make if they focused their concerns on the "immediate intermediate"?

Simple answer...None.

I am a supervisor for a Utility service provider in the Calgary, Alberta area. We own the infrastructure, but contract out put the actual maintenance & operation to a third party. On a routine basis, we spend 90% of our time dealing directly with the operator & 10% interacting directly with our customers. However, don't kid yourself for a minute that 100% of everything we do is directly related to providing a satisfactory & reliable service to the end user. If we didn't, we wouldn't have any customers. No customers equates to no business, regardless of how many "middle men" may exist in between.

Lastly, your analogy about Minnesota/New Orleans is also inaccurate relative to the point you're trying to make. In order to be valid, one would have to make two assumptions.

Firstly, one would have to assume the people in New Orleans were paying people in Minnesota for the water they receive, which they are likely not.

Secondly, you're making the implicit asumption that the people in New Orleans have to accept whatever Minneapolis sends them.

While I cannot say whether or not the first assumption is true, I do know that the parrallel you're trying to make with the second assumption is wrong - diecast collectors do have a choice not to buy an inferior product. It' called "speaking with their pocket books". I suspect the manufacturer might be interested in knowing that, wouldn't you?