ABSTRACT
Charlie’s dad owned the family shoe business, but now it is Charlie’s after his father’s death. In order to turn the business around, Charlie and the workers transition to making “kinky boots.” By doing so they hope to differentiate their products. They don’t have a monopoly, because there is more than one firm producing footwear. They are competing in what economists call an oligopoly. An oligopoly occurs when a market is dominated by a few large firms. Because there are so few firms, the actions of one firm will matter to the other firms.
