On: The Fall of Schwinn (1993)

[tetromino_]

> Why would a flood of cheap bicycles affect the business of higher-end bikes, when their customers were oh so knowledgeable?

One possible scenario: suppose retail display space for bikes could not expand proportionally to fad-driven demand, and stores started featuring cheap bikes more prominently in that limited space to meet the changing customer demographics. As a result, high-quality, expensive bikes would have a smaller total number of eyeballs looking at them, bringing about an absolute decrease in sales (not just in market share).

[dredmorbius → tetromino_]

See the article's discussion of Schwinn's floor-space requirements -- 50-80% of the floor had to be dedicated to Schwinn product.

Another example of how "the market" isn't quite so free as you'd expect.