Is the web really free?

My friends over at Swankymaison.com have found themselves in a quandary that is increasingly commonplace now that the internet has developed into a serious business channel. The Wild West days are well and truly over and the lawyers are busily making hay.

They carry a line of household goods from independent traders and manufacturers – the kind of stuff you don’t find on the high street. Now personally I would rather eat my own legs than admit to an interest in crockery, but the kids are mad for this stuff and the internet is a great way for small traders to reach massive new audiences so it’s all good, non? Well not according to Not On The High Street (hereinafter: NOTHS). Now this company was one of the first in the market to use this model of becoming a centralised distribution channel for a big number of small independents. You can read them wax lyrical about their values on their site…

“Once in a while, we’d hit upon a really special little business. One that had that certain notonthehighstreet-style about it, hidden away somewhere at an urban market, or a country fair, or in a tiny village lane. We’d meet the owner, passionate about their products, buy up half of them for our homes and families, then want the whole world to know about them. The thing is, there’s often no room for them on the high street; big retailers don’t stock small brands… yet they’re utterly, utterly fabulous”

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Only now that NOTHS are an established brand in themselves, they’re following the same route as the high street retailer they decry by using their power to close off other routes to market. Swankymaison is a pretty innocuous little start up – it’s hardly going to burn NOTHS to the ground to have someone else operating in their space. And it certainly wouldn’t harm the traders themselves to have another route to market…

Actually, I can understand why NOTHS are doing what they’re doing. At the end of the day, they are a business and exclusivity contracts are part of legal wall they can leverage in order to maintain their market share. But at the same time, I do feel a bit uneasy that they are marketing themselves as an ally of the small trader and a hello-trees-hello-sky bunch of hippies when really they’re cornering the market in a way that is fundamentally no different to that practised by the high street they claim to define themselves against.

Anyway, if you’re prepared to spend 6 quid on a egg cosy (wtf?), then put one in the eye of the corporate jackasses at NOTHS and buy one from Swanky Maison instead.