Creators vs Leeches

[phob]

In the career section of the book, Steve says that those who buy items at a low price and sell at a high price are "leeches" and don't produce any intrinsic value of their own.

Does that mean every retail store in existence is a leech? What about Wall street? How about foreign currency exchangers - are they also leeches?

The definition seems too broad, and includes many people who produce real value in the "leech" category.

[martinogg]

>Does that mean every retail store in existence is a leech?

Arguably the value a retail store adds is convenience, information and customer service, for the extra price.
Stores are convenient because they are usually in locations which you can get to. City centres, malls, within driving distance. Do you fancy driving 300 miles to a truck depot to pick up a can of beans?
Information is provided because you can usually see the product and check it before you buy. If you wanted to buy a new toy, going to Toys R Us is good (if more expensive than internet shopping) because you can see the size of the box, see a display model and also see alternatives if you want. I worked there one christmas and it was amazing to see grandparents come ask for advice on computer games; they didnt know what console their grandchild owned nor what games were in the charts at that time! Admittedly, the information provided in stores is usually biased (to the company's preferred brands/prices) but if you dont even know what products exist in the first case, its a starting point and in a lot of cases all the info you need.

So even though a store is much more expensive and can be seen as a leecher mindset, it does in fact provide its worth to those who need it. you just need to be smart enough to steer clear of the expensive shops if you know exactly what you want.

I dare say for lots of other things in life, they appear to be like a leecher mindset, but actually it provides other secondary services that you might not have thought about, in exchange for a cost.