A Facebook post by my friend John Reiser got me thinking about what makes a market (un)desirable. John's post is about a Canadian doughnut chain entering the New York City market, raising the question whether NYC can ever be considered an undesirable market for anything.

My response: Sure, if a market is saturated, it's undesirable. London, Paris, New York, doughnuts or diamonds, it doesn't matter. If a business can't make money in a particular market, it will not enter the market (or it will leave, if already in it). Price wars and over-saturation destroy markets.

Why am I posting this on the ENTCHEV GIS blog? Because of what has happened to the market for GIS data conversion services in New Jersey. Price wars and over-saturation, along with buyers' consistent tendency to award projects on price, have all but destroyed the New Jersey GIS data conversion market.

In the end, it is the end user who loses.

PS This is not, as some may construe it to be, a bitter diatribe after the loss of yet another GIS data conversion bid. My company stopped responding to GIS data conversion bid requests years ago, for the reasons stated above. This long-overdue post was truly triggered by John's commentary about Canadian doughnuts in NYC.