The model of the linear city under a triangular distribution of consumers: an empirical analysis on price and location of beverage kiosks in Catania

This paper presents a model of oligopolistic competition under horizontal differentiation of products and a triangular distribution of consumers. The triangular distribution aims to represent a case of concentration of consumers around the central location. The main result is that a good deal of differentiation among products is achieved also under such assumption concerning the consumers’ distribution. This means that the incentive to differentiate – to some extent - prevails on the incentive to the central location, although consumers are concentrated in the central location. The analysis on an original empirical case-study is presented, concerning the choice of beverage retails in a town. The empirical evidence is consistent with the theoretical model.