this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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i.e. a middle man
A farmer could set up a stand outside their driveway and advertise on Facebook, but the farmer's market middle man acts as a go between to handle logistics and advertising and customer availability and creates a safe marketplace for customers and vendors.
No, that's not what middle man means.
A middle man is an intermediary. I do not buy food from the farmers market. I buy it from farmers who have paid rent to be at the farmers market. The market is the landlord, not the middle man.
Landlords are middle men.
Is Amazon not a middle man? In many cases you're buying directly from the seller, just like at a farmer's market. Amazon, like a farmer's market, exists to facilitate trade between sellers and buyers. It just collects rents.
No. Absolutely not. Landlords are middle men between tenant and the earth. But they are not middle men between consumers and commercial tenants.
Amazon is ABSOLUTELY a middle man because you DO NOT buy directly from the seller you pay Amazon and Amazon pays the seller.
And commercial tenants can't access customers without the landlord.
Face it, they're middle men.
No, that's just not true. You are trying to win through sheer force of linguistic bullshit. Landlords are LITERALLY not in the middle of any transaction between producer and consumer. They are BEHIND the producer.
Look at it from the flow of money. I get money from my wage. I go to a shop. I give the shop my money and receive a commodity. I do that every day, once per day. On the 30th day, the shop owner takes some of my money that I gave them, and some of the money other people gave them, and gives a specific amount to the landlord.
A middle man, on the other hand, is IN THE MIDDLE. The SHOP is a middle man for the PRODUCER. I go to the shop and buy a toy made by Hasbro, the shop owner takes my money and buys a replacement for that toy from Hasbro. The toy is made by Hasbro and used by me but the shop is in the middle of the transaction. The more toys I buy from Hasbro, the more the middle man makes. This is NOT the case with a landlord who IS NOT IN THE MIDDLE and therefore receives a fixed amount from the shop regardless of how much I spend because the landlord has no idea how much I spend at the shop because the landlord is NOT IN THE MIDDLE.
A lot of these markets are more community-focused and, yeah, they'll charge something but not beyond the actual cost of putting the market together. They're not making a profit. In some places the state or municipality will organize the markets in order to foster the local food/ag scene.
Do you think those things mean something isn't a middle man?
The cost of putting the market together is always going to be higher than selling out of a van. Bigger venue, higher costs. It's worth it for the increased sales, but the middle man still gets a cut. Even if there's no profit, even if the cut is fair, there's still a cut.
I made no such claim. The markets I've worked with have never taken a "cut" (I've seen the financials of some of these things. They're non-profit, so no reason not to be transparent). They're literally raising funds for the bare minimum of operations, so any use fees for the space, permitting fees, marketing (maintaining social media accounts, printing flyers etc.) insurance, etc. These are volunteer groups.