they produce the stuff they do because there’s demand for those products. If nestle stopped bottling water and selling it at inflated prices while being shitheels… someone else will step in to meet the demand that exists.

This is literally the origin of the term “the customer is always right.” Imagine you create the world’s most perfect product. It is truly revolutionary. It meaningfully improves your customers’ lives, it is easy to manufacture and get to your customers, it is cheap, and it is durable. It is all of the things that a perfect product should be. And you have a competitor. This is a bad imitation. It’s more expensive, it’s less durable, it’s worse at what it does, and it’s more difficult to manufacture.

And yet, the competitor is consistently selling out, while you struggle to sell enough to make ends meet. Even though your product is better in every measurable way, you are selling the wrong product. The customer is always right, and in this example the customer wants the shitty (and more expensive) version. It doesn’t matter how good your product is in comparison. The customer is the ultimate driving force behind whether or not you’ll be able to sell anything, and is therefore always right. If you insist on selling your perfect (but unmarketable) version, it isn’t the customer’s fault when you go bankrupt. It is your fault for trying to defy the customer.

And you know what companies like Nestle, Amazon, etc are really good at? Finding what customers want. And yes, the customer tends to be stupid and short-sighted. But the customer is always right.