primary goal is to maximize consumer surplus, i.e. purchase the product that best satisfies any combination of price and quality. Although the consumer may receive more pleasure from their superior brand, the inferior brand may maximize the surplus which is given by: , where the difference is between the utility of a product at location and the price . Now suppose the consumer also has the option to purchase an outside, undifferentiated Product B. The consumer surplus gained from Product B is denoted by . Therefore, for a given amount of money, the consumer will purchase the superior variation of Product A over Product B as long as , where the consumer surplus from the superior variation of Product A is greater than the consumer surplus gained from Product B. Alternatively, the consumer only purchases the superior variation of product A as long as , where the difference between the surplus of the superior variation of Product A and the surplus gained from Product B is positive. See also Economics Economic geography Location theory Microeconomics Industrial organization Retail geography Hyperbolic discounting Hotelling’s location model References External links The Hotelling-Downs Model of Spatial/Political Competition Economics models Geographic position