> selling low volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers

That is not what alcohol companies are doing. Alcohol is not hard to find. Thanks for the link, though. I do get what you're talking about now.

You may be right about this being a generally poor business strategy. It's not economists who are funding startups, though.

Undisciplined

If they were they wouldn't fund so many startups around this.

Btw, I think you still haven't understood the difference. The 80/20 rule is true and works, while long tail doesn't. 

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/long-tail.asp

econ

10% of alcoholics buy 75% of beverage companies alcohol - long tail isn't real!

tomlaies

If they were they wouldn't fund so many startups around this.

Btw, I think you still haven't understood the difference. The 80/20 rule is true and works, while long tail doesn't. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/long-tail.asp