I was watching the 2023 Wonka movie last night, and I was struck by the idea that the chocolatiers working against Willy Wonka provide a great example of several business concepts that I remember studying. It’s not always easy to spot concepts like an oligopoly, price fixing, and artificial scarcity in real life; but Wonka provides us with an excellent fictional example to learn from.

The three leaders of the Chocolate Cartel are Arthur Slugworth, Gerald Prodnose, and Felix Fickelgruber. They have a vast system of allies and underlings who work to keep the chocolate supply of the city restricted and expensive. The Chocolate Cartel also has an agreement with the police to forcibly deter and restrict potential competitors (which is how Wonka runs afoul of them). Although not explicitly stated, it’s implied throughout the movie that the cartel is practicing price fixing by colluding with each other as to the market prices.

 We also learn later in the movie that the cartel is diverting chocolate from their factories to their underground vault thus restricting the supply and embezzling the chocolate in order to bribe local officials. This would be a form of artificial scarcity – the market seems like it would support a greater chocolate supply as Wonka is quickly able to find an interested market, but the Chocolate Cartel is restricting the supply to keep prices high and chocolate available for bribery. It’s even mentioned by the cartel early in the people they that don’t want poor people to be able to purchase chocolate.

Another interesting business concept to explore regarding the Chocolate Cartel is the chocolate market structure is that city/country. The chocolatiers would technically be an oligopoly as they are a small number of companies with a seemingly large production scale, but because they are colluding then they are functioning as a monopoly. Willy Wonka and his chocolate serve as a market disruption to the cartel’s status quo which is why they react so strongly to him. He’s able, and willing, to offer chocolate as a better price that’s more affordable to the average consumer, and he’s offering a superior product as well. His chocolates seem to be highly inventive and disrupting to the chocolate status quo seen in the movie. He quickly is able to capture the existing market and expands it to new demographics.

I didn’t seek out the Wonka for its portrayal of economics and business, but I couldn’t help seeing the parallels. Wonka exaggerated and played up this concepts for comedic effect, but I think that only makes it more valuable for business students studying these concepts – sometimes, seeing the extreme is helpful in grasping what they really mean.