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Product differentiation is pervasive in markets. It is at the heart of structural empiricism and it smoothes jagged behavior that causes paradoxical outcomes in several theoretical models. Firms differentiate their products to avoid ruinous price competition. Representative consumer, discrete choice, and location models are not necessarily inconsistent, but performance depends crucially on the degree of localization of competition. With (symmetric) global competition, rents are typically small and market variety near optimal. With local competition, profits may be protected because entrants must find profitable niches. These rents lead firms to competitively dissipative them, and performance may be poor. 1. Overview Consumer goods are available in a variety of styles and brands. Product differentiation refers to such variations within a product class that (some) consumers view as imperfect substitutes. The store Foods of all Nations in Charlottesville, VA (area population 120,000) carries 118 varieties of hot pepper sauce, 41 balsamic vinegars, and 12