Yes, I think maybe that was something like nedfumpkin's thinking about the farms. You wouldn't in reality get individual farms selling their produce to the public (except farm shops of course!).
Depends, I suppose, on the product. Some are B2B, some are sold as you describe; wholesale-retail-customer.
[TLDR: You do get individual companies supplying other individual companies - I worked for a cashmere mill that exclusively supplied Pringle's (the luxury clothing company, not the crisps
) We got our raw wool predominantly from South Africa but I'm not sure whether we dealt with a wholesaler there, probably we did. Once we got it the chain was woollen mill-clothing manufacturer-retailer-customer. I can't imagine Pringle dealing with a wholesaler, not their style at all - more likely straight to Harrods! Now of course, they have an online shop which is something we don't even want to start thinking about for RT3.]
Maybe the problem in RT3 is not so much in the low demand of the industries but in the direct demand of the houses. All of the commodities a house demands would in reality be bought from a retailer (at the time and place of the RT3 world, in the "West" before the internet was everywhere). What we haven't got is utilities, which would now be a possibility since we got power stations - but even that would go through a retailer, wouldn't it?
I've always felt that the cargo of "goods" made by a tool-and-die was a bit weird. All of these things, clothing, food, electronics, are all what I would call "goods". This has been addressed in Trainmaster, but maybe nobody's looked at what the houses are demanding. All they need, surely, is food, medicine, goods and petrol. And possibly electricity?
The Trainmaster Supply Chain Guide is quite specific about which are Industrial Products and which are Finished Goods, but perhaps that wasn't followed up in looking at the demands of the houses. Do we need another link in the chain where "Finished Goods" go to a wholesaler, then a retailer, and the houses then get this stuff
only from the retailers? You could even have pharmacies, supermarkets, furniture shops, high-street fashion all demanding different stuff. (I'm getting carried away now, I realise.)
How would you distinguish between the Goods that are going to the retailer and the Goods that are then going to the houses? Different names, perhaps? So, for example, at the wholesaler/retailer the goods are called "Goods", then generate like this 1 Goods = 1 Products, then the houses demand the Products.
In fact, looking at the TM map I happen to have in front of me, randomly, I see that the retail buildings haven't been given any demands at all. They are more like the municipal buildings. I'm sure this has been discussed before, bear with me, this is all new to me! In 1.06 the Department Store has a demand, but no supply. Same in 1.05, retail has only demands, and not much demand, either.
I really want to teach myself how to modify buildings and so forth. I can see what I would like to do, but don't know how to do it! Story of my life!!!!!