Earlier in the year there was quite a bit of seo chatter about Google beginning to give more weight to brands in the organic listings (http://www.bestrank.com/blog/why-google-ranks-brands).
Do you think Google Merchant Center will be following suite?
Personally i like to think no, it would be a bit unfair to boost say apples ipod listings for example, given that i'm searching for a product i don't particually care where it comes from.