Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Linder
I'm in a small town of 17,000 with a SuperWal-mart and a Home Depot. We also have 3-4 other smaller hardware stores that predated the HD. None have gone out of business since the HD appeared years ago. It's not as simple as saying the giants drive the small ones out of business. Partly the small ones have to find niches; they also have to work harder. In small towns, if the big box stores aren't there, the smaller stores aren't selling it. You'd have to buy it online or drive 100 miles to a big city. The picture is far from as stark as the leftists draw it.
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Good points. Though I know that at least one of those hardware stores in Kirksville is owned by a multi-hundred million dollar corporation that I used to work for. My point there being even the percieved "small guys" are big corporate.
Most truly independent small businesses catering in common goods have been in business long before the giants started their monster expansions in the 1990s, and thus have a pre-established customer base. How does a new business get started up competing with corporate grocery stores, corporate dollar stores, corporate restaurants, corporate gas stations. I just feel that the real freedom of competition, if you will, is being constrained more and more over time. Sure you can theoretically, but in certain cases not realistically.
My concern is more in the future. I think it's fair to say that the big ones will carve out enough of the market that the concept of "small business" (speaking strictly of your typical store-front type of business) will be a concept known only to a minority.