Quote:
Originally Posted by RobbieClarken
Note that if many consumers really did prefer the smaller retails they would be willing to pay higher prices and so the little guys could still remain profitable. I think most people prefer low prices from fierce competition among big players over supporting small outlets for sentimental reasons. Thus price wars are generally good for consumers in the short and the long run.
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Evidence, please? Especially for the claim that this is good for the long term. Walmart, in particular, has a history of coming in, sucking small communities dry by knocking the local competition out of business, and then packing up and leaving. Local businesses spread the money they earn around the local community. Big businesses generally don't, preferring the large national distributors with which they already have existing relationships. This is also not just an economic issue. It's a socio-psychological one which is at once symptomatic of and contributing to the hyper-atomized individualism which has infected American culture over the past few decades.
Luqman