[threeseed]

How about you tell us which country you live in and how many supermarket, chemist, hardware etc chains exist there.

In Australia for example, we have basically 2 supermarkets, 4 banks, 3 chemists, 2 hardware stores, 2 department stores etc.

This idea that winner take all is unique to tech is laughably ridiculous. Especially for those of us who have had to compete and /or work with one of those major chains.

[fakedang]

I don't know, in most countries that I've visited or lived in, there was way more competition than duopolies and monopolies.

I'm currently in the UAE where there are more than 30+ retail chains competing alongside online retail shops (including Amazon). Thats ignoring independently run tiny grocery stores which number more than 5000. All of them compete to provide the best service, and incidentally its the groceries that are winning.

There are more than 10+ national banks and more than 30+ banks providing retail services. And even though there's only one major oil producer (ADNOC), there are multiple gas station chains. All this in a tiny country of 9 million people - I purposely did not take into account a country such as Germany or India.

There is one industry which is a duopoly, telecom, which is a state run duopoly, and the quality shows. Customer service is the worst - so bad that even a royal prince from a ruling family cursed the telecoms, so bad that the heads of the bigger firm were berated by the rulers in a meeting.

If you're gloating about how monopolies are the norm around the world, well quite frankly, it isn't. On the other hand, it might be far more symptomatic of the direction the countries you're referring to are heading in. Incidentally I have observed the pattern you mentioned in the UK too.

[echelon]

The United States.

I think I could enumerate 100 major (publicly listed) stores if I tried without even using Google.