[tootie]

It's just economies of scale at play. When it comes to food it makes perfect sense. Gov policy is not about farmers, its about keeping food supply plentiful and prices low. Big Ag are better at absorbing shocks. People can complain about profits and wages because we have never had to worry about famine.

[freddie_mercury]

I agree. Seems like a pretty obvious & inevitable transition to me. Corner bodegas got replaced by national chains. Local grocery stores got replaced by national chains. Local clothing manufacturers got replaced by national chains. Local bookstores got replaced by national chains. Local airlines got consolidated. Local car companies got consolidated. Local stock exchanges got consolidated.

It is pretty hard to find many examples where there's still a widespread set of small producers successfully staving off national consolidation.

It isn't clear to me how you, as a general matter, deal with the massive economies of scale that national chains have access to. Everything from much cheaper cost of capital to being able to cross-subsidize stores to better pricing power due to bulk buying to being able to simply hire better management due to have more free cash flow etc etc etc.