Why Opening Grocery Stores Alone Doesn’t Solve Food Deserts

Until 40 years ago, the federal government actively tried to help with this: Competition regulators rigorously monitored mergers and enforced the Robinson-Patman Act, a 1930s-era law intended to prevent suppliers from offering better pricing to big retailers than to independent stores. By the 1980s, however, some economists argued that allowing big retailers to expand and negotiate favorable deals would bring lower prices for all. The Robinson-Patman Act, and an underlying desire to protect small businesses, remained popular with the public, so Congress never moved to repeal it, but regulators increasingly stopped enforcing it. This era gave rise to a rash of consolidations and a huge building boom by the likes of Walmart and Kroger. And as the power of retail chains grew, more small businesses folded.

Once again, look to the 80s for the architecture of our misery. Fucking baby boomers.

One of the local rural towns we pass through just had its only grocery store close. There is still a fair amount of existing businesses, and it's really only less than an hour from my city, but it seems like it's going to be very problematic for those people soon. It makes me wonder just how long the other businesses will be able to survive.

I have a feeling that the grocery may have closed for personal/possibly health reasons. I have no basis for this at all, just that the town itself looked to still have clean buildings for businesses (not decrepit/dilapidated like some of the other verging ghost towns) and they were open and clearly had people. That would have me suspect not that the grocery was failing, but that maybe the owner had to close for personal reasons.