Take a look at the chart of America’s monopolies and it is not difficult to understand the the issues facing local businesses – the playing field is rigged.
Emily Stewart writes, “From cellphone providers to beer to cat food, consumers have a lot fewer choices when it comes to buying — even if they don’t know it.” Emily Stewart and America’s monopolies
Stewart shows that the big companies have gotten bigger over the past fifteen years.
In the capitalist system that is what they are supposed to do. However, local businesses have failed to see, no less understand, the threat the growing monopolies pose to their survival and success.There are 28 million local businesses in America. The 2019 Department of Labor Statistics confirms what everyone instinctively already knows – local businesses are under threat. The cause is clear – shoppers have shifted their buying to online and local businesses have not responded. Amazon has 50% of e-commerce and grows stronger daily. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, ominously warned all local businesses, “Your margin is my opportunity.” 
The bigger companies become the tighter control they place on wages, working conditions, and advancement. Small local businesses NEED employees and focus on increased wages and advancement in order to grow their businesses.
The financial advantage goes to the bigger company. The problem is then reflected in weak personal income growth because entrepreneurs are being pushed out of the game. The New Times review of the impact of monopolies
Stewart writes, “In more traditional sectors, such as hardware stores, tobacco, and railroads, concentration is on the rise. And in technology-related fields, including smartphones, social media, and cellphones, in just in the past five or so years, it’s even higher.”
Think of monopolies as movie studios that buy up scripts to keep them off the market. The bigger a company becomes the more it needs to grow. Growth comes from gobbling up competitors.
The #1 fact about monopolies is that as they take dominance in market share they use that power to drive up prices.The New York Times and how monopolies drive up prices. Competitors drive down prices because their battle ground is efficiency and innovation. Monopolies drive up prices because there is no battleground. Steward writes, “The fewer options there are, the fewer places consumers have to shop for goods and services, and the less pressure for competitors to keep prices down.”
The big three monopolies are Amazon, Google and Facebook.
Let’s focus on Amazon which is earning an estimated $187 billion per year. Jeff Bezos is brilliant and his team the best. These top of the food chain capitalists have rigged the game. Amazon is smart and their focus is growing market share at the expense of every other business in the world.
Amazon’s retail strategy is to enter a business and use its technology and processes to make selling and delivery of products better, faster, and cheaper – AT FIRST. Amazon uses lower prices to drive out competitors . Once Amazon has market dominance it increases prices. This behavior is what monopolies do.
Consumers don’t care about monopolies and their impact on local businesses but they should. Monopolies take money out of local communities.
They have been convinced that convenience is important than choice. A belief that will come back to haunt them as local communities become ghost towns where stacks of Amazon boxes on front porches. Keep in mind that local communities need revenue to support schools, infrastructure, parks, trash pick, and all the other things that make local communities thrive and a place to live.
FACT: Amazon and the other monopolies take the financial lifeblood away from local communities.
