TheOtherView
Opinions from around the country

Specialty stores buried under big business
COMMENTARY

In the current age of corporate conglomerates controlling the market, consumers are losing out.

Some proponents of big business may say that it brings new and better products into our lives, and it certainly does. However, current consumers have fewer choices when they go to spend their almighty dollar, which is continually dropping in value.

With the growth of big business, consumers have lost small specialty stores. They have lost the ability to go to the corner market and get the exact cut of meat they want while chatting with the butcher.

Instead, consumers are faced with large stores with crowded parking lots, narrow aisles and long check-out lines. The super grocery/pharmacy/bank/everything store contains many different items, but when you take a closer look, they lack real depth.

If you go down the salad dressing aisle at your Wal-Mart, for example, you can find your traditional ranch, Italian and other kinds of dressings, however, you won't find many specialty or organic types of dressings.

This is not just a problem about salad dressings, it is a problem with many items in many different stores. Luckily for us, the small business is being saved thanks to the Internet. The Internet gives small business owners the opportunity to sell their goods without having to vie for the attention of big businesses to carry their products.

However, it is up to consumers to help keep small businesses alive. If consumers get caught up in the “convenience” of corporate America, small business will not be able to grow.

Consumers alone cannot do everything. Corporations, with low prices and little competition, make it hard for small business to compete. That is why small business must also do its part by being resourceful by making a quality product for a reasonable price.

This is a staff editorial from The Parthenon at Marshall University. This editorial was distributed by U-Wire.