Absolutely - am suffering the effects of this in my town, and farther afield as well. It’s sad as well as frustrating.
You realize that’s an opinion piece, right?
Sadly, I’m afraid it is reality, but I don’t wish to argue.
It’s not consolidation (or mergers of Kroger and Albertsons) that’s led to the inability of indie and small chain grocers to remain viable.
It’s the hegemony of big box retailers like Walmart, Costco and Target, who dominate grocery segment even though none of them are classified as a “grocery stores”
Yes, I take your point, but these mega mergers are also affecting the shopability of the subsumed stores, for the worse. As to the niche markets, that’s sad too, but I hold out some hope.
To clarify - even the Kroeger stores (Fred Meyer) in my town are becoming less like FM (which isn’t my fave, but best of the worst I guess,) isn’t shopping like a FM these days. More and more stuff is unavailable, it’s like somebody has decided what mainstream America wants to eat and stocks only that. Really depressing. Decent produce, but lots of limited selections of other stuff, unless it’s frozen or processed.
