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	Vol.7, No 30, October 20, 1999
	Shoppers decide where to buy In its untiring effort to lead the United States to fascism with all possible dispatch, the California State Legislature has enacted a law to save its unsuspecting citizens from groceries at Wal-Mart! Sheldon Richman The bill, which awaits the governor's signature, would make it impossible for Wal-Mart and other so-called big-box retail stores to compete with supermarkets. With the disingenuousness common to many edicts today, the bill would outlaw stores exceeding 100,000 square feet if they devote 15,000 square feet or more to groceries and drugs. It is easy to tell who supports the protectionist measure: labor unions, major supermarket chains, and self-styled consumer groups. Conspicuously absent from the roll: the mass of consumers. Opponents of the bill, besides direct victims Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target, are municipal leaders, business and community associations, and consumers. They ultimately decide who stays in business and who does not.  They do so by being free to buy, or not buy, from entrepreneurs, who are incessantly striving to please them. Consumers are picky and fickle.p They know what they like, but they also change their minds without notice, leaving long-standing suppliers in the lurch.  There's nothing wrong with that. The economic system exists to benefit consumers. Strictly speaking, big discount chains cannot put small retailers out of business. Only consumers can do that. Wal-Mart can open a big beautiful store and offer desirable products at low prices. But the decision to step into the store rests in the hands of each consumer. If enough of them head to Wal-Mart and forsake the little shop they used to patronize, they are responsible for what happens. This is not to say that in a market everyone is happy with everything that takes place. A consumer who likes paying higher prices at a little retailer will be saddened if it closes after Wal-Mart opens. Grown-ups are supposed to understand that they don't always get their way. If our favorite shop goes under, it will be because other people exercised their freedom and bought from someone else. When such matters are left to legislatures, politicians and special interests call the shots and empower the sheriff to interfere with peaceful commerce. Shrouding the violent, special-interest-driven legislative process in the term "democracy" should not obscure what really happens. No one in the marketplace who defies the interests of consumers stays in business for long.  Yet politicians who everyday defy the people's interests in freedom stay in office for years.  If that is democracy, freedom-loving people should want none of it. Sheldon Richman is the editor of The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty magazine.		Plane crash victim mourned   Housing problem affects many   Wireless Internet explodes into market   Women's center offers support for ethnic women Quakes can be fun   Shoppers decide where to buy New show needs woman's touch   Attempted shooting of Dogg Pound in L.A.   The Best Man' features a wealth of talent   The Straight Story' has humorous characters Slow start takes Ice Dogs on long road trip Fall 99 ISSUES DAILY 49ER HOMEPAGE
Forty-Niner Publications, Department of Journalism, California State University, Long Beach ©1999 All rights reserved.