Main Street Alliance Releases Report on Reining in Monopolies
The report highlights monopolies’ negative impacts across industries and geographies based on dozens of interviews and over 100 conversations with members.
March 14, 2022
Monopoly power is a top concern for Main Street Alliance, small business owners. To explore this issue further, MSA surveyed over 100 of our top leaders and further held listening sessions and interviews with over 50 small business leaders across the country in late 2021.
As a result of those conversations, this report elevates the common trends and themes we heard on how monopoly power is impacting small businesses across the country. Four key themes emerged:
Many small business owners experience dominant corporations undercutting them, posing an existential threat, or limiting their growth.
Monopoly power isn’t just about competing for customers – dominant corporations leverage their scale in many ways, including squeezing the supply chain, and muscling out competitors for government contracts.
Technology tilts the balance of power toward larger firms – and small businesses feel they must use online platforms even when they are aware there are dangers.
Small business owners need to know that we can rein in monopoly power – and that reining in monopolies will help small businesses compete and thrive.
Growing monopoly power directly threatens Main Street businesses and creates anxiety, stress, and financial insecurity for business owners. But monopoly doesn’t only hurt small businesses. It also hurts the people and communities these businesses serve. And it hurts democracy overall. But that does not make it impossible to defeat corporate power – it makes it imperative.
Around the country, lawmakers and regulators are hearing the call to rein in monopolies. Major anti-monopoly legislation is under consideration in both houses of Congress, with support from both political parties. This report emphasizes how critical these legislative solutions are.
Highlighted Quotes from the Report:
“Despite [Amazon] having their own fleets, they have subcontracted with all the carriers. I can’t blame the carriers. You can just show up and load up a whole container and drive to another Amazon warehouse. But I am literally being cut off from my product and my bottles.”
“[Intuit] is working to completely demoralize the relationship they have with tax professionals. They used to rely on us, and now they’ve been trying to squeeze us out…. It’s a slap in the face. We helped them build their business.”
“Social media gets harder and harder because they control the algorithms. I have some posts that reach only [200 of 4,000] followers. Even something like that where I do have access to free advertising and I’ve built quite a following–to have that limited by whoever’s controlling those algorithms is another way the odds are stacked against us.”
“[Dominant firm] opened a new facility here – and got big tax subsidies to build the plant. I don’t get it. They pay people rock bottom wages and it’s automated.”
“We’re in a very capital intensive business, with trucks and conveyors. When we buy a whole new fleet, we have to go to the bank, with interest, but [dominant firm] can self-finance.”
***Interview Requests can contact: Sarah Crozier