I agree that it's hard to say what would happen with regards to rent seekers, but corner stores aren't in the same situation. Their increased costs are either d

I agree that it's hard to say what would happen with regards to rent seekers, but corner stores aren't in the same situation. Their increased costs are either due to the rents being increased by the person who owns the building, or the simple fact that they do not have economies of scale so they end up with higher prices on the items that don't expire quickly in order to make a profit as they won't make much off of gasoline or milk, for example. There are plenty of discount stores that are working their way in, e.g. Dollar General, Family Dollar, but they don't have control over the rents either and in alot of larger cities they also are facing opposition from the small businesses that would be out of business since they would have no chance of competing on price at that point. Whether having every small bodega or other small retail shop replaced by 7-11, Dollar General, Family Dollar, etc. and yet another avenue for access to the middle class shutdown is worth the affordable prices for everyone else is debatable. I can see both sides of this anyways.