> what discount chains do to poor communities is act as the only provider of goods competing in an environment dominated by multinational corporations which al

> what discount chains do to poor communities is act as the only provider of goods competing in an environment dominated by multinational corporations which all utilize complex supply chains (offshore companies / transfer pricing aka tax avoidance) , there is only 1 strategy left for competing. It dates back to 2 brothers[1] from the UK meatpacking industry in 1915. This strategy is: Squeeze both the consumer and the producer and siphon profits from the middle: From "Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World"[2] > The Vesteys’ basic formula for gaining market power—squeeze them at the producer end, squeeze them at the consumer end, and push all the profits into the middle—was a philosophy that they also deployed, with astonishing success, in the area of tax. It is a formula that underlies the size and power of multinational corporations today. In those early days the tax haven world was in its infancy, and governments were groping in the dark to understand and to tax emerging multinational corporations. (They still are.) Relatively few tax havens existed then, focusing mostly on the financial affairs of extremely wealthy individuals. Rich Europeans looked primarily to Switzerland, while wealthy Britons tended to use the nearby Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. what is described in this thread is just a symptom of this. What is so damaging is that if you want to compete against multinationals and be more than just a mom-and pop shop it is now the _only_ game in town. [1] Vestey Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestey_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestey_Group [2] Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Islands:_Tax_Havens_and_the_Men_Who_Stole_the_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Islands:_Tax_Havens_a...