>once a company becomes big enough, it's literally impossible for small business to compete I understand that storytelling is a basic human thing, and repeatin

>once a company becomes big enough, it's literally impossible for small business to compete I understand that storytelling is a basic human thing, and repeating a good story is something virtually everybody does, including me, constantly and compulsively. But a story that is false can't provide useful guidance, can it? What is the attraction in repeating it in the face of incompatible facts? >Many small cafes will simply shut down and not even fight when a Starbucks pops up nearby. I literally used to work in the downtown of a small city, diagonally across an intersection from a Starbucks, and it was, for a time, an almost daily ritual for my office to go there. But there was another coffee shop basically the same straight-line distance to the west. And there was a donuts & coffee place a few meters to the north. Some people (well, a lot) only go to Starbucks. But that's a choice, or peer pressure, or a mental trap, not some kind of economic hegemony. Or for all I know people actually like the coffee. Why do similar businesses locate near each other? Many people have noticed this pattern besides me; I bet you can find more by searching the internet, if you will accept that it happens in the first place. Another instance: I can think of two places in my area right offhand where there is a Rite-Aid and a CVS as close as possible to each other.