Small firms, however, can use loans and investment to hang on longer, and the longer they hang on, the more likely that the big company will give up. Even when

Small firms, however, can use loans and investment to hang on longer, and the longer they hang on, the more likely that the big company will give up. Even when they do go out of business, if the big company raises prices too much, there will be an obvious market opportunity and someone will start up a cigar shop, and then the big company has to sell at a loss for another 6 months, 2 years, or whatever, and then the cycle can repeat. There's almost always going to be someone willing to bet that the big company will give up this time, and that very fact makes them more likely to actually give up, once they understand it. Of course, in the real world, what they'll do is quietly fund an anti-tobacco zoning ordinance (which they're grandfathered in for, of course), or use some other trick that amounts to keeping out competitors at government-point, because that's what big companies do, if they can. Actual competition isn't nearly as harmful as lobbying.