>Some stores cannot thrive unless they are within SHORT drives of many customers. Some of those stores have to extract a lot of productivity out of each worker

>Some stores cannot thrive unless they are within SHORT drives of many customers. Some of those stores have to extract a lot of productivity out of each worker to pay the workers even minimum wage. Many, now. Logistics is (and has been) a massively growing field when it comes to deployment of franchises of restaurants as well as groceries and general goods stores. There is hugely growing sentiment against unnecessary driving, partly due to rising fuel costs but I also hypothesize that media pressure of said fuel costs as well as innovation from Netflix etc. drive this signal as well. "Why leave the house when you don't have to" has farther reaching effects than simple DVD rentals. Great post, BTW - and a very interesting subject indeed.