Subject: Re: Overpopulation
It was the government and only the government that ran the mom and pop stores out of business by ordering them closed.

I think you're referring to the pandemic years?

I'm talking about a period of time way before that when, as just one example, Staples grew and mom n' pop stationary stores could not compete.

Another... Home Depots and Lowes eliminated the family hardware stores (except those who became ACE hardware stores)

All kinds of businesses that did not or could not scale up, mass marketing cheap imported products, went under to the huge corporate stores that did.

Of course, online shopping would eventually do something similar, but that's another story (or is it?).