retailers further in peril, while increasing
the dominance of big box stores that have
remained open because they sell essentials
like food and household goods. Walmart,
Amazon and others are on a hiring spree and
doling out bonuses or pay increases.
But even they face pressures. They’re
spending more on labor and online
operations. Some are seeing profits squeezed
because shoppers are turning to low-margin
groceries and avoiding higher-margin items
like clothing. Amazon has struggled to
handle an accelerating demand for essentials,
disappointing many of its Prime members,
who pay $129 a year and are accustomed to
receiving deliveries within two days.
The crisis risks intensifying what many regard
as a troubling trend: Commerce increasingly
concentrated among big companies as smaller
firms fail, thereby reducing competition.
The Open Markets Institute, which campaigns
against monopolies, has called for a ban on
acquisitions by companies with annual revenue
above $100 million or by large investment
firms. Lynn Barry, the institute’s executive
director, notes that many big companies
swallowed up smaller rivals in the financial
crisis and Great Recession, sometimes in deals
brokered by the government.
He’s worried about a repeat:
“You’ve got Apple and Google and Amazon
with these massive piles of cash, the Saudis and
others with these massive piles of cash, and
everyone else is half-bankrupt and paralyzed.”