Understanding How Online Giants, Big Box Retailers and Government Incompetence Destroyed Local Economies 

Before reclaiming our local economies, it is important to analyse and understand why and how western economies have been systematically dismantled over the past few decades, and the blame largely falls on the unchecked greed of corporate giants, the rise of Big Box superstores, and governments that stood idly by as these corporations devoured everything in their path. Companies like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Argos, Primark, Marks & Spencer, B&M, Next, John Lewis, Sports Direct, Poundland, The Range Walmart, Target and many others have grown into corporate titans, accumulating immense power not by building or creating value, but by extracting it from the communities they claim to serve. These corporations do not manufacture, grow, or produce anything of real value. Instead, they function as parasitic middlemen, thriving by siphoning wealth from local economies without giving anything back.

But it doesn’t stop there:
To make matters worse, these corporations have become so powerful that they now influence entire economies and governments. Their massive market share and financial clout allow them to bend policies and regulations to their advantage, further consolidating their dominance while contributing to the erosion of local economies, the outsourcing of jobs, and the collapse of once-thriving industries.

Why the Buy Local Movement is the Path to Recovery:
Yet, in the face of this devastation, there is hope. The rise of Buy Local campaigns represents a critical counterforce to the damage inflicted by corporate greed and government negligence. These initiatives, like Getslocal’s GETS Trade and GETS Rewards, Local Bid's, City Gift Cards, and In-Country Value (ICV) programs, provide a pathway to rebuild local economies from within. By reconnecting producers and consumers directly, these grassroots movements are designed to decentralize economic power, foster long-term relationships, and keep wealth within communities.

GOVERNMENT COMPLICITY:

Failing to Protect Their People:
Western governments are not innocent bystanders in this corporate-driven destruction. Rather than safeguarding their economies and supporting local businesses, they have enabled the rise of these corporate behemoths. Through deregulation, tax breaks, and favourable policies, governments have allowed Big Box chains to consolidate power and control entire markets while neglecting the needs of their own people.

• Failure to Regulate: Governments have failed to put in place the regulations needed to prevent monopolistic control of markets by corporations like Amazon and Walmart. As these giants have grown, they’ve eliminated competition and created market conditions where local businesses have little chance to survive.
• Tax Breaks for Destruction: In some cases, these corporate parasites have been rewarded for their destructive practices with tax breaks and incentives. Governments have offered financial concessions in exchange for promises of jobs and investment, but these deals often result in low-paying jobs and wealth extraction from local economies.
• Turning a Blind Eye to Outsourcing: As millions of jobs have been outsourced to lower-wage countries, governments have done little to curb the flow of jobs leaving their borders. Rather than investing in retraining programs or supporting industries that create long-term value, they’ve allowed corporations to continue their relentless pursuit of cheaper labour abroad.

CORPORATE CONTROL OVER GOVERNMENTS:

The Hidden Cost of Power:
While corporate greed and unchecked debt have destabilized economies, another insidious force is at work—the direct influence of corporate giants over governments. These corporations have not amassed power and wealth solely through market dominance; they’ve also spent billions to ensure that governments work in their favour. By hiring lobbyists, making political donations, and leveraging their financial resources, corporate giants have gained control over the very systems meant to regulate them.

• Hiring Lobbyists: Corporations spend vast sums of money to hire lobbyists whose sole job is to influence policymakers. These lobbyists work to ensure that laws and regulations are crafted in a way that benefits corporate interests—often at the expense of the public. They push for deregulation, reduced taxes, and favourable trade policies, all while ensuring that their corporate clients maintain their dominance in the market.
• Political Donations: Corporations use political donations as a tool to buy influence. By funding the campaigns of politicians, these corporations ensure that their interests are prioritized over the needs of the public. This financial leverage allows them to secure government grants, planning concessions, and favourable tax breaks that give them a competitive edge over local businesses.
• Planning Concessions: With political influence comes the ability to secure favourable planning concessions, allowing corporate giants to expand their operations with minimal resistance. Local governments, swayed by political donations and lobbying efforts, often grant these corporations special permissions to build new stores or factories, even when it negatively impacts local businesses and communities.
• Favourable Tax Breaks: Corporate lobbying efforts often result in favourable tax breaks for the largest companies, allowing them to pay far less in taxes than their smaller competitors. These tax breaks not only give corporate giants an unfair advantage but also deprive governments of the revenue needed to fund essential services, leading to greater inequality and economic strain on local communities.
• Controlling Government Policy: By influencing policymakers, corporate giants have ensured that governments prioritize their interests. Whether it’s through tax breaks, favourable regulations, or access to government contracts, these corporations wield immense power over public policy, shaping the rules of the game to their advantage while the rest of the economy suffers.

The Engineered Inflation: 

How Corporate Elites Manipulate Economies for Profit While Worsening the Cost of Living Crisis:
Global corporate elites, the owners and top executives of the largest companies, have strategically manipulated world economies, supply chains, and prices to drive up inflation in their favour. This manufactured inflation has led to a massive transfer of wealth, widening the gap between the wealthy 1% and the struggling 99%. 

Here’s how the elites exploit the system:

• Control of Supply Chains: By controlling global supply lines, corporate giants artificially create shortages and disruptions, driving up the prices of essential goods and services, all while maintaining their own profit margins.
• Inflation for Profit: These elites intentionally manufacture inflation, causing the cost of everyday items to skyrocket. While prices increase for consumers, corporate revenues soar, with profits funneled directly to the top.
• Record Profits Amid Crisis: During economic downturns and crises, corporate elites have used inflation as a tool to generate unprecedented wealth, leading to record profits for the richest individuals, while the vast majority of people face rising costs and shrinking purchasing power.
• Widening Wealth Gap: This engineered inflation has contributed to the largest wealth transfer in history, with the 1% accumulating even greater fortunes. Meanwhile, the 99% bear the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis, sinking deeper into financial hardship.
• Exacerbating Inequality: By creating artificial inflation, corporate elites have not only generated massive revenue but have also deepened the divide between the wealthy and the rest of society, increasing inequality and threatening the stability of the global economy.

This manipulation benefits the few while creating long-term economic instability for the many, intensifying the cost-of-living crisis that the majority of the population endures.

BIG BOX SUPERSTORES:

Parasites, Not Producers:
Big Box superstores—whether domestic or foreign—have functioned as economic parasites, draining wealth from the communities they operate in while offering little in return. These corporations have managed to thrive by leveraging their massive scale to control supply chains, dominate markets, and force local businesses out of competition.

• Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s Morrisons and M&S: In the UK, these grocery giants have wiped out countless independent retailers, consolidating their hold over the market. By relying on cheap, imported goods and using their immense buying power, they’ve eliminated local competition while producing nothing themselves.
• Walmart and Target: In the U.S., Walmart and Target have decimated small-town economies. These retail giants have driven local stores out of business by offering ultra-low prices on imported goods, all while providing low-wage jobs that offer little economic security to workers.
• Primark, Next, Matalan, T.K. Maxx, John Lewis and many others: the fashion industry is not immune to the parasitic business practices these companies exemplify. They have built their empires on selling cheap, mass-produced clothing sourced from overseas sweatshops. Numerous reports have exposed the troubling working conditions in these factories, including extremely low wages, excessive working hours, and unsafe environments. Meanwhile, local textile manufacturers have been driven out of business, leaving skilled workers without jobs.

The Role of Foreign Big Box Retailers:
Foreign Big Box retailers such as Lidl, Aldi, and Ikea and many others have played a similarly devastating role in local markets, accelerating the race to the bottom by grabbing more and more of the retail market from native supermarkets and small businesses and removing their profits back to their homelands.

• Lidl and Aldi: These German discounters have gained significant market share in countries like the UK and the U.S. by offering low prices on imported goods. Their aggressive pricing strategies have drawn consumers away from local retailers and even native supermarket chains, further accelerating the decline of local competition.
• Ikea: The Swedish furniture giant has disrupted the furniture market by offering cheap, flat-pack products sourced from low-cost suppliers abroad. In doing so, it has driven countless local furniture manufacturers out of business, eroding the domestic manufacturing sector and limiting choices for consumers who want locally-made, high-quality products.

unfettered CORPORATE GREED:

Profit Over People:
The corporate giants dominating Western economies have grown rich not by creating value but by extracting it from communities. They have built their empires through ruthless efficiency, outsourcing jobs to cheaper markets overseas, and undercutting local businesses. What makes this betrayal even more bitter is that these companies do not produce anything themselves—they are simply middlemen, profiting from the hard work of producers and the needs of consumers.

• Middlemen, Not Producers: Giants like Walmart, Tesco, and Amazon don’t create or manufacture products themselves. They act as intermediaries, connecting billions of consumers to millions of producers while taking a significant cut of the transaction. They offer little to no added value, instead profiting from their control of supply chains.
• No Added Value: These corporations extract wealth from local economies by leveraging their size and negotiating power to demand the lowest prices from producers, which they then sell to consumers at a profit. They produce no goods themselves, instead feeding off the labour and innovation of others.
• Exploitation of Cheap Labor: The relentless pursuit of cheaper production costs has driven these companies to source goods from countries with low wages and poor working conditions. By outsourcing jobs to China and other developing countries, they have undermined local industries and left behind communities that once relied on manufacturing jobs for economic stability.
• Suffocating Local Businesses: Through predatory pricing and monopolistic practices, these giants have wiped out small businesses. Local retailers and manufacturers simply cannot compete with the rock-bottom prices offered by Big Box stores, leading to mass closures and the disappearance of vibrant local marketplaces.

CONTROLLED BY HANDFUL OF CORPORATE GIANTS

Billions of Consumers, Millions of Producers:
The consolidation of economic power in the hands of a few hundred corporations has created a system where billions of consumers are connected to millions of producers—but only through a small number of powerful corporate intermediaries. These corporations have achieved immense control over supply chains, dictating prices, controlling market access, and manipulating entire economies to their advantage.

• Control of Supply Chains: These corporations act as gatekeepers, determining what goods make it to market and at what price. Small businesses and producers are forced to accept unfavourable terms just to gain access to consumers, leaving them at the mercy of corporate giants.
• Economic Power Over Governments: The economic power wielded by these corporations has allowed them to influence government policies and regulations in their favour. They lobby for favourable trade agreements, push for deregulation, and resist efforts to break up their monopolies, all while further entrenching their control over local economies.
• Disconnecting Consumers and Producers: The rise of these corporate giants has severed the direct relationship between consumers and producers. Instead of buying from local artisans, farmers, and manufacturers, consumers are funnelled through corporate middlemen, who profit from every transaction adding very little value to the process.

THE ROLE OF THE CONSUMER:

Complicit in Their Own Destruction of Jobs and Economic Downfall:
It’s not just corporate giants and government negligence that have contributed to the collapse of local economies. Consumers themselves have played a role in their own economic downfall. In their pursuit of cheaper goods, convenience, and home delivery, many consumers have unwittingly supported the very corporations that are destroying their jobs, wages, and communities.

• Chasing Cheap Goods: Consumers have been enticed by the low prices offered by corporate giants, but those savings come at a steep cost. In choosing cheaper imported goods, consumers have indirectly supported the offshoring of jobs, the decline of local industries, and the erosion of living standards in their own communities.
• Convenience Over Community: The convenience of online shopping, home delivery, and one-stop shopping has come at the expense of local businesses. Consumers, seeking instant gratification and ease of access, have supported corporate giants that have systematically wiped-out local shops and replaced them with faceless, profit-driven operations.
• The Ouroboros Effect: This destructive cycle is reminiscent of the Ouroboros, the ancient mythological snake that devours its own tail, unaware that it is consuming itself until it’s too late. Consumers, in their quest for convenience and lower prices, are unwittingly contributing to the decline of their own jobs, communities, and living standards. By supporting corporate giants, they are helping to destroy the very economy they depend on.

A FRAGILE FOUNDATION:

Western Economies Built on Debt and Unsustainable Growth:
The foundations of Western economies are now built on nothing more than sand, supported by a fragile house of cards that could collapse at any moment. Government, corporate, and consumer debt have spiralled out of control, creating an economic system that resembles a giant Ponzi scheme—one that is destined to fail. The short-term gains driven by cheap credit has passed, consumer spending, and corporate expansion have hidden the deep structural weaknesses in the economy, but this system cannot be sustained indefinitely.

• Runaway Government Debt: Western governments have relied on borrowing to prop up their economies for decades. The result has been soaring national debts, which now burden future generations with unsustainable levels of debt repayment. Government spending, intended to stimulate economic growth, has instead created an illusion of prosperity, masking the underlying fragility of the economy.
• Corporate Debt and Overleveraging: Many of the corporate giants dominating Western markets are heavily leveraged, relying on borrowed money to fund their growth. These companies, while posting impressive profits, are walking a tightrope of debt. If consumer demand or market conditions shift, their entire business models could collapse, leading to mass layoffs and economic devastation.
• Consumer Debt and Unsustainable Lifestyles: At the heart of this economic fragility is the mountain of consumer debt that has accumulated over the years. Credit cards, mortgages, student loans, and other forms of personal debt have allowed consumers to maintain lifestyles beyond their means. This debt-fuelled consumption has propped up corporate profits and economic growth, but it is a ticking time bomb. When consumers can no longer service their debts, the system will begin to unravel.

A Ponzi Scheme Economy:
At its core, the Western economic system now resembles a giant Ponzi scheme—one where new debt is constantly required to pay off existing debt, and where the illusion of growth is maintained by constantly expanding borrowing. But like all Ponzi schemes, this system will eventually collapse under the weight of its own unsustainable promises.

• Debt-Driven Consumption: The Western economy has become addicted to debt. Consumer spending, which accounts for the bulk of economic activity in countries like the U.S. and the UK, is largely fuelled by borrowed money. When this spending slows down or stops, the entire system grinds to a halt.
• The Fragility of Growth: The growth that Western economies have experienced over the past few decades has been largely illusory. It has been driven by cheap credit, speculative investments, and overleveraging, rather than by genuine innovation or productivity gains. This fragile foundation is destined to collapse when the next financial crisis hits.

A GLIMMER OF HOPE:

Grassroots Economic Trade Solutions and Financial Literacy:
Despite the precariousness of the current economic system, there is a glimmer of hope. The solutions to this crisis are not coming from the top down, but from the ground up with Grassroots Economic Trade Solutions led by local businesses and local consumers. These movements are based on a basic understanding of monetary theory and the vital role money plays in their local economy—especially how and where it is spent.

• Consumer-Led Economic Recovery: The real change is happening from the ground up. Consumers and small businesses are realizing that they have the power to rebuild local economies by choosing where to spend their money. By bypassing corporate giants and supporting local businesses, communities are taking control of their own economic futures.
• Understanding Money's Role: At the heart of these grassroots solutions is a renewed understanding of how money works in an economy. By educating consumers about understanding the importance of the velocity of local money—how money spent locally circulates within the community—people are starting to grasp the profound impact their spending choices can have.
• Building Resilience Through Local Spending: Local businesses and consumers are realizing that sustainable, long-term growth comes from reinvesting money in the community. The more money that stays local, the more resilient the economy becomes. This creates a virtuous cycle of economic growth, job creation, and community support.
• In-Country Value (ICV): is a strategic initiative aimed at maximizing the economic benefits of local content by encouraging businesses to source goods, services, and labour within the country. The goal of ICV is to strengthen domestic industries, create job opportunities, and retain wealth within the local economy. By prioritizing local suppliers and manufacturers, ICV helps reduce dependence on imports, fosters innovation, and enhances the competitiveness of local businesses. It also ensures that foreign companies operating in the country contribute to the development of the national economy, supporting long-term sustainable growth.

BUY LOCAL CAMPAIGNS:

The Solution to Decentralizing Economies:
The rise of Buy Local campaigns offers a beacon of hope amid the devastation caused by corporate domination. These grassroots movements aim to decentralize economic power by reconnecting consumers with local producers, cutting out the parasitic corporate middlemen, and keeping wealth within communities. Buy Local programs like Getslocal’s  GET Trade, GETS Trade, City Gift Cards, and ICV programs provide practical, community-based solutions to rebuild local economies.

The Power of Buy Local Campaigns:

• Decentralizing Markets: Buy Local campaigns help break the stranglehold of corporate giants by enabling consumers to purchase directly from local producers. By cutting out middlemen, these campaigns keep wealth circulating within communities, creating a more sustainable and resilient local economy.
• Building Long-Term Relationships: These campaigns foster direct, meaningful relationships between consumers and local businesses, creating loyalty and trust. When people buy from their local butcher, farmer, or artisan, they are investing in the long-term health of their community.
• Circulating Money Locally: One of the most critical aspects of Buy Local campaigns is the velocity of the local pound—the idea that money spent locally stays in the community, circulating through other local businesses, creating jobs, and fostering economic growth. Unlike the corporate giants that drain wealth out of communities, local businesses reinvest their earnings locally, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem of prosperity.

Reclaiming Our Economies Starts from the Ground Up

Corporate giants may have dominated Western economies for decades, but the power to rebuild lies in the hands of consumers and local businesses. Buy Local campaigns and Grassroots Economic Trade Solutions are lighting the way forward, offering a path to decentralized, community-driven economies where wealth stays local, relationships thrive, and the destructive cycle of corporate greed is broken.

The responsibility doesn’t just rest with governments or corporations—it rests with all of us. By understanding the true impact of our spending choices and recognizing the role we’ve played in supporting corporate dominance, we can begin to reverse the damage and rebuild local economies from the ground up. The Ouroboros can be stopped before it consumes us entirely—but it requires a collective effort, one where consumers, businesses, and communities take back control of their economic destinies.

Follow Getslocal to learn more about how you can support local businesses, strengthen your community, and become part of a grassroots movement that is reclaiming the future. Together, we can turn the tide and create an economy that works for everyone, not just the corporate elite.