I don't ascribe to all of your points, Tom, but I do agree with your description of local businesses and assessment of different business strengths and weaknesses. What is true in what you said, is that any business cannot do unlimited abuse, raise prices forever, and deliver the worst quality - and stay in business. As to your assessment of the two retail giants - I think Amazon might absorb WalMart - it's not that I don't think WalMart is a strong company, but rather, they might have too much family control to make the best choices for themselves vs. Amazon's more diverse and strong management structure and methods. I thought this article was a pretty weak, confused pastiche myself; and - this guy has locked down contracts because he's good at something I don't care to waste my time at. Please don't judge all sci fi writers by this cover. Some of us are hard workers and don't put out things we haven't looked into at length and in depth.