Martin, be careful of labelling those who you do not know, in circumstances you do not know, of spouting bullshit. Some may think you are just looking in the mirror too much.

I have been in the town of Maleny (Australia) and the surrounding countryside over the past thirty odd years. Everything the nice lady has personally said about the local situation is true. I do agree with her comments about Australian Big Retail Business destroying small localities. I have seen it happen personally many times, including the local Fruit & Veg driven out of Business in local Shopping Centres (Malls for the US - in Aus malls are open spaces BETWEEN shops), by price undercutting and then prices being put up when the competition has closed. At the same time, farmers are being paid less and retail prices are rising - the retail margins rising as profits rise.

You (and the person who revived this thread) are in a different country, so your personal comments may have nothing to do with the local situation.

Still waiting for some intelligent (non-gibbering!) contributions from you to the "Writing Challenge Threads".

Robin