There was a time early in the decade when Detroit had hopes of a rebound. But they are finding it increasingly tough to buy groceries or get a cup of fresh-roast coffee as the 11th largest U.S. city struggles with the recession and the auto-industry crisis.

No national grocery chain operates a store in Detroit.

The city's 22.8% unemployment rate is among the highest in the U.S.; 30% of residents are on food stamps.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/107206/retailers-head-for-e...

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Even knowing how dependence on big business has been such a failure, Detroit, like too many cities still has not learned its lesson. Cities will place all sorts of road blocks in place to make business difficult for ma and pa businesses. At the same time they wine and dine and do a tax break dance to seduce some large, crooked, shit eating business to locate in their city.

Cities have got to start doing more to help small businesses. Why in the fuck complain about the lack of a chain grocery store. Help locals to set up a Farmer's market to help wholesale groceries to small independent grocery shops across Detroit. Not having a chain grocery store sucking money out of the local economy is a good thing. A good wholesale center for small businesses will bring business into the city from the burbs.

I wish cities would help set up small shops with high tech equipment that people could rent time on to mfg. products.

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What Geithner and Obama is doing is a disaster in the making. Economic centralism does NOT work. More has got to be done to help small businesses operate. The future of planet earth is not with some damned mafia owned, giant, one world government corporation. It is with people being able to make a decent living working for businesses with fewer than 20 employees. That is the future.

I am not saying there is not a role for a limited number of large corporations. I am saying that is the exception and not the rule; and even then if they are not willing to work with and serve smaller businesses then they will fail.

You take both Amazon and Ebay. They are examples of large corporations on the internet. Ebay obviously works with smaller businesses. Perhaps not quite as obvious, Amazon also has a history of being friendly to smaller online businesses. In the early days Microsoft was friendly toward small businesses, software developers though at times Microsoft has seemed to have a love / hate relationship with the small business community. Perhaps Google is the best example of what a business can do if they do not alienate small businesses. They made entry into their ad network as simple and as friendly as possible for everyone.

GM and Chrysler have both began their new incarnations by kicking their small business dealerships in the teeth. Many of those said dealerships that got booted were in fact some of their best performers. So you know how well kicking these small business people in the teeth is going to work for them. It isn't!!!

One reason the Chinese were able to take control of certain markets is that they had wholesalers who would work with small retailers, even at the flea market level, where as American wholesalers spend a fortune to make sales to big retailers but then throw away potential small retailer markets.

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If you live your life only shopping at corporate retailers you are missing out on a lot. Take the time to stop at some of the small retailers where you live or in different areas while you are on vacation.