One of things that has been happening under the radar in NA is an enormous amount of consolidation and mergers. While you might see a lot of different brand names for stores (and the products they carry), in reality there is actually not that much competition.
In Canada, for example, there are basically only 3 huge grocers (some internationals as well, like Costco and Walmart, but that's only recently). They have been caught price fixing bread, for an example, from 2001 to 2015. I imagine there is much more going on.
They aren't even under the radar. Grocery store chains have been merging aggressively over the last few years; many larger SMBs have gotten acquired by private equity and management groups; hell, the consolidation in tech consulting these last three years has been noticeable.
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One of things that has been happening under the radar in NA is an enormous amount of consolidation and mergers. While you might see a lot of different brand names for stores (and the products they carry), in reality there is actually not that much competition.
In Canada, for example, there are basically only 3 huge grocers (some internationals as well, like Costco and Walmart, but that's only recently). They have been caught price fixing bread, for an example, from 2001 to 2015. I imagine there is much more going on.
They aren't even under the radar. Grocery store chains have been merging aggressively over the last few years; many larger SMBs have gotten acquired by private equity and management groups; hell, the consolidation in tech consulting these last three years has been noticeable.