Yes, it’s too bad about the decline of mom-and-pop shops in Japan. I was showing a friend around Kyoto yesterday and ran across a Starbucks in the middle of Gion! Truly depressing.

It looks like Wal-Mart’s heavy investment in Seiyu is finally starting to pay off.

WalMart is not coming into Japan directly, but has invested heavily in one of the Japanese biggies — can’t remember which one.

We = Sentient consumers who can recognize the inherent dangers in allowing megaconglomerate corporations to become more powerful than the average world government.

Of course, those who hold a stake in the success of such corporations (IE. stockholders, corporate management, etc) are likely to “give a shit” only about those consumer needs that are translatable to increased business.

In any case, it would be incredibly naive to assume that corporate decision-makers could be entrusted to act conscientiously on behalf of consumers. Otherwise, we wouldn’t find it necessary to invent these EU laws and these U.S. laws.

So here are my questions (as clearly as possible this time):

i. Do competition and antitrust laws sufficiently protect against ‘anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices’?

ii. Do we/Does someone ( I nominate Marco;-) have to become more active in this arena?

iii. Do consumers consider the total savings on purchases from megaconglomerate corporations in retail and grocery industries to be worth the added risks associated with reduced competition? or do consumers just not ‘consider’ the trade off at all?