51%

That's the percentage of the local grocery market that Walmart occupies.

And that's a lot.

Not that those groceries would have been bought at local grocery stores anyhow.  The town has one, but it's a specialty store.

As late as at least the 1960s there were quite a few local grocery stores left in the county, although even then the market was dominated by national grocers.  By the 1980s the number had dwindled down to three.  Now there's only one left and its not a general grocer.  No real local grocery stores are left.

Still, this is a disturbing, if understandable, trend. The grocery stores that do exist here are all part of national chains, so what claim do they have, other than that they are specialty grocery stores, over Walmart or Sam's Club?  Not much other than that, although that is definitely something.

To date, Americans seem to be largely comfortable, at the grocery isle level anyhow, with this trend. Walmarts drive prices down which benefits consumers. They also drive wages down and wipe out local retailers, which doesn't, as it converts middle class occupations into low paying jobs.  The connection between the two seems, however, oddly lost on most people.

And regionally, a fact of the matter is that with a highly transient population, loyalty to local retailers is of course going to be largely absent, for the most part.

This trend isn't unique to grocery stores, we'd note.  It's simply that its expressed here in a way that directly and obviously impacts everyone. . . the dinner table.  It's not a trend that is inevitable, it's one that we simply allow, without thinking much about it, and in everything.