And this assumes that municipally owned stores will face the same cost structure as their private competitors, which is not the case. There’s simply no way four stores, or even a nationwide chain of 50 locations, can match the buying power of giants like Walmart and Costco, which buy in bulk to feed their network of locations across the country and around the world, and have spent decades finding suppliers for their private labels, which often cost significantly less than brand name products.
