Small business organizations are sending a strong message to their much larger counterparts: We demand respect and fair treatment.
In a May 14 news release, the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and the National Grocers Association (NGA) announced they’d joined the new Main Street Competition Coalition at a kick-off event in Washington, D.C.
The event, the NCPA said, was held “to rally small business organizations across the spectrum against big corporations that use their market dominance to squeeze out smaller competitors.”
“NCPA and NGA are founding investors in the project,” the announcement added. “Both groups represent thousands of Main Street businesses that are often forced to defend themselves against the unfair practices of vertically integrated corporate giants. The Main Street Competition Coalition is a nonpartisan coalition seeking to restore competitive markets across the economy.”
Chris Jones is the executive director of the new Main Street Competition Coalition.
“Main Street businesses are done being pushed around,” Jones said. “Small business is the backbone of the economy and the heart of the American dream. Unfortunately, the worst actors often have the loudest voice in Washington, D.C., and the resources to steamroll small businesses in court. That changes today.”
NCPA noted it “has battled huge insurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers, and their affiliated corporate pharmacies for decades. Conglomerates like CVS Health/Aetna, Cigna/Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth/OptumRx — all among the largest corporations in the world — use their size to steer patients and manipulate markets to their advantage.”
“NCPA spends most of its time fighting monopolistic corporations in the health care sector,” said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey. “And today, I would like you to know why broadening that fight across the economy is important to our members and small businesses everywhere, and why we are proud to partner with the National Grocers Association to launch the Main Street Competition Coalition.
“What we’re all up against is a familiar pattern: consolidation that concentrates decision-making far away from the communities affected; vertical integration that turns gatekeepers into competitors; and dominant firms that can dictate terms across a supply chain. When a handful of powerful players can pick winners and losers, the market stops being a market, and it most certainly isn’t free.”
Members of the Main Street Competition Coalition include the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, the American Booksellers Association, American Beverage Licensees, Colorado-Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association, Independent Restaurant Coalition, Midwest Independent Retailers Association, Organic Farmers Association, United States Cattlemen’s Association, and Western Growers.
