Let’s face reality, one of capitalism’s fundamental characteristics is its inexorable drive for accumulation leading to the expansion of its businesses and expansion generally. One of the effects of that expansion is the consumption of smaller businesses or bankrupting them out of existence. Development in Guyana, slow though it was, saw the slow strangulation of cake shops and groceries. Cake shops have completely disappeared in developed areas. Groceries are being replaced by supermarkets. Small supermarkets are now giving way to larger supermarkets. While groceries and general stores still exist outside the city, and some have survived by selling alcohol, and their survival may persist for some time yet, the writing is on the wall. Unless they further innovate by converting themselves into modern, small, supermarkets, for their small communities with a wider range of product to meet the growing demands of their customers, they are not going to survive. The development of the oil economy has, and will continue, to speed up this process.
