Mr. Bester, when we look at those drivers and the mom-and-pop operations we see in communities, or that we used to see in communities, whether it's a corner store, hardware store, grocery store or furniture store, the lack of buying power that some of the smaller operations have creates an inability to have the margin grow, to have more employees, to be competitive and to stay alive and be around, quite frankly.
That's what we're seeing in communities now. The bigger players, like Walmart, have the buying power to make the margin because of the volumes they're purchasing at any given time for any given product. Second to that, they're still making the margin they expect, whereas the smaller operations, the ones that people used to have the choice to shop at, are not. Their margins shrink. They have to second-guess whether they'll be around tomorrow.
Again, how do you see that being looked after in any legislation we're contemplating right now?