Small grocers are hurting. My buying habits don't help

EVERY WEEK, I GO ONTO WALMART'S WEBSITE AND order a bunch of groceries to be delivered to my house, and then feel a little bit guilty.

- ALANA SEMUELS

By shopping at Walmart, I am likely contributing to the demise of the independently-owned grocery store, which is disappearing across the country. But the prices make the choice easy. On a recent day, a 42-oz. tub of Quaker Oats was $9.99 at Key Foods and $5.68 at Walmart; a 500-ml bottle of California Olive Ranch olive oil was $14.49 vs. $8.37; and Rao's homemade tomato sauce was $9.99 vs. $6.88. These prices are one major reason Walmart captures 1 in 4 grocery dollars in America.

That may not last. These days, the U.S. government appears ready to listen to the argument that Walmart and other big chains including Dollar General, which is expanding at a rapid clip across the country, come by those prices unfairly because of their market power. There's a law on the books-1936's Robinson-Patman Act-that essentially says suppliers in any industry can't give lower prices and special deals to big chain stores if it costs the same to serve them as other stores. The law also says retailers can't bully suppliers into giving those discounts. But because Walmart and dollar stores are so huge, representing a big part of a supplier's business, they're able to extract deals and low prices from suppliers, according to Small Business Rising and the Main Street Competition Coalition, two groups of independent business owners making their case in congressional hearings and television ads. It's not just groceries; independent pharmacies, bookstores, auto-parts stores, and other types of retailers are also struggling on an uneven playing field, they say.