Amazon Defeats Local Tyrannies

Twenty-five years ago, Al Norman led an effort to prevent Walmart from building a store in Greenfield, Massachusetts. In the years since, he has helped keep big-box stores out of dozens of small towns across the country. Norman and his fellow activists claim that their efforts are aimed at helping small, independent retailers. National chains, they argue, hurt local economies by driving local retailers out of business. But the “buy local” activists are now facing a new challenge–Amazon and other online retailers.

Before Amazon changed the way we shop, businesses often had to navigate a laborious and expensive permitting process to build a new store. Local activists like Norman would often put pressure on government officials to use land-use regulations to deny the necessary permits. In short, government would simply make it illegal to build a new store.

But online retailers don’t need to grovel at the feet of government officials begging for permission to open a store. The Internet allows them to “build” a store in nearly every home and office in the country. In an article in The Atlantic, Norman identified the heart of the matter:

It’s one thing for me to try and fight over land use in the town I live in, or in somebody else’s town. But e-shopping creates a real problem for activists, because on some level, shopping online is a choice people make, and it’s hard to intrude yourself in that.

In preventing national chains from building stores, Norman had no problem preventing both retailers and consumers from making choices. The retailers were denied the freedom to choose where to operate, and consumers were denied the freedom to choose where to shop.

The right to property is about the freedom to choose. Property rights protect our freedom to create, use, keep, trade and dispose of material values. Property rights protect our freedom to choose which values we will attain and use.

For twenty-five years, Al Norman has attacked property rights. He doesn’t want individuals to have a choice in where to shop. He has denied countless individuals the freedom to choose with the intention of “encouraging” them to shop locally. But Amazon and other online retailers have done an end run around Norman and his fellow local tyrants.

Denying individuals and businesses the freedom to choose is tyranny. Amazon has given consumers and businesses new choices, and in the process, Amazon has defeated local tyrannies.