This is an excellent example of how regulations can hurt consumers (who would benefit from lower prices and competition) but benefit established businesses who use the government to ward off competition.
Elsewhere, the article offers some insight into how it isn’t only the poor who benefit from food stamp programs, but also billionaires who operate supermarkets in neighborhoods with a lot of poor people. The wire service quotes one consultant who says Save Mart could be worth as much as $2.3 billion, “depending on …if the state can enroll more eligible participants in the CalFresh food stamp program.”
via How Zoning Laws Help a Supermarket Billionaire :: The Future of Capitalism.