The Decline of Wholesalers and the Era of Retail-Determined Pricing

Metropolitan Creation

Part II
Blood, Land, and Professional Ties


Chapter 11

The Decline of Wholesalers and the Era of Retail-Determined Pricing

The city did not suddenly
turn cold one day

When walking through a modern metropolitan city, there are moments when you feel a sense of 'vague coldness.'

It is not that there are no people, nor have all the shops disappeared.

However, the temperature of life is thin.

Only the feeling that the city is like a place to be, yet not a place to belong, remains.

This coldness is
not a change that happened yesterday or today.

It is the result of over half a century of accumulation, continuing from the Showa, Heisei, and Reiwa eras, which quietly drained the latent heat (Π) of the city.

At the center of this degeneration was neither technological innovation nor population decline.

It was the decline of wholesalers and price determination by retailers.

These two factors fundamentally rewrote the living sphere of the city.

And ironically, although wholesalers were thought to be symbols of capitalism, only after they disappeared did we realize that they were, in fact, the 'invisible hand' itself.

What happened in the city
where wholesalers disappeared?

From the postwar period through the Showa era, there was almost always a wholesaler in every shopping district.

Middlemen, produce markets, fish markets, and liquor wholesalers.

They quietly fulfilled the roles of logistics hubs, consultants for shop procurement, and buffers for regional prices.

Sometimes they stood quietly at life's turning points, offering marriage advice or acting as matchmakers.

However, as large shopping centers became widespread in the Heisei era, the retail industry began to purchase directly from manufacturers and production areas.

A world was born where buyers decided prices before deciding on products, without going through wholesalers.

Wholesalers declined rapidly, and it became almost impossible for local shops to decide their own procurement prices.

No matter how much effort the shop owner put in, the purchase price was already decided somewhere else.

Such a reality spread.

Then, the city began to change quietly.

・Shop profits became thin
・Freedom of procurement disappeared
・Competitiveness was lost
・Business closures increased
・Daily life flow was absorbed by large stores
・The city's latent heat evaporated

None of this became
prominent news.

However, quietly and surely, the layers of the city were peeled away.

Socialism by private enterprise
born at the end of capitalism

Socialism is a system where the state centrally manages the supply chain.

・Production
・Distribution
・Price
・Sales
・Supply volume

A planned economy is one where
the center decides these.

However, what happened in Japan was not a state-led plan.

Large capital (retailers) seized the entire entrance to the supply chain.

That structure is
surprisingly socialistic.

Producers adjust production volume
to match retailers.

Farmers and fishermen also
effectively operate based on retail order sheets.

Logistics are incorporated into retail-designated networks.

Retailers present prices to manufacturers by calculating backward from profit margins.

Consumers seem to have choices, but in reality, they are just choosing from a polarized group of products.

In other words, the market was not a free market, but a planned economy by private enterprises.

This is socialism itself.

The only difference is that it is controlled by large capital, not the state.

And this structure is the biggest factor that quietly thinned out the city's living sphere.

The disappearance of wholesalers
The loss of the layer supporting latent heat

Wholesalers were not just middlemen.

・Price buffers
・Risk diversification
・Inventory cushions
・Consultants
・Sources of procurement freedom
・The foundation of urban diversity

All of these supported the city's latent heat (Π) as a 'layer.'

The disappearance of wholesalers means that the very layer of temperature has vanished from the city.

It is not that large stores are bad.
It is not that e-commerce is bad.

It is just that
the layers became too thin.

And as the layers became thin, most of the city's fluctuations (child-rearing, nursing care, illness, anxiety) began to concentrate on the system.

This also becomes
the starting point for the professionalization of support.

It is a structure where the system takes over the burden
that the city cannot absorb.

And then, a strange reversal occurs.

The market economy has become socialized, while social security such as welfare and medical care has been deregulated, allowing private companies to enter and be exposed to capitalistic competition.

Consumer mindset has flowed into social security.

Toward a future of returning price freedom to the city

Shopping districts are not about nostalgia.

Wholesalers are not just good old culture either.

Both were important layers that supported the city's latent heat (Π).

I do not wish to return to the Showa era.

Just returning prices to the region.
That is returning life to the region.
It will be the first step to regaining latent heat.

That is what I feel.

When a city has diverse procurement routes, diverse prices are born, and diverse choices return, the city will quietly begin to warm up.

It is a path to reduce the burden on the system, stop the runaway professionalization of support, and return the body temperature of life to the city.

The irony that
wholesalers were the invisible hand

With the decline of wholesalers, we learned.

That they were, in fact,
'the invisible hand.'

Adam Smith said, 'If a free market works, the invisible hand optimizes the whole.'

But modern Japan is the opposite.

When the invisible hand disappeared, the market suddenly turned into a rigid planned economy.

Only then did we realize that the existence of wholesalers, middlemen, and markets was the foundation of a free market.

The more convenient it becomes,
the thinner the city's latent heat becomes.

It seems like there are choices,
but the structure is highly centralized.

That irony
lies quietly in the city of the Reiwa era.

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