We may tend to believe that large businesses, in particular, are just naturally successful and profitable. But that couldn't be further from the reality. Businesses of all sizes must compete in an often harsh economic environment.
Some succeed. Some fail. And some survive by downsizing and cutting less profitable operations.
Chattanooga is seeing that reality as the long-familiar Food Lion grocery chain has announced it will close 14 of its stores in our area of Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia - though it will keep other stores in the area open.
The Salisbury, N.C.-based chain has been part of the Chattanooga-area grocery picture since 1987. It will now be a smaller player here, and hundreds of employees in the region will lose their jobs in a time when other jobs may be hard to find.
A total of 113 Food Lion stores across the South are slated to close. It's some consolation that there have been local openings of stores in other chains in recent years.
The free market ebbs and flows. Companies rise, fall and struggle. But free enterprise is still the best economic system available.