You have nothing to lose but your chain stores. Actually, you can probably keep them. Buy them out and run them ourselves, even. Woe to those who would underestimate the will of the consumer united. ARE YOU A CONSUMER? THEN THIS IS ABOUT YOU!

Some of you will recognize a reference to Karl Marx in the slightly cliché title of this article. That’s a subject a lot of people have strong feelings about – so right out the gate I want to start by clearly stating that this is a very pro free-market article. Likewise, it’s not about talking to the manager. Nor boycotts, although they are also a great way of consumers uniting.

No, this is about us consumers taking over the whole show. The marketed-to becoming the marketers. A customer-d’état, consumerism as a cause not a social trend, we the shoppers running things.

Consumers are an interest group like any other, aren’t we? Like vegetarians, the coal industry, Australian-Americans, any of them. And as a group we are actually very powerful. Perhaps we’re one of the most powerful groups in society. There’s certainly a lot of us, almost 400 million in North America alone. And in North America we must at least count double.

We don’t see our power, because it’s so spread out. Each individual consumer is weak (some exceptions!), but as a whole we are mighty. If you look closely, the tell-tale signs of our power are all around us. What’s the old adage, the customer is always right? If someone is always right, it’s probably because they are powerful, not because of any inherent wisdom.