In the new Broadway-bound musical Hands on a Hardbody, ten East Texans seek to reverse their hard luck lives in a competition to win a Nissan truck. In one song, Used To Be, the contestants lament the loss of independent stores across Texas. “How will we know when we’re home,” the cast croons, “in a land filled with Walmarts and Walgreens and Wendy’s?” The musical captures much of what is hurting in America, the retail landscape being but one example. Office Depot, Staples and Office Max for example displaced local office supply stores while Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Target and other national chains displaced locally owned pharmacies. National retailers then pressured manufacturers for cost reductions, creating ruthless competition that’s driven every last penny and non-essential US job out of consumer goods companies’ cost structures. The change from local to national had advantages. A developer…