that's not the issue -- it's much much more expensive to build a store on undeveloped land, even if it weren't restricted, than remodel an existing structure
are we reading the same article? It talks about lawsuits aimed to stop grocery store construction as well.
>In Mammoth Lakes, Vons is the main supermarket, and there are suspicions they have been working to limit the construction and growth of a competitor, Grocery Outlet, through environmental claims. In 2017, a group, Sustainable Mammoth Lakes, filed to prevent the construction of a small Grocery Outlet occupying slightly more than one acre, with just 49 parking spots, on a spot that had already had commercial building and was close to a highway.
My point is that they go hand in hand. I started my original statement with the word AND.
If you have a protracted legal battle for a new construction, intense zoning regulation, and laws against new development, then of course you will have all kinds of games played to control the existing supply.
