What is happening to small businesses ? I was asking myself this question after coming back home to Puerto Rico from college in Pennsylvania. I was surprised about how many of the small businesses I grew up with had closed down during the year I was gone, and how the stores we have now at home are the same ones in Pennsylvania and everywhere else- Walmart, Wendy's, KFC, Subway, etc. I had never thought about it before, but it stroke me now after being gone away for sometime. What happened to small businesses ? What will happen to communities we grew up in when the small businesses are gone forever ? Will there be a day when we will all be customers of multinationals ? What will this mean for diversity of cultures in the world ? What will happen to people's personalities living in a world where everything , including economic activity, is so much alike, so controlled by invisible forces. "Small is beautiful" as Schumacher said some time ago. Buy local !