And that's exactly the way MS went that big: everyone is complaining, but still buying their stuff. It's not even that their software is bad at all, it's just that they don't do any real support, because they know everybody will continue buying their products. It takes a lot of manpower to overthrow a company like that, aside from the coordination it needs. Just like MS, there are almost no alternatives to the megastores left, even here in Germany
I can't think of any mom'n'pop grocery store in my vicinity, which includes my 20.000 pop. hometown and a 100k city nearby. So, you don't really have a choice other than continue shoving your bucks down that corporate throat...
It was different over here until the early 80's, when prices for all and everything were being set by a government agency. Everyone had to sell a certain item for the same price, which was calculated a way that the seller always made a certain profit. So, there was no danger to the m'n'p stores coming from the supermarkets. They could only lure the customers with more choice, not lower prices.
I don't know if that's the right thing to do either, but it made life a lot easier for small businesses.