It was said that industrial pioneer Henry Ford understood a fundamental economic principle: You could make the greatest product but fail if nobody can buy it.

Ford knew enough to pay his employees a good wage, and to make his automobiles affordable for his workers. To this day, Ford employees get a generous discount to encourage their purchases. A less-known fact is that Ford assembly plants reserve the best parking spaces for employees and visitors who drive a Ford.

Retail genius Sam Walton, who founded the Walmart chain in 1962, was almost fanatical about stocking American-made products in his stores. Walton passed away in 1992, and the “buy American” concept passed with him. Arkansas-based Walmart is one of the world’s largest customers of Chinese goods. Walmart’s Chinese imports amounted to at least $49 billion in 2013, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research group that has long targeted Walmart’s policies.

It also displaced an estimated 400,000 American jobs in 2013, according to the same study.

Add to that number the employees of Friedman’s Freshmarkets in Butler County. who will be unemployed when Harold Friedman Inc. closes its three remaining stores next week, after operating in the county for 117 years.

In the case of Friedman’s the effect was indirect. Its longtime wholesaler, AWI, declared bankruptcy, forcing the grocer to find another supplier. “We made a bad decision and picked the wrong ‘partner’,” Friedman’s president and CEO Carol Bitter said, adding, “they dragged out solutions to our problems for the last six months and we now believe that they were not negotiating in good faith.”

The closing of Friedman’s is the most immediate of sad developments when a majority of consumers flock to bargain stores in favor of smaller local merchants.

Evolution is ugly business sometimes. And it never ends.

Witness the rise of direct-order companies like Amazon, which reported 35 percent growth in sales for the third quarter of 2017 alone. Amazon’s purchase of the Whole Foods grocery chain last year indicates even more revolutionary changes are intended. The trend, they tell us, is to order the groceries online and have them delivered to your door.

That’s nice, but for many it’s not an option. It’s a frustrating setback to see grocery stores closing in communities where these stores have played a vital role. It makes the new socio-economic buzzphrase “food desert” a stark reality for some of us — particularly those who can’t afford transportation. And if you have to walk to buy groceries, it’s likely you can’t afford to order them for delivery to your door.

Carol Bitter emphasized that it’s been an honor serving the community.

“It has been a pleasure serving you and your families over our 117-year history through four generations of Freidmans family ownership and management that collectively has hundreds of years of history with Friedmans.”

The sentiment is mutual.