This article gives an overview of business and industry. Keep in mind this is going to have an American bias, so expect most of the stuff to be from the United States.
Retail[]
Retailing in the United States has been growing for several years, stopping at the Great Recession in 2008 to 2013, and then growing at extremely fast levels since the beginning of Phil Scott's presidency, which saw the American economy grow at its fastest level in history. Since then, a huge number of retailers have benefited from this.
Many retail outlets have grown hugely in many years, with Sears being the largest retail company since the 1970s. Many other stores offer a large number of locations, most of which are in urban areas. Walmart remains a regional chain, operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Kmart and JCPenney keep growing and growing, along with other retailers. Blockbuster still survives but faces increased competition from other retailers.
Online shopping remains a mostly niche trend, with only 12% of all retail sales in the United States coming from online stores. In fact, Amazon remains an online bookstore, and according to economists, the company's growth isn't going to grow anytime soon. At first, eBay also sees some growth, but sales have been declining since the early 2010s due to increased competition.
Very few "low-cost" stores exist in the United States, as the market there is considered to be low. It was common in the 1980s, but most retailers ditched the idea of "low cost" stores by the 1990s.
Airlines[]
Over 200 airlines operate in the United States. As with retail stores, very few "low-cost" airlines exist, as the market for them isn't big. Also, along with retail stores, no airline makes up a majority of sales, although most are booming. Because of the difference in population in most areas (ex. Las Vegas and Miami not being one of the 100 biggest cities in the United States), different hubs are used. For example, United Airlines has a hub in Richmond, Virginia due to its size.
The airline experience has been quite expensive until the 2000s. In 2012, for the first time ever, airline profits exceeded 1 billion dollars, and since then they have continued to grow.
Many airlines offer in-flight service, as we saw in our timeline. Most airlines offer meal service, a trend that has been growing since the 2010s. Most of them offer restaurant quality food that is cooked to order. In addition, in-flight entertainment has expanded since the 2000s. While some airlines outside of the United States allow customers to choose a movie or TV show, most airlines offer flight back screens with programming chosen by the airline crew. As of 2005, the American Ratings Board requires that airlines use their ratings or the TV Parental Guidelines for ratings. This was done after many airlines had introduced their own movie ratings systems, which caused legal issues within the United States.
The airline market in the United States has seen considerable growth since the economy recovered in 2013, under Phil Scott's leadership.
Entertainment[]
Since 1983, 50 companies have dominated the media landscape of the United States. While certain attempts, such as Warner Communications being bought by AT & T, have happened, the United States government prohibits any large accusations of companies, therefore making AT & T's purchase illegal. The company quickly ran into legal trouble, but by 2017, it had been cleared of all charges.
Similar attempts have happened. NBC attempted to gain control of MCA, the parent company of Universal, but it backfired after a court found the act would break federal law.
In addition to motion pictures, television studios, and record labels, video game developers have a large impact on American entertainment. For example, Atari, the largest video game company in the world, has been a prime example of how American companies have dominated the video game landscape. Nintendo, a former Japanese company, moved to the United States along with several other companies in the 1970s after the Japanese government became more hostile to the west and soon isolated itself.
Restaurants[]
Dominated by both fast food and traditional sit-down restaurants, restaurants have been a huge money maker in the United States. In fact, many chains that are defunct in OTL still exist.
As with most businesses, most major restaurants, especially chain locations, tend to be in urban areas. There are numerous restaurants in rural areas, but about 75% of rural residents in the United States have access to restaurants. Also, certain trends from the late 2010s and early 2020s, such as plant-based foods (like those from meat) aren't very big and have bombed in the United States. For example, in 2016, Burger King, not as powerful as McDonald's but still decently profitable with 2,000 restaurants, all of which are in the US, introduced the Impossible Whopper, a Whopper (signature burger of Burger King) made of plants. The food bombed, and sales were extremely poor. In January of 2017, the item was discontinued as a result of poor sales.
"Healthy" foods (as critics point out) are hard to find in restaurants, and over 1 million Americans have pledged to introduce healthy food options, especially on kids' menus, where fast food companies use unhealthy foods. Despite this, no restaurants have pledged to offer healthy food options. However, because obesity is a lesser concern than in our timeline, it will probably never happen.
Toys are not offered in kids' meals as part of a law passed in 1989 as a measure to prevent obesity.