Do retail merchants own the sidewalks? Taxes were paid on the initial pack(s) of cigarettes incidentally so the local tax law wasn’t even being broken. Who are these merchants to say that a man doesn’t have a right to freely compete against them unless he does it from inside his own store? This is all very typical of course and it burns my a55. We all talk about free trade and how in favor of it we are but then when we see it actually happening in our country, we call in the enforcers to shut it down. I have been in Garner’s position before. I have had the police confiscate (steal) my legally owned property for selling it in a park. Were I the mayor of any large city, there would be free trade and there would be no shutting it down.
Your question singles out retail merchants.
Do the street vendors own the sidewalk?
Does any individual own the sidewalk?
The answer is that the public owns the sidewalk and sets the rules what can be done on the sidewalk thru their local government.
The merchants are the ones who rent store fronts based on the rules that have been set.
People don't individually own public sidewalks and it's not theirs to do whatever they please.