That particular synopsis in post 16 Mike is actually right on the money.
The so called 'mom and pop' stores however will continue to innovate and thrive as they have done consistently over the years, that trade is a fairly small family with many members of it having successful business running for decades through all manner of boom and bust conditions, it just means less likelyhood of Fender products being the brand they lead with.
Independents will always survive simply because, through much practice, they are good at side-stepping big firms that attempt to strong-arm them and historically often introduce newer and more appealing as well as more profitable products to market. There are plenty of people too that over spend on the shiny advertising and slick marketing and are prepared to let sell-off stuff at a highly-reduced rate because having such a cavalier attitude to buying means they often get themselves in the kind of trouble that such emergency measures are required. Local stores are full of that stuff, plenty of it with Fender badges on too.
Nobody in the music industry, including Fender, is big enough to be the be all and end all to front line traders who have instincts borne out of pure survival and detailed knowledge of the local circumstance. Fortunately the distributors that service these small traders know this even if some big manufacturers constantly fail to recognize it. Some of these small traders have been around at least as long as Fender have and have a far less chequered history of profitability over that time too.