Who owns what you eat, watch, drive, and pay

Your Handlers

You don't pick from a market. You pick from a menu someone else assembled. The brands look like choices. The owners are five funds in a trench coat. Each entry below names the chain, the scope, and the primary source.

Updated 2026-05-07 · Every chain verified against company filings, court records, and primary news sources. Corrections welcome: tbs@thewake.news.

How big is this, in numbers? ~13.3 million U.S. workers · ~7% of U.S. GDP That's the headcount and economic share of companies backed by U.S. private-equity firms in 2024 — per the only macro-level dataset that exists for this question. Source: EY-AIC, "Economic contribution of the US private equity sector in 2024," March 2025. The American Investment Council is the PE industry trade group; treat the number as the industry's self-reported upper bound, not an independent estimate. There is no clean academic figure for "% of consumer spending that flows through a PE-owned company." This page exists because the names and chains are more concrete than the percentage.
Why this page exists. The Wake reads 22+ news sources every morning to strip spin. But spin isn't the only thing distorting what you see. Ownership is. When the same three asset managers sit on the boards of competing brands, "competition" is a costume. We log the chains so you can read the news with the cap table on the table.
Notably absent — coverage gaps we know about. The chains below are the ones we've verified to current primary sources. Major sectors we haven't gotten to yet but plan to add:
  • Big Tech — Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft. All five have Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street as top-3 institutional holders simultaneously.
  • Big banks — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi. Same pattern.
  • Pharma — Pfizer, J&J, AbbVie, Merck. Same pattern, plus deep PE in specialty pharma rollups.
  • Defense — Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics. Government-revenue-heavy; index-fund concentrated.
  • Telecom — AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile.
  • Big agriculture — Bayer/Monsanto, Corteva, ADM, Cargill (private), Bunge, Tyson/JBS meat oligopoly.
  • Dental rollups — Heartland, Aspen.
  • Dialysis duopoly — DaVita, Fresenius.
  • Education publishing — Pearson, Wiley, Houghton Mifflin; private student-loan servicers.
If you have a chain we should add, send it: tbs@thewake.news.

Food

The supermarket aisle looks like 200 choices. The reality is closer to 10 owners, plus three asset managers who sit on every board that matters. When the brand on the shelf and the brand "next to it" belong to the same parent, the price war is theatrical and the lobbying is shared.

PECerberus Capital→ Albertsons Companies → Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Shaw's, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, United Supermarkets, Kings, Balducci's Source: Albertsons 10-K, Feb 2025. Cerberus retains ~28-30% stake.

Scope

2,270 stores across 34 states + DC. 1,728 in-store pharmacies. 22 distribution centers. Banner-by-banner: ~918 Safeway, ~379 Albertsons, ~188 Jewel-Osco, plus Vons, Acme, Shaw's, Tom Thumb, Pavilions, Star Market, Carrs, Haggen, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Kings Food Markets, Balducci's.

Recent material change

The Kroger-Albertsons merger ($24.6B, announced 2022) was blocked December 10, 2024 by Judge Adrienne Nelson (U.S. District Court for Oregon, granting the FTC preliminary injunction), with a parallel Washington state ruling. Albertsons terminated the agreement Dec 11, 2024 and filed a breach-of-contract suit against Kroger in Delaware Court of Chancery seeking billions. Kroger filed counterclaims January 2025. Litigation ongoing.

Sources

Albertsons Companies "About ACI" / 10-K, February 22, 2025. FTC v. Kroger Co. preliminary injunction order, D. Or. Dec 10, 2024. Albertsons v. Kroger, Delaware Court of Chancery, filed Dec 11, 2024.

HoldingJAB Holding (Reimann family) → JDE Peet's, Keurig Dr Pepper, Panera Brands, Pret A Manger, Krispy Kreme Source: JAB Holdings 2024 annual report; jabholco.com portfolio.

Coffee & breakfast portfolio

  • JDE Peet's (Euronext: JDEP): Jacobs, Douwe Egberts, Peet's Coffee, Tassimo, L'OR, Stumptown, Intelligentsia
  • Keurig Dr Pepper (NASDAQ: KDP): minority/strategic stake
  • Panera Brands: Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee, Einstein Bros Bagels
  • Pret A Manger (private)
  • Krispy Kreme (NASDAQ: DNUT): partial public float since 2021
  • Espresso House (Northern Europe)

JAB has signaled possible JDE Peet's / coffee-portfolio IPO consolidation. The Reimann family also operates a separate veterinary holding (see Pet Care).

JAB Holdings 2024 annual report; jabholco.com portfolio page.

PERoark Capital → Inspire Brands + Subway + Driven Brands + FOCUS Brands + CKE Restaurants Source: Roark Capital portfolio (roarkcapital.com); QSR Magazine, April 30, 2024.

Restaurant portfolio (one of the largest in the U.S.)

  • Inspire Brands (private): Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic Drive-In, Jimmy John's, Dunkin', Baskin-Robbins, Rusty Taco
  • Subway: acquired April 2024 for ~$9.55B; FTC cleared. Held separately from Inspire.
  • FOCUS Brands: Cinnabon, Auntie Anne's, Jamba, Carvel, Schlotzsky's, McAlister's Deli, Moe's Southwest Grill
  • CKE Restaurants: Hardee's, Carl's Jr.
  • Massage Envy
  • Significant stake in The Wendy's Company

Auto-services side

See the Auto Services section below for Roark's Driven Brands rollup (Take 5, Meineke, Maaco, CARSTAR, etc.).

Roark Capital portfolio page; QSR Magazine "Subway Finalizes Sale to Roark Capital," April 30, 2024.

IndexBlackRock + Vanguard + State Street → top-3 institutional holders of every major listed food company simultaneously Source: SEC 13F filings, Q4 2025 cross-check.

The "Big Three" sit on every board that matters

The same three asset managers are top-3 institutional holders — usually combined to 18-22% of the float — at Kraft Heinz, General Mills, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Mondelez, Tyson, Hormel, ConAgra, and most of the rest of the listed CPG sector.

This isn't a private-equity story. It's an index-fund concentration story. Index funds don't choose to compete: they have to hold everything in the index. That means three firms collectively hold ~20% of every "competitor" simultaneously, and their proxy votes set the cost of corporate disagreement.

SEC Form 13F holdings (quarterly), cross-checked Q4 2025. See also: Lucian Bebchuk & Scott Hirst, "The Specter of the Giant Three," Boston University Law Review, 2019.

Public3G Capital → Restaurant Brands International + Skechers + AB InBev (legacy) + Hunter Douglas Source: CNBC, "3G Capital quietly exited its Kraft Heinz investment last year," April 9, 2024.

Note: 3G is no longer a Kraft Heinz owner.

3G fully exited Kraft Heinz in Q4 2023, selling its remaining 16.1% stake. Pop-finance commentary often still pairs 3G with Kraft Heinz; this is out of date.

Current portfolio

  • Restaurant Brands International (NYSE: QSR): Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs
  • Anheuser-Busch InBev: legacy stake
  • Hunter Douglas
  • Skechers: take-private acquisition announced May 2025, ~$9.42B

CNBC, April 9, 2024; Kraft Heinz 8-K filings; Skechers acquisition press release, May 2025.

Still to add: meat (JBS / Tyson / Cargill / National Beef oligopoly), grocery rollups beyond Albertsons, baby formula concentration (Abbott / Reckitt), DTC pet food rollups separate from the Pet Care section.

Pet care

Mars — yes, the candy company — quietly became the largest veterinary operator in the world while also owning most of the pet food brands you've heard of. JAB has a parallel veterinary stack. The vet who recommends a kibble brand may be employed by the company that makes the kibble.

PrivateMars, Incorporated (Mars family) → ~3,000 vet hospitals + most major pet food brands Source: Mars Petcare brand directory; Mars-VCA acquisition, closed Sept 2017.

Pet food brands

Pedigree, Whiskas, Royal Canin, Iams, Eukanuba, Nutro, Cesar, Sheba, Greenies, Temptations, Crave, plus Champion Petfoods (Acana, Orijen — acquired 2022).

Veterinary networks

  • Banfield Pet Hospital: ~1,000 locations (often inside PetSmart)
  • BluePearl: ~100+ specialty / emergency hospitals
  • VCA Animal Hospitals: ~1,000 locations (acquired Jan 2017 for $9.1B)
  • AniCura (Europe), Linnaeus (UK)

Combined: ~3,000+ veterinary hospitals globally. Mars now operates roughly 8% of the U.S. veterinary market.

Mars Petcare brand directory (mars.com/our-brands); Mars-VCA acquisition closed September 2017 (Mars press release / SEC filings on the take-private of VCA).

HoldingJAB Holding (separate vet portfolio) → NVA + Ethos Veterinary Health Source: AVMA news, "NVA splits into two businesses," 2023; JAB press release June 2019.

JAB acquired Compassion-First Pet Hospitals in February 2019 for $1.2B and National Veterinary Associates (NVA) in June 2019 from Ares Management. The two were merged operationally and split again in 2023:

  • Ethos Veterinary Health: ~145 specialty hospitals
  • NVA: ~1,400 general practice locations

Both are reportedly being prepared for separate IPOs.

AVMA news, "NVA splits into two businesses, may go public in next few years," 2023; JAB press release June 2019.

Healthcare

PE bought hospitals, ERs, dermatology chains, anesthesiology groups, dental practices, autism services, and dialysis clinics. Two of the largest deals ended in bankruptcy — the workers and patients absorbed most of the cost; the sponsor exited before the collapse in both cases. Meanwhile a single public company — UnitedHealth — quietly assembled an end-to-end stack covering insurance, doctors, pharmacy benefits, and medical claims processing. PE doesn't always own the hospital that bills you. Sometimes they own the company that sends the bill. Sometimes the same company also owns your doctor.

PublicUnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) → UnitedHealthcare (insurance) + Optum Health (doctors) + OptumRx (PBM) + Change Healthcare (claims clearinghouse) Source: UNH 2024 10-K; AMA / Healthcare Dive reporting on Optum physician footprint.

The vertical stack

  • UnitedHealthcare — the largest U.S. health insurer by membership; ~52M members across commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid plans.
  • Optum Health — employs or contracts with ~90,000 physicians, roughly 10% of U.S. doctors as of 2024 reporting. Largest U.S. employer of physicians.
  • OptumRx — one of the three largest U.S. pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), alongside CVS Caremark and Express Scripts.
  • Change Healthcare — medical claims clearinghouse acquired in 2022 for ~$13B. Processes a substantial share of U.S. medical claims; the February 2024 ransomware attack on Change disrupted claims processing across much of the U.S. healthcare system for weeks.

Why it matters

The same parent owns the insurer that decides whether a procedure is covered, the doctor who orders the procedure, the pharmacy benefit company that prices the drug, and the clearinghouse that processes the bill. Each part is publicly disclosed; the combination is the point.

Top institutional holders

Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, FMR (Fidelity), Wellington — the same Big Three / large-asset-manager pattern that recurs across every sector on this page.

Source: UNH 2024 Form 10-K (SEC); AMA Physician Practice Benchmark Survey 2024; Healthcare Dive coverage of the Change Healthcare cyberattack, February-April 2024; SEC 13F aggregations.

PE-exitedCerberus Capital · Steward Health Care (2010–2020) → Chapter 11 May 2024 (under later owner) Source: U.S. Bankruptcy Court S.D. Texas Case 24-90213; Senate HELP Committee report 2024.

Important sequencing

Cerberus owned Steward from 2010 to 2020. Per Senate HELP Committee reporting and Private Equity Stakeholder Project analysis, Cerberus reportedly extracted ~$1.3 billion over the ownership period before exiting in 2020.

The chain filed Chapter 11 on May 6, 2024 (S.D. Texas, Case No. 24-90213) under later owners with $9B+ in liabilities — the largest U.S. hospital bankruptcy in decades. Cerberus had already exited four years earlier.

Closures

  • Carney Hospital (Dorchester, MA) — closed August 2024
  • Nashoba Valley Medical Center (Ayer, MA) — closed August 2024
  • Florida and Ohio facilities that drew no bidders

Sales

Boston Medical Center bought St. Elizabeth's + Good Samaritan ($140M, Sept 30, 2024). Lawrence General affiliate bought Holy Family campuses (~$28M). Orlando Health bought a Rockledge FL facility (now closing).

Apollo angle

Apollo Global Management has its own connection: it provided a $920M loan to the Macquarie / Medical Properties Trust JV that holds Steward's hospital real estate. Per reporting, Apollo now controls eight former Steward Massachusetts hospitals via a successor entity.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court S.D. Texas Case No. 24-90213; Senate HELP Committee report 2024; Mass.gov "Steward Health Care transitions" portal.

PE-exitedKKR · Envision Healthcare (2018–2023) → Chapter 11 May 2023; KKR equity wiped Source: U.S. Bankruptcy Court S.D. Texas Case 23-90342.

KKR took Envision private in May 2018 in a $9.9 billion LBO. The company filed Chapter 11 on May 15, 2023 (S.D. Texas). The plan was confirmed October 11, 2023.

The company was split into Envision Physician Services and AMSURG. KKR's equity was wiped. The new owners are the pre-petition first-lien lenders — Centerbridge Partners, Angelo Gordon, Pimco, and others.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court S.D. Texas Case No. 23-90342; Healthcare Dive coverage November 2023.

Still to add: dental rollups (Heartland, Aspen), dialysis duopoly (DaVita, Fresenius), the UnitedHealth/Optum vertical stack.

Housing & single-family rentals

After 2008, institutional capital bought distressed single-family homes by the warehouse. They're now your landlord, your HOA's largest member, and the bidder you keep losing to. Your offer didn't lose to another family. It lost to a fund with cheaper capital and no contingencies.

REIT/PEBlackstone → Invitation Homes + Tricon Residential Source: Blackstone press release "Tricon Privatization," May 1, 2024.
  • Invitation Homes (NYSE: INVH) — ~84,700 SFR homes (Q3 2023 disclosure). Blackstone took INVH public in 2017; current direct stake minimal but Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) is a large indirect owner.
  • Tricon Residential — ~38,000 SFR homes. Taken private by Blackstone Real Estate Partners X + BREIT for $3.5B ($11.25/share). Closed May 1, 2024.

Blackstone press release, "Blackstone Real Estate Completes Privatization of Tricon," May 1, 2024.

PE/REITPretium Partners + American Homes 4 Rent → ~190,000 SFR units combined Source: Progress Residential ABS disclosures; AMH 2024 10-K.
  • Pretium Partners (Progress Residential) — 97,000+ SFR properties owned/managed (April 2024)
  • American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) — 90,000-100,000 SFR units (2025 10-Q)

Progress Residential ABS issuance disclosures (American Banker); AMH 2024 10-K.

Local news

The local paper that "always has been there" is, in most cases, now owned by a hedge fund whose model is to fire the newsroom and sell the building. When a fund owns the paper that would otherwise cover the fund, the paper writes about something else.

HedgeAlden Global Capital → MediaNews Group + Tribune Publishing → ~68 dailies + 300+ weeklies Source: NPR / Inquirer coverage of Tribune sale, May 2021.

Major dailies (current Alden ownership)

Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Denver Post, Mercury News (San Jose), Orange County Register, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), St. Paul Pioneer Press, Press-Telegram (Long Beach), Daily News (Los Angeles), Allentown Morning Call.

2nd-largest U.S. newspaper owner by circulation

After Gannett. Total: ~68 dailies + 300+ weeklies under MediaNews Group + Tribune.

Recent material change

The Baltimore Sun was sold January 15, 2024 to David D. Smith (Sinclair Broadcast Group executive chairman). It is no longer Alden-owned. Pop-commentary often still pairs them; this is out of date.

NPR coverage of Tribune sale, May 2021; Inquirer Feb 2021; Wikipedia Alden Global Capital (with citations).

Eyecare

Most "different" eyewear brands at the mall trace back to one Franco-Italian holding company. The frames, the licensed designer brands, and the store you buy them in are almost always the same owner. The "designer" frame and the "budget" frame at LensCrafters are made by the same company. So is LensCrafters.

PublicEssilorLuxottica (Del Vecchio family ~32% via Delfin) → Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol, LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, Target Optical, GrandVision Source: EssilorLuxottica 2024 Universal Registration Document.

Eyewear brands (owned)

Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol, Oliver Peoples, Vogue Eyewear, Costa Del Mar, Arnette, Native Eyewear.

Licensed brands (designer eyewear made by EssilorLuxottica)

Chanel, Prada, Burberry, Versace, Tiffany & Co., Michael Kors, Dolce & Gabbana, Tory Burch, Coach, Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers.

Retail

LensCrafters (~1,098 locations), Pearle Vision, Sunglass Hut (~3,131 locations, 2025), Target Optical, For Eyes, Oakley Stores, Ray-Ban Stores, Óticas Carol (Brazil, ~1,425 stores), GrandVision (acquired 2021).

Online

EyeBuyDirect, FramesDirect, Clearly, Glasses.com.

Scale

2025 revenue ~€28.5B. >50% of the global sunglasses market.

EssilorLuxottica 2024 Universal Registration Document (annual filing); company brands page.

Childcare

The two largest U.S. early-education networks are owned, between them, by a Swiss PE firm and a sea of public-market index funds. Your daughter's daycare and your sister's daycare across town probably share an investor on the cap table.

PEPartners Group → KinderCare Learning Companies (NYSE: KLC) Source: KinderCare S-1 prospectus; Partners Group press release Oct 2024.

Swiss PE firm Partners Group owns KinderCare. Common confusion: KKR briefly owned KinderCare in the late 1990s / early 2000s, then ownership passed to Knowledge Universe (Milken), then to Partners Group in 2015. It is not currently a KKR company.

KinderCare IPO'd October 9, 2024 (24M shares at $24, $576M raised, ~$2.8B fully diluted valuation). Partners Group retains ~71% post-IPO.

KinderCare S-1 prospectus (SEC filing CIK 0001873529, Aug 2024); Partners Group press release, October 2024.

IndexBright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE: BFAM) → top holders: Vanguard, BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, Wellington Source: BFAM most recent DEF 14A; aggregated 13F filings.

Bright Horizons is a public company. Its largest institutional shareholders are the same names that dominate the rest of the index: Vanguard, BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, Wellington. The "ownership" is diffuse on paper but concentrated in proxy votes.

BFAM most recent DEF 14A proxy filing; aggregated 13F filings (quarterly, SEC).

Funeral homes

One company operates roughly one of every six funeral services in the U.S. Most of its visible brands look local. The "family-owned" funeral home with the brand you've known for decades may have been bought 15 years ago and rebranded after acquisition.

PublicService Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) → 1,485 funeral homes + 500 cemeteries; ~16% U.S. death-care market Source: SCI Q4 2024 earnings release, February 12, 2025.

Scope

1,485 funeral service locations and 500 cemeteries across 44 U.S. states, 8 Canadian provinces, DC, and Puerto Rico.

Visible brands

Dignity Memorial, Dignity Planning, National Cremation Society, Advantage Funeral & Cremation Services, Funeraria del Angel, Making Everlasting Memories.

Market share

~16% of U.S. death-care — largest in North America by approximately 3-4× the next competitor. ~$4.4B 2024 revenue. Top institutional holders: Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street.

SCI Q4 2024 earnings release, February 12, 2025 (investors.sci-corp.com); SCI 10-K.

Auto services

The oil-change, brake, and collision-repair shop down the road is increasingly part of one big rollup. Roark Capital is the largest single private owner; the public auto-dealer chains run on the same three asset managers as everyone else. Your "neighborhood" oil-change place may share a back office with the body shop and the brake shop two towns over.

PERoark Capital → Driven Brands (NASDAQ: DRVN) → Take 5, Meineke, Maaco, CARSTAR, ABRA Source: Driven Brands 2024 10-K; company press release.

Roark has been the majority owner of Driven Brands since the 2015 LBO. Driven IPO'd in 2021 but Roark retained majority control.

Brand stack

Take 5 Oil Change, Meineke Car Care Centers, Maaco, CARSTAR, ABRA, 1-800-Radiator & A/C, Uniban, Auto-Lab, Spire Supply, Take 5 Car Wash.

2024 revenue: $2.34B.

Driven Brands 2024 10-K; company press release.

IndexPublic dealer rollups → AutoNation, Group 1, Lithia, Penske, Asbury, Sonic Source: 13F filings, quarterly.

The major U.S. auto-dealer chains are all publicly traded with the same three asset managers as top holders: Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Dimensional — in roughly that order — appear at the top of the 13F list for each.

  • AutoNation (NYSE: AN)
  • Group 1 Automotive (NYSE: GPI)
  • Lithia Motors (NYSE: LAD)
  • Penske Automotive (NYSE: PAG)
  • Asbury Automotive (NYSE: ABG)
  • Sonic Automotive (NYSE: SAH)

SEC Form 13F (quarterly), aggregated.

Mobile home parks & self-storage

Two of the most quietly consolidated industries in America. Both are dominated by REITs whose top institutional holders are, again, Vanguard / BlackRock / State Street. You can own the home and still pay a stranger for the dirt under it — and that stranger can raise the rent on the dirt almost any time they like.

REITSun Communities + Equity LifeStyle Properties → ~350,000 mobile home + RV sites combined Source: Sun Communities & ELS 2024 Form 10-Ks.
  • Sun Communities (NYSE: SUI): 667 properties / ~180,000 developed sites across 39 states + Canada + UK
  • Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE: ELS): 450 properties / 171,477 sites

Combined: ~350,000 homesites — the dominant share of institutionally-owned mobile home parks and RV resorts in the U.S.

Sun Communities 2024 Form 10-K; ELS 2024 Form 10-K.

REITPublic Storage + Extra Space + CubeSmart → ~31-35% of U.S. self-storage Source: Multi-Housing News, "Top 10 REIT-Dominated Self Storage Markets," October 2024.

Public Storage (NYSE: PSA), Extra Space Storage (NYSE: EXR), CubeSmart (NYSE: CUBE), plus National Storage Affiliates and U-Haul, collectively hold ~31-35.5% of U.S. self-storage stock as of October 2024.

Extra Space passed Public Storage as the largest operator after the $12.7B Life Storage merger closed July 2023; 4,200+ locations, $3.26B revenue 2024.

Multi-Housing News, "Top 10 REIT-Dominated Self Storage Markets" (October 2024); SpareFoot industry statistics 2025.

Alternatives

The point of this page isn't to make you guilty about a sandwich. It's to make the cap table visible. With that visibility, you can choose differently when it matters to you. Here are the lower-cap-density options for each category. Most are not as convenient. That's part of the price.

A note on what counts. Independent doesn't always mean small or cooperative — sometimes it means a public company without three asset managers controlling its proxy votes, or a privately-held family firm. The standard here is: fewer principal-agent layers between the work and the money.

Food

Local, member-owned, or family-owned grocery without three asset managers on the board.

  • Food co-ops — ~350 member-owned grocery co-ops in the U.S. Often cheaper on bulk grains, beans, spices. Find yours via the Cooperative Grocer Network or NCG.
  • CSAs (Community-Supported Agriculture) — you pay a farm at the start of the season; you get a weekly box. The farm carries less risk; you get fresher produce.
  • Farmers markets — USDA Local Food Directory has a national lookup.
  • ALDI, Trader Joe's, Wegmans, Publix — private/employee-owned chains. Different model from PE-backed.

Pet care

Independent vets, smaller food brands not owned by Mars or JAB.

  • Independent veterinary practices — ask whether the practice is locally owned or part of a corporate group. AVMA's "find a vet" doesn't filter by ownership; you have to ask directly.
  • Smaller pet food brands — Open Farm, Carna4, Ziwi, smaller co-op brands. Verify ownership before you trust the marketing.

Healthcare

Public, charity, or community-owned providers; direct primary care.

  • FQHCs (Federally Qualified Health Centers) — ~1,400 community health centers, sliding-scale fees, federally subsidized. HRSA has a lookup tool at findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov.
  • Direct Primary Care (DPC) practices — flat monthly fee, no insurance middleman. dpcfrontier.com has a national map.
  • Community / non-profit hospitals — not all hospitals are PE-owned. State Department of Health usually publishes ownership data.

Housing

Co-ops, land trusts, tenants' unions, friends-and-family.

  • Community Land Trusts (CLTs) — nonprofit ownership of land with affordable resale-restricted homes on top. ~280 active CLTs in the U.S.; lookup at the Center for CLT Innovation.
  • Housing co-ops — you buy a share, not a unit; common in NYC, SF, Chicago.
  • Tenants' unions — local organizing groups that negotiate with landlords collectively. Most major cities have one.

News

Wire services, public-radio locals, reader-supported independents.

  • AP & Reuters — the wire services are member-owned (AP) or owned by Thomson family / Refinitiv (Reuters). They source most of the news everyone else reprints.
  • NPR member stations — locally licensed, listener-funded.
  • Independent local papers — nonprofit and reader-supported outlets, listed via Project Oasis (LION Publishers / UNC Hussman).

Eyecare

Independents and small-chain online retailers outside EssilorLuxottica.

  • Local independent optometrists — many sell frames not made by EssilorLuxottica. Ask before you buy.
  • Warby Parker — public but vertically independent. Frames designed in-house.
  • Zenni Optical, Eyebuydirect (parent: EssilorLuxottica — check before assuming) — budget online retailers; verify the parent.

Childcare

Family-run, parent co-ops, registered home-based providers.

  • Parent cooperatives — parents share running the daycare; lower cost, more involvement.
  • Registered home-based providers — smaller ratio, more personal. State licensing databases list them.
  • Family-run independent daycares — the small ones that aren't chains. Ask about ownership.

Funeral & end-of-life

Family funeral consumer alliances, home funerals, green burial.

  • Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA) — nonprofit, ~80 local affiliates; price comparisons + advocacy. funerals.org.
  • Home funerals — legal in nearly every state with some local restrictions; the National Home Funeral Alliance has guides.
  • Green burial — conservation cemeteries; Green Burial Council certifies operators.

Auto services

Independent local mechanics — still ~70% of U.S. shops.

  • Local independent mechanics — AAA-approved Auto Repair finder, or the RepairPal "Certified Network" if you want a screened list.
  • Independent body shops — not all are CARSTAR / ABRA / Caliber. Insurer "preferred" lists tend to favor the chains; you can usually choose your own.

Mobile home parks

Resident-owned communities (ROCs).

  • Resident-Owned Communities (ROCs) — the residents collectively buy the park as a co-op. ROC USA has helped 320+ communities make this transition.
  • State right-of-first-refusal laws — in some states (NH, MA, ME, others), residents have first right to buy when a park is being sold. Worth knowing if your park is sold.

Adding more here over time. Send a note if you know a category we should cover or an alternative we missed.

How to read this

This page is not a conspiracy. It is a filing list. Every chain above is in public disclosures — SEC 10-Ks, court records, company press releases, and primary news coverage. The reason it can feel conspiratorial is that no one assembles the list for you. The Wake will keep adding to it. If you spot an error, send a correction. If a chain is missing, send the receipt.

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