They somehow managed to twist this in such a way that the burden was shifted on the workers-consumers themselves. Instead of saying that all these businesses that relied on a social arrangement whereby the workers were forced to consume overpriced services and products - thus, an arrangement that was more disadvantageous to the workers than any other party - will now need to find new ways to make money, the suggested solution is instead to continue to force workers to consume there, so those businesses not close down.

One could argue that forcing consumers to support certain geographic areas or businesses in order for these not to close down is as far as possible from the free market that is supposedly at play, considering that the consumers will obviously spend their money elsewhere.