The Peripheral

Hefty Mart represents corporate dominance in the near future. It has a monopoly on the entire retail market and is one of the primary sources of economic activity in Flynne’s world. One might imagine Amazon joining forces with Walmart and then multiplying their business exponentially­–this is analogous to what Hefty Mart is in the novel. Since Hefty Mart has such dominance in the legal economy, knock-off operations are one way for people to make their own money. Flynne works for one such manufacturer of “fabbed” products. With this, Hefty Mart symbolizes the corporatized world common to cyberpunk fiction.

Significantly, in the world of the distant future, Hefty Mart is not mentioned, and none of the characters are aware of what it is. This ties into two of the book’s themes: Objective Reality versus Artificially Constructed Reality and Environmental Degradation and its Effects on Life. Regarding reality, there is a sense for those in the present that reality is concrete and immutable, a concept cast into doubt by future London working with agents in the past to change the course of history. In truth, even objective reality is constantly changing, affected by actions big and small. While Hefty Mart’s power is absolute in Flynne’s time and no one can imagine an alternate world, it doesn’t exist in the future.