Change in Share of Assets Devoted to Small Business Lending, 2009-2012
As a share of their total assets, small business lending at the nation’s largest banks fell by 33% in three years. … Read More
How San Francisco is Dealing With Chains
San Francisco is home to more independent businesses than other big cities, thanks in part to a 2006 law than gives neighborhoods the power to reject “formula” retail stores and restaurants. But the policy has major gaps, which have opened the way for chains to slip into the city. City leaders are now looking to beef up the law. … Read More
Presentation: What Happens to Local Businesses When Walmart Moves In?
This brief presentation looks at how Walmart could impact local businesses if it’s allowed to expand into urban areas.
Stacy Mitchell Talks Walmart and the Future of Big-Box Retail on San Francisco’s KALW
ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell was a guest on Your Call on San Francisco public radio station KALW. She joined host Rose Aguilar and Charles Fishman, author of The Wal-Mart Effect, for an hour-long conversation about how Walmart came to dominate the economy and what local business owners and retail workers are doing to counter its market power.… Read More
Independent Businesses Deliver Bigger Economic Benefit, Study Finds
Choosing a locally owned business generates almost four times as much economic benefit for the surrounding community as shopping at a chain, a new study has concluded. … Read More
Local Ownership Makes Communities Healthier, Wealthier and Wiser
Most policymakers don’t imagine that their economic development decisions will affect such things as voter turnout or the prevalence of chronic disease. But a growing body of research is finding that scale and ownership of business matter in ways that extend far beyond economic outcomes.… Read More
Walmart Claims Its Stores are Magnets for Small Businesses; Not So, Research Finds
In its push to get into urban areas, Walmart is claiming that its stores are actually good for nearby small businesses, at least those that do not compete in the same product lines. But the empirical evidence — including a extensive study published recently in the Journal of Urban Economics — indicates otherwise. … Read More
Walmart: 50 Years of Gutting America’s Middle Class
Walmart’s history is the story of what has gone wrong in the American economy. Wages have stagnated. The middle class has shrunk. The ranks of the working poor have swelled. Whatever we may have saved shopping at Walmart, we’ve more than paid for it in diminished opportunities and declining income. … Read More
Justice Department Abets Amazon’s E-Book Monopoly
For years, Amazon has used its size and market power to bully publishers and keep other retailers from competing in the e-book market. And, for years, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has done nothing to constrain Amazon’s abuses or bring about a more competitive marketplace. So it was quite a shock last month when the … Read More