Independents Week Festivities Underway
Communities around the country are celebrating the second annual Independents Week, which draws on the July 4th holiday to remind people of the value of locally owned businesses. … Read More
Vancouver Rejects Wal-Mart
The Vancouver City Council voted 8-3 to deny approval for a 130,000-square-foot Wal-Mart superstore along Marine Drive in the southeastern part of the city. … Read More
Suit Charges that Visa and MC Squeeze Small Retailers
A lawsuit filed this month alleges that Visa and MasterCard illegally fix the price of fees that small retailers pay for credit card transactions. … Read More
Media Release: Data Show Wal-Mart Employees in Maine Rely Heavily on Public Assistance
PORTLAND, ME [June 28, 2005]—Hundreds of Maine workers employed by Wal-Mart are enrolled in the state’s public assistance programs, including Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, according to data released by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. … Read More
Chains Are Taking Over Britain, Survey Finds
More than 40 percent of the towns surveyed for a new report by the London-based New Economics Foundation are so overrun by chain stores that they have lost their local identity and become little more than "clone towns." … Read More
Citizens in Charlevoix, Michigan, Block Wal-Mart, Win Size Limits
Grassroots groups that form to fight big-box development proposals often dissolve after winning or losing on that particular project. But a citizens group in Charlevoix, Michigan, called This is Our Town, kept on working. Now, one year after successfully pressuring Wal-Mart to drop plans for a supercenter, the group is celebrating new zoning rules that will limit future big-box development. … Read More
Minnesota Public Radio looks at emerging ‘buy local’ movement
This 8-minute story on Minnesota Public Radio looks at how some Twin Cities area small business owners are banding together to promote shopping at local, independently-owned stores. Includes an interview with ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell.… Read More
Neighborhood Retailers Aim to Keep New York Wal-Mart Free
The entry of Wal-Mart into New York City is the biggest challenge to neighborhood businesses and local communities in our city’s history, contends the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, which has been an advocate for New York City’s locally owned businesses for the past twenty years. … Read More
New Rules Project Receives the 2005 National Main Street Civic Leadership Award
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has presented its 2005 Main Street Civic Leadership Award to the New Rules Project, a program of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR). The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the commercial district revitalization movement by an organization or individual working in the public policy arena.… Read More