As Amazon Preps Chicago Store, Indie Bookstores Push Back
This article from the Chicagoist cites our landmark Amazon report as it was the basis for a local group’s efforts to protest against Amazon’s physical retail bookstore in the city.… Read More
Next frontier in recycling: food
Local-based composting programs are growing in popularity across the United States, as municipalities are increasingly coming to realize that there is great value in the organic matter that exists in our trash. For this article in the Christian Science Monitor, journalist Lonnie Shekhtman cited our long-standing research into the growth of these programs.… Read More
After millions of investment, jurisdictions try to achieve potential of fiber network
As Baltimore is looking toward a better connectivity for its citizens, the Baltimore Sun wanted to know what the benefits and process for a community broadband network looked like. They turned to our national broadband expert, Christopher Mitchell, for his thoughts on broadband deployment and what communities across America have done to improve that outlook.… Read More
Amazon, the Monopolist?
As a springboard into a larger conversation about Amazon as a monopoly, the Pacific Standard‘s freelance journalist Dwyer Gunn covered our landmark Amazon report and detailed some of the top-line stats, including that Amazon captures one in every two dollars that is spent on online retail purchases.… Read More
$1 of Every $2 Spent Online Goes to Amazon. Can We Break the Company’s Stranglehold?
Mario Vasquez of TruthOut covered the release of our landmark Amazon report and detailed how its growth is harming our economy in fundamental ways from workers rights, warehouse conditions, and overall competition/vitality.… Read More
The Hole in the Digital Economy
Bridging the digital divide for rural communities across America is one of the central challenges of government in the 21st century. Writing for the MIT Technology Review, researcher David Talbot details how local communities investing in Internet access infrastructure is the way to help bring all communities onto an equal plane. In his research he cites broadband expert Christopher Mitchell and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s work.… Read More
Your Call: Amazon threatens small businesses and “weakens communities,” says new report
From KALW‘s Your Call public affairs radio show: “Why is it more important than ever to support local businesses? Amazon’s growing market power is threatening small businesses and ‘weakening communities,’ according to a new study from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The study’s findings conclude that Amazon is causing the number of independent merchants to decline sharply, ‘undermining jobs and wages,’ and affecting local tax bases. What difference does it make when we support local businesses?” This conversation features our own researcher Olivia LaVecchia.… Read More
Wrestling’s Queen Could Take a Chair to Her Federal Agency
Newly introduced Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon caused quite the stir in the business media. In this piece for Bloomberg Markets, Patrick Clark reached out to independent business expert and ILSR co-director Stacy Mitchell on the state of small business job creation and vitality in our economy and what McMahon’s installation could mean.… Read More
Delivery Drivers Sue Amazon Over Misclassification, Failure to Pay Overtime and the Minimum Wage
In the wake of the release of our landmark Amazon report, a story from In These Times‘ labor freelancer Bruce Vail details the impact that Amazon’s growth in our economy has on workers and the way that their expansive network of warehouses depresses wages for those kinds of workers.… Read More