The results of a new study suggest that the key to reversing the long-term trend of stagnating incomes in the U.S. lies in nurturing small, locally owned businesses and limiting further expansion and market consolidation by large corporations.… Read More
I winced yesterday when James Gavin, chair of the Partnership for a Healthier America, said he’d like to see Walmart double its U.S. store count. He was speaking at Michelle Obama’s event announcing that several retailers will open stores in “food deserts.” It was a sort of half-jokey remark, but, still, in a conversation about food in America, the suggestion that Walmart should have an even bigger role in our food system is pretty disturbing. This is a company that already captures 25 percent of grocery sales nationally and more than 50 percent in some metro areas.… Read More
In what may well be the tipping point in a decade-long fight to level the playing field for local brick-and-mortar businesses, California this week enacted a law requiring Amazon and other large online retailers to collect state sales tax. … Read More
After winning a high-stakes standoff against Amazon last year, publishers are now setting the prices that retailers can charge for their e-books.
At first blush, one might assume that such price-fixing would result in higher prices. But the evidence from more than a dozen European countries, where laws have long prohibited selling both print and electronic books below a set price, clearly shows that publisher-mandated pricing saves consumers money. It also fosters a more lively and competitive book industry, with far more books published and many more independent bookstores open than in countries where big retailers control pricing.… Read More
Despite the ample publicity Wal-Mart has engineered for its "buy local" efforts, the company in fact has zero interest in cultivating local suppliers beyond stocking a few token local veggies suitable for a nice photo-op. … Read More
Raising the pay of Wal-Mart’s U.S. workers to a minimum of $12 an hour would lift many out of poverty and cost the average consumer, at most, $12.49 a year, according to a new study published by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. … Read More
What’s really at issue in the fight over the CFPB is not how the agency is structured or how much power it will have, but whose interests it serves.… Read More
Perhaps we’re not doomed to an economy controlled by a few giant corporations after all. A growing number of signs suggest that local, independent businesses might just be making a comeback.
Inspired by the Harper’s Index, we’ve compiled a list of key indicators of a return to the local. … Read More
Big-box stores offer lower prices right? Not necessarily, says Stacy
Mitchell, who talks about the big-box swindle and the demise of the
American middle class in this interview on San Francisco’s KFOG.
… Read More
