What makes Wal-Mart’s initiatives more challenging to confront than simple greenwashing is that they have just enough substance to have distracted many people, including a number of leading environmentalists, from the fundamental fact that, as a system of distributing goods to people, big-box retailing is as intrinsically unsustainable as clear-cut logging is as a method of harvesting trees.… Read More
Included in the state budget passed this week by the New York legislature is a provision that requires online retailers, including Amazon.com, to collect state and local sales taxes.… Read More
Stacy Mitchell on the Big-Box Swindle and related issues – broadcast on the Mark Johnson Show, RadioVermont WDEV, Mar. 11, 2008.
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For years, chain retailers have exploited a loophole present in the tax laws of about half the states to escape paying billions of dollars in state income taxes. Efforts to close these loopholes have faced an uphill struggle, but the momentum may finally be shifting, thanks to research that has exposed the extent of the problem and its primary corporate beneficiaries, as well as new activism by independent business owners, who are breaking rank with powerful business groups to call for tax fairness.… Read More
The success of the Powell Mercantile has inspired at least half a dozen other towns in Wyoming, Montana, and Nevada—all too small and remote to interest national or regional chains—to open their own department stores. The concept is now spreading to the much more populous Northeast, where local residents are seeking community-focused alternatives to big-box retailers.… Read More
In dozens of towns across the country, citizens have seized the reins of their local economies by starting community-owned stores. This 6-page fact sheet shows you how to get started. … Read More
A new study commissioned by Local First Arizona reports that a purchasing contract with an independent local supplier recirculates three times as much money in the local economy as the same contract with a national firm. Local First Arizona is using the study to galvanize support for a legislative measure that would keep more of the public dollars spent on state contracts in Arizona. … Read More
The American Booksellers Association’s January 2008 Winter Institute conference featured a roundtable discussion with authors Bill McKibben, Stacy Mitchell, and Michael Shuman, who talked about the importance of rebuilding local economies.… Read More
Whether to patronize locally owned stores or chains is not at the top of the mind for many holiday shoppers. But it should be. It’s a choice that has profound implications for our economy and for our communities. … Read More
