Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and directs its Community-Scaled Economy Initiative, which produces research and analysis, and partners with a range of allies to design and implement policies that curb economic consolidation and strengthen community-rooted enterprise. She is the author of Big-Box Swindle and also produces a popular monthly newsletter, the Hometown Advantage Bulletin. Connect with her on twitter and catch her TEDx Talk: Why We Can’t Shop Our Way to a Better Economy. More
To regenerate local businesses, we’ll need more than Buy Local campaigns; we’ll need to change public policy, which now favors big business. In this presentation, Stacy Mitchell looks at seven key policy areas to focus on. Continue reading
Cape Cod is the rare community that considers regional economic impacts when weighing big-box retail development, and that makes all the difference. Continue reading
State data reveal that Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, and others offer such low pay and benefits that many of their employees rely on public assistance, at a cost of billions of dollars a year. Continue reading
Not having to charge sales tax fueled Amazon’s growth for nearly 20 years. While it’s impossible not to see the company as a horse that’s already out the barn door, there’s still good reason to believe that the Marketplace Fairness Act will slow Amazon’s consolidation of retailing and provide benefit to independent businesses. Continue reading
Walmart has been generating some impressive-sounding headlines on the environment lately. But a closer examination of what Walmart is and isn’t doing reveals a company that in fact lags its peers on renewable energy and is contributing a large and growing volume of climate change pollution to the atmosphere. Continue reading
Cities where small, locally owned businesses account for a relatively large share of the economy have stronger social networks, more engaged citizens, and better success solving problems, according to several recently published studies. Continue reading
When Michelle Obama visited a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri, a few weeks ago to praise the company’s efforts to sell healthier food, she did not say why she chose a store in Springfield of all cities. But, in ways that Obama surely did not intend, it was a fitting choice. This Midwestern city provides a chilling look at where Walmart wants to take our food system. Continue reading
In response to the reintroduction of the Marketplace Fairness Act in the U.S. Senate today, Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance released the following statement.
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ILSR’s annual survey has found that independent businesses experienced solid revenue growth in 2012, buoyed in part by “buy local first” initiatives. But the survey also documented challenges facing independent businesses, most notably an increase in “showrooming” and competition from online retailers, tax and subsidy policies that favor their big competitors, difficulty obtaining loans, and a customer base still reeling from the recession. Continue reading
ILSR’s annual Independent Business Survey gathers data from thousands of locally owned, independent businesses across the country. Continue reading
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