Factsheets and Infographics
Facts and stats to help you make the case for a community-scaled economy, fight consolidation, and advocate for independent business.
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“Amazon’s Grip is Crushing Us”: Stories and Testimonials from Amazon Sellers
Amazon portrays itself as a partner to businesses in an effort to derail Congress, business owners tell a very different story about their experience selling on Amazon’s marketplace. Here are some of their stories.… Read More
Fact Sheet: Why the “Ending Platform Monopolies Act” is Essential Reform
Our latest fact sheet shows that lawmakers cannot achieve their aim of restoring competition to our online markets without passing the structural separation bill. … Read More
Fact Sheet: How Amazon Exploits and Undermines Small Businesses, and Why Breaking It Up Would Revive American Entrepreneurship
In splashy campaigns and lobbying at the Capitol, Amazon claims that it has “a mutually beneficial relationship” with the small businesses that depend on its platform. This fact sheet tells the real story, and explains what Congress needs to do. … Read More
Share our Infographic on How To Help Local Businesses Weather Covid-19
Print this and post it around town, and share it on social media. We can all do our part to help support small businesses weather the Covid-19 pandemic.… Read More
Local Businesses Need Your Support During Covid-19. Here’s How.
The coronavirus pandemic has created an existential crisis for America’s small, locally owned businesses, which are the backbone of the nation’s economy. Here are some things you can do.… Read More
The Impact of Dollar Stores and How Communities Can Fight Back (Fact Sheet)
National dollar store chains, including Dollar General and Dollar Tree, have seen huge growth over the past decade. These stores are also feeding more Americans than Whole Foods is. New research from ILSR’s Community-Scaled Economy Initiative documents the rapid rise of dollar stores and their damaging effects on the local economies of cities and small towns. Explore our two-page fact sheet to learn more about dollar store impacts and strategies to take action.… Read More
Why Care about Independent, Locally Owned Businesses?
Locally owned businesses play a central role in healthy communities and are among the best engines that cities and towns have for advancing economic opportunity and building resilient places. Here, we outline five important reasons for local officials to support independent businesses, based on a growing body of research.… Read More
Local Policy Matters: How to Grow Independent Businesses in Your City
This toolkit offers independent business owners concrete tips for engaging with their city officials and advocating for policies that strengthen and grow local businesses. The featured policy platform outlines policies local governments can use with on-the-ground stories of communities that have implemented these policies to support independent businesses.… Read More
As Amazon Moves to Capture Local Government Spending, Here’s What You Can Do
A recent contract opens the way for billions of dollars in local government spending to shift to Amazon. The good news is that, for concerned citizens and public officials, Amazon’s push into the public sector offers a way to take action at the local level and start a concrete conversation about Amazon’s power and what we should do about it. In this fact sheet, we outline three strategies to use to take action.… Read More
8 Policy Strategies Cities Can Use to Support Local Businesses
Independent businesses are among the best engines that cities have for advancing economic opportunity. But they’re disappearing in many places. This isn’t, in large part, because these businesses aren’t competitive. It’s because misguided public policy and concentrated market power are working against them. In this policy brief, we present 8 ways that cities can level the playing field and ensure that local businesses have the opportunity to start, grow, and thrive.… Read More
Local Governments Are Increasingly Buying from Amazon. Here’s Why They Need to Stop.
Local governments are increasingly turning to Amazon for their buying needs. When they do, though, citizens lose. Here’s why you should be concerned about this spreading trend — and 5 things you can do.… Read More
How Amazon Undermines Jobs, Wages, and Working Conditions (Fact Sheet)
ILSR and Jobs with Justice partnered to produce a fact sheet that looks at how Amazon is undermining wages and conditions for working people, and driving growing inequality.… Read More
Key Studies: Why Independent Matters
A growing body of research is giving us new ways to quantify the harms of bigness and the benefits of local ownership. In this post, we round-up the important studies and provide the evidence that policymakers can use to craft better laws, business owners can use to rally support, and citizens can use to organize their communities.… Read More
Before You Click on Amazon, Here’s Why Your Choice Matters (Infographic)
Amazon is rapidly expanding its online empire, but behind the conveniences that the company offers are a lot of hidden costs. … Read More
5 Things Local Officials Need to Know Before Welcoming an Amazon Warehouse
Amazon fulfillment centers impose so many hidden costs on local economies that cities ought to reconsider welcoming them at all, much less greasing the way with public funds.… Read More