Recently Posted

New Survey: Independent Businesses See Major Threats in Amazon, Corporate Concentration

New Survey: Independent Businesses See Major Threats in Amazon, Corporate Concentration

ILSR

August 6, 2019

ILSR's Independent Business Survey offers insight and guidance to elected officials looking to build a more equitable, entrepreneurial, competitive, and dynamic economy.  READ MORE


Amazon Faces Sharp Questions about Its Market Power before House Judiciary Committee; ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell Testifies

Amazon Faces Sharp Questions about Its Market Power before House Judiciary Committee; ILSR's Stacy Mitchell Testifies

Zach Freed

July 15, 2019

On Tuesday, July 16, Stacy Mitchell will testify on Amazon's market power before the House Judiciary Committee for a hearing on the monopoly power of big tech platforms.  READ MORE


New Report: Walmart’s Monopolization of Local Grocery Markets

New Report: Walmart’s Monopolization of Local Grocery Markets

Stacy Mitchell

June 26, 2019

In 43 metropolitan areas and 160 smaller markets, Walmart controls 50 percent or more of the local grocery market. No other corporation in history has ever amassed this degree of control over the U.S. food system. Our findings provide a stark illustration of the failings of contemporary antitrust policy.  READ MORE


Featured

Stacy Mitchell Talks Amazon on BBC World Service

Stacy Mitchell Talks Amazon on BBC World Service

Breshay Moore

August 19, 2019

BBC takes a look at the future of Amazon as the company hits its 25th Birthday. ILSR’s Co-Director, Stacy Mitchell, details Amazon’s dominance in the market and how small businesses are suffering due to Amazon’s monopoly power.  READ MORE


ILSR’s Zach Freed Appears on San Francisco’s KALW to Discuss Amazon’s Warehouse Conditions and Market Power

ILSR's Zach Freed Appears on San Francisco's KALW to Discuss Amazon's Warehouse Conditions and Market Power

Charlie Thaxton

July 15, 2019

ILSR Researcher Zach Freed was featured on "Your Call," a program of KALW, a San Francisco NPR affiliate, to discuss Amazon's warehouse and labor practices.  READ MORE


Independent Musicians and the Anti-Monopoly Movement (Episode 76)

Independent Musicians and the Anti-Monopoly Movement (Episode 76)

Hibba Meraay

July 11, 2019

Host Zach Freed is joined by Kevin Erickson, Director of the Future of Music Coalition, to talk about the music industry's role in the growing anti-monopoly movement.  READ MORE


Australian National Radio Talks With Stacy Mitchell about America’s Anti-Monopoly History and Big Tech

Australian National Radio Talks With Stacy Mitchell about America's Anti-Monopoly History and Big Tech

Charlie Thaxton

June 25, 2019

ILSR Co-Director Stacy Mitchell was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's radio news program Rear Vision for an episode on monopoly power in America.  READ MORE


Stacy Mitchell in The Atlantic: Elizabeth Warren Has a Theory About Corporate Power

Stacy Mitchell in The Atlantic: Elizabeth Warren Has a Theory About Corporate Power

Charlie Thaxton

May 16, 2019

In The Atlantic, Stacy Mitchell focuses on the Democrats' forgotten role as small business champions, and on Elizabeth Warren's reclaiming of the monopoly trustbusting tradition.  READ MORE


Video: Stacy Mitchell talks Amazon, Concentration, and Building Resilient Local Economies

Video: Stacy Mitchell talks Amazon, Concentration, and Building Resilient Local Economies

Charlie Thaxton

April 15, 2019

ILSR co-director Stacy Mitchell was the guest for a special edition of Strong Towns' webcast earlier this year. Stacy spoke with Strong Towns co-founder and President, Chuck Marohn on topics like Amazon, tax incentives, retail concentration, and big-box stores.  READ MORE


Op-Ed in Fortune: The Hidden Price of Cashless Retail

Op-Ed in Fortune: The Hidden Price of Cashless Retail

Charlie Thaxton

April 3, 2019

In Fortune, we detail the growing cashless retail trend, steps cities and states are taking to regulate it, and the ultimate effect monopoly credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard have on small businesses and the economy at large.  READ MORE


The FTC is Approving a Merger that Will Help Staples and Amazon Cripple Independent Businesses

The FTC is Approving a Merger that Will Help Staples and Amazon Cripple Independent Businesses

Stacy Mitchell

February 26, 2019

The FTC recently gave Staples the green light to buy one of the two wholesalers that sell to independent office supply dealers. The decision hardly made a blip in the news cycle. But it sheds enormous insight into the  READ MORE


View All Independent Business Articles…

In Depth

Dollar Stores Are Targeting Struggling Urban Neighborhoods and Small Towns. One Community Is Showing How to Fight Back.

Dollar Stores Are Targeting Struggling Urban Neighborhoods and Small Towns. One Community Is Showing How to Fight Back.

Marie Donahue

December 6, 2018

Although dollar stores sometimes fill a need in places that lack basic retail services, there’s growing evidence that these stores are not merely a byproduct of economic distress. They’re a cause of it. In small towns and urban neighborhoods alike, dollar stores are leading full-service grocery stores to close. And their strategy of saturating communities with multiple outlets is making it impossible for new grocers and other local businesses to take root and grow.  READ MORE


Unfair Advantage: In The Sun, Stacy Mitchell Discusses Amazon and the Future of Local Economies

Unfair Advantage: In The Sun, Stacy Mitchell Discusses Amazon and the Future of Local Economies

Charlie Thaxton

October 25, 2018

This month, The Sun magazine features ILSR Co-Director Stacy Mitchell in an extended Q&A about the consequences of Amazon’s tightening grip and what it will take to revive America’s left-behind cities and towns.  READ MORE


ILSR Submits Comments as Federal Trade Commission Embarks on a Rare Review of Its Antitrust Policy

ILSR Submits Comments as Federal Trade Commission Embarks on a Rare Review of Its Antitrust Policy

Zach Freed

August 30, 2018

In a series of hearings this fall, the Federal Trade Commission will examine whether it should be doing more to check concentrated economic power. ILSR has submitted comments to the agency that highlight the impact of concentration on independent businesses and outline the dangers of Amazon's platform power.  READ MORE


Report: Amazon’s Stranglehold: How the Company’s Tightening Grip on the Economy Is Stifling Competition, Eroding Jobs, and Threatening Communities

Report: Amazon’s Stranglehold: How the Company's Tightening Grip on the Economy Is Stifling Competition, Eroding Jobs, and Threatening Communities

Stacy Mitchell

November 29, 2016

Amazon has extended its tentacles across our economy. In this report, we pull back the curtain on the company, and find that it's at the center of increasing inequality and diminishing opportunity, and that it's concentrating power in ways that endanger competition, community life, and democracy. We also examine how public policy should address Amazon's high costs.  READ MORE


Monopoly Power and the Decline of Small Business

Monopoly Power and the Decline of Small Business

Stacy Mitchell

August 10, 2016

The U.S. is much less a nation of entrepreneurs than it was a generation ago. In this report, which won an award for antitrust scholarship in 2017, we suggest that the decline of small businesses is owed, at least in part, to anticompetitive behavior by large, dominant corporations. The report presents three reasons to bring a commitment to fair markets for small businesses back into antitrust policy, and concludes by outlining specific steps to do just that.  READ MORE


More Resources