Image: Logan Hardware.
18 Apr 2018

Why Small Businesses Matter for Workers

by | Date: 18 Apr 2018 | posted in: Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Small businesses are sometimes criticized as being bad for workers — but that idea is wrong. In this piece, we look at how small and large businesses compare on concrete metrics like wages, and find that in some industries, including retail, employees at small businesses earn more. There’s also a larger way in which the interests of small businesses and working people are aligned, we argue: Both groups benefit when public policy works to disperse economic power.… Read More
8 Jan 2016

Key Studies: Why Independent Matters

by | Date: 8 Jan 2016 | posted in: Retail | 50 Facebooktwitterredditmail

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

Photo: Lowe's store.
16 Jun 2015

For Cities, Big-Box Stores Are Becoming Even More of a Terrible Deal

by | Date: 16 Jun 2015 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris, governance, Retail, The Public Good | 15 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Under what has become known as the “dark store” method, big-box retailers are declaring their busy stores to be functionally obsolescent and therefore nearly worthless for tax purposes —and they’re winning big judgments for back taxes. It’s the latest example of the way that, even as local governments continue to bend over backwards to attract big-box development, these stores are consistently a bad deal for communities. … Read More
18 Jul 2012

Local Ownership Makes Communities Healthier, Wealthier and Wiser

by | Date: 18 Jul 2012 | posted in: Retail | 5 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Most policymakers don’t imagine that their economic development decisions will affect such things as voter turnout or the prevalence of chronic disease. But a growing body of research is finding that scale and ownership of business matter in ways that extend far beyond economic outcomes.… Read More

1 … 7 8 9 10