On Pitchfork Economics: How Walmart Gutted Communities
Stacy Mitchell joins Pitchfork Economics to explain how policies drove the rise of Walmart and Amazon, and the urgency of the antitrust movement. … Read More
Report: Walmart’s Monopolization of Local Grocery Markets
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
Local Clean Energy on the Ballot this November
This November, millions will go to the polls to cast votes in the midterm elections. In addition to electing candidates, some voters have a unique opportunity to directly shape their local energy system. Initiatives on the ballot in Portland, Ore., Washington state, and Colorado, present opportunities and new models for advancing local renewable energy, climate goals, and energy democracy.… Read More
Interview: In The Sun, Stacy Mitchell Discusses Amazon and the Future of Local Economies
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
Walmart aims high on lowering carbon footprint
Stacy Mitchell, ILSR’s co-director discusses the backtracking that Walmart has gone through with solar on their store’s rooftops, and contributes for this Marketplace piece.… Read More
How Big Businesses Get Big Subsidies (Episode 23)
In this episode of our podcast, Building Local Power, ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell interviews Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First about the tax incentive packages that governments give to big corporations, and how local governments can do economic development better.… Read More
Press Release: Walmart’s Climate Pollution Grows as It Scales Back Renewable Power
More than a decade after Walmart pledged to become an environmental leader, the company’s climate emissions continue to rise, according to data released today by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR). ILSR found that Walmart has scaled back its renewable power projects in the U.S. The amount of renewable energy the company derives from its clean energy projects and special purchases fell by 16% since 2013.… Read More
With 269 Stores Closing, Is this the Beginning of the End for Walmart?
All great empires eventually fall. This is as true in retail as it is in geopolitics. In this story, originally published in Common Dreams, ILSR co-director Stacy Mitchell delves into the reality of Walmart’s retail overbuilding, and how our local economies have suffered due to that disastrous decision.… Read More
With 269 Stores Closing, Is this the Beginning of the End for Walmart?
All great retail empires eventually fall. A&P did. So did Montgomery Ward. But Walmart’s recent announcement that it would close 269 stores may not be an initial stumble on a path toward demise so much as a move to abandon communities that it has decided simply aren’t worth the trouble. We look at both the bad and the good fallout from Walmart’s pullback, and how its closures are best explained as a side effect of its main strategy for dominating the economy: overbuilding regions to the point of not just destroying competition but cannibalizing its own sales, while communities bear the consequences.… Read More