While many parts of the country are overrun with chain stores, San Francisco remains a stronghold for locally owned businesses, according to a new study, which also found that those local stores generate sizable benefits for the city’s economy.
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Last November, the consulting firm Global Insight (GI) released a study that found that Wal-Mart saved U.S. consumers $263 billion in 2004. That works out to $2,329 for the average household — a striking degree of economic benefit. But a rigorous new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a non-profit think-tank, concludes that the GI study is “fraught with problems.”
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A new study published this month in Social Science Quarterly has documented a correlation between Wal-Mart’s presence and higher poverty rates. … Read More
This report opens with an overview of research on the impacts of large chain stores and the benefits of locally owned businesses. It then outlines dozens of concrete strategies to rebuild the homegrown economy. Although this report was written for Maine, the strategies are applicable in other states. … Read More
Among Jane Jacobs’ many accomplishments, she mobilized her neighbors and led several successful grassroots fights in the 1960s that saved Greenwich Village, Soho, Little Italy, and the Lower East Side from being leveled for glass towers and an eight-lane highway. … Read More
A new study has concluded that additional chain retail expansion on Cape Cod would undermine the region’s economy. … Read More
Massachusetts spent more than $52 million last year providing healthcare coverage to employees of some of the state’s largest companies, including numerous chain retailers like Wal-Mart, Dunkin Donuts, Stop & Shop, CVS, Home Depot, and Target. … Read More
California taxpayers are spending $86 million a year providing healthcare and other public assistance to the state’s 44,000 Wal-Mart employees, according to a new study by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Industrial Relations. The study, "Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs," found that the average Wal-Mart worker required $730 in taxpayer-funded healthcare and $1,222 in other forms of assistance, such as food stamps and subsidized housing, to get by.… Read More
As Wal-Mart seeks out locations in central Los Angeles and the city council considers a measure that would ban supercenters from much of the city, a debate is brewing concerning the costs and benefits of supercenters for residents of low-income urban neighborhoods. Two dueling studies examining the impact of supercenters in southern California were recently released.
