IBA News
Issues Affecting Independent Business
General
Watching the Chains
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IBAs in the News
12/29/04
Power Shopping, Redefined
Spending at neighbors’ stores changes the world
Noted journalist and editor, Jay Walljasper, talks about what makes community--and how AMIBA is helping
12/13/04
Tampa Area's top ten economic splashmakers for 2004 include Tampa IBA!
11/17/04
Louisville, Kentucky unchains, keeps Louisville weird
11/16/04
Santa Fe Alliance urges community to unchain for one day
11/4/04
Pikes Peak IBA encourages Colorado Springs Community to Unchain for One Day
10/15/04
Austin IBA, coalition of organizations, challenge city study and policy regarding big box development
Recommend Austin adopt big box review
10/10/04
Thinking small is key to keeping Phoenix authentic
9/28/04
Strength in Numbers
A new IBA is forming in Columbia, Missouri
9/28/04
Defining what's local defines community
Jack Wolcott of the Corvallis IBA raises a key point: "local" means more than location.
9/1/04
Beat the Beast: Enlisting Allies
The current issue of Fortune Small Business
highlights five independent businesses that are surviving and thriving in the face of chain competition. This vignette of Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas, points to the Austin IBA and the importance of allying with others as a strong means to survival.
7/27/04
AMIBA responds to the USA Today article, below!
7/20/04
USA Today reports that communities are shackling chains with proactive policy measures--and IBAs and Independents Week received a mention (even if it wasn't quite accurate!)
7/5/04
The New Rules Project's Stacy Mitchell writes to the country about Independents Week
7/2/04
Hear Jim Hightower's radio commentary on AMIBA and Independents Week (download the MP3 or stream real audio)
7/2/04
Gallatin Valley IBA gives Bozeman area reason to celebrate Independents Week
6/30/04
BUILD St. Louis celebrates Independents Week
6/30/04
Tampa IBA kicks off Independents Week
6/29/04
Santa Fe Alliance celebrates Independents Week, challenges council to take the Indie Challenge
5/18/04
Arizona Chain Reaction shows community its roots
4/3/04
Arizona Chain Reaction stands united
3/4/04
Austin IBA and IBA movement focus of NPR's Marketplace
(mp3 audio
file)
2/14/04
Tampa Independent Business Alliance Launches
1/27/04
Being "Pro-Local" isn't an "Anti-Growth" Stand
CIBA's Jack Wolcott's monthly column
1/26/04
Albuquerque
IBA off and running
1/25/04
Bozeman
IBA chimes in on development of big box corridor
1/23/04
Return
to values includes return to community
Richard Flyer of the Truckee Meadows
Conscious Business and Community Network surmises that citizens finally
may be heeding Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s challenge to create a "beloved
community"-- and the IBA fits right in.
1/12/04
The Salt Lake City Vest Pocket Coalition has positioned itself as a media go-to for a perspective from SLC's independnet business community. This article on the potential impact of SBA small business loan scale-back is case in point.
1/7/04
Corvallis
IBA in coalition against developers of big boxes
Issues
12/8/04
Chains use their muscle to push for property condemnation through eminent domain
Issue coming to a head in U.S. Supreme Court in 2005
12/2/04
Two hometown grocers show how to compete successfully with the biggies
Hometown grocer's key to success: commitment to community
Give customers what Wal-Mart doesn't: local products and flavor
12/1/04
Natural selection in natural foods market: how to survive when the slick chain comes to town
11/28/04
When chain department store abandons town, community unites to create a store that won't leave
11/26/04
Are chain pharmacies guilty of anti-trust law violation?
11/26/04
Christmas tradition is threatened by chains
11/16/04
Hometown Hardware Store Owner Gives Beyond Expectations
This is no surprise to us--we know this to be typical of local independent business owners!
11/13/04
Coffee chain's arrival sparks local protest
11/11/04
Local pharmacist calls it quits, cites internet, reduced insurance reimbursement and chain competition as culprits
You've got to like the devoted customer who suggested picketing the store and blocking the owner's exit!
11/9/04
Coffee drinkers in New Orleans know their beans are local and independent, not Starbucks
11/7/04
Independent opticians vanishing before our eyes
11/7/04
Independent Christian bookstores feeling chain pressure
11/4/04
Brockton, Massachusetts loses clothing store, a piece of its history
10/24/04
Independent Pharmacies feel increased threat from mail-order
Chains are one thing, but the increase in the number of insurance companies requiring mail-order Rx fulfillment has local pharmacies scrambling
10/20/04
San Francisco Locally-owned Alternative Newspaper Retaliates, Sues Chain For Predatory Pricing
10/19/04
Competition and Marketing Pinch Locally-owned Retailers
Yes, it's lower prices, but manufacturers also bear blame through greed: saturating market with product and mass-marketing deals with chains.
9/28/04
US Supreme Court agrees to hear case involving use of eminent domain
Increasingly, eminent domain has been invoked for reasons that surpass its intention--to take private property for public benefit--and use it for purposes of economic gain. AMIBA promotes returning use of eminent domain to its original intent.
9/21/04
Local Farms find prosperity in selling locally, not through big Ag.
More customers are preferring food produced closer to home, and family farms are surviving because of it.
8/29/04
Is Wal-Mart coming to the end of its run?
The signs of the unsustainable nature of the corporation are increasingly evident. With critics from all sides, there's some way for nearly everyone to loathe Wal-Mart--and the very practices its executives determined would make it successful may very well cause its demise. This article from the Toronto Star provides a refreshing international perspective.
8/11/04
Los Angeles City Council approves measure, requires impact studies for proposed stores of over 100,000 square feet.
We expect more communities to follow this prominent lead.
8/5/04
Los Angeles City Council to vote on requiring impact studies for big box development
8/3/04
Poletown, Michigan eminent domain ruling reversed by Michigan Supreme Court
This ruling will greatly affect how eminent domain (the ability of municipalities to take private property for other use) will be viewed in the future, since 'Poletown' has been the precedent cited in countless cases. Eminent domain was intended to be used for public good, i.e. renewing blighted areas, however it increasingly has been abused for economic purposes such as big box development that promise to bring in tax revenue. This opinion piece from the Wall St. Journal praises the ruling for this very reason.
7/29/04
Small community feels loss of humanity as second home town hardware store falls to chains within four months of the first
7/26/04
Independent theaters file anti-trust suit against chains for allegedly using their influence to keep blockbuster films out of independent theaters.
7/14/04
Proactive zoning in Mission, Kansas keeping reins on Wal-Mart
Forward-thinking policy works! For information on measures communities have used to maintain their sense of place, see NewRules.org
7/5/04
Locally-owned Sub shops vie for community's tastebuds along with increasing chain purveyors
6/28/04
Independent Businesses in Columbia, Missouri considering an IBA to shift community toward local
6/25/04
Small towns feel loss of hometown grocery stores when supercenters draw locals elsewhere.
5/19/04
Phoenix mayor lambasts public subsidies for big box development, calls
for regional tax revenue-sharing.
Note: AMIBA applauds Mayor Gordon,
and we encourage citizens everywhere to speak up locally about unfair
practices and in support of practices that empower communities, not
chains. See NewRules.org for
policy examples from communities around the country.
5/9/04
The side of big box development
you don't hear about: a Utah community finds hidden expense in increased
law enforcement when Wal-Mart came to town.
"You just about name it," said Clinton Police Chief Bill
Chilson. "Domestic violence, shoplifting, fraud scams, we've had
DUI, traffic accidents, medical situations -- we haven't had any shootings
yet."
5/4/04
Wal-Mart meets opposition in Chicago, becoming trend to
say "no" to supercenters in urban areas.
Wal-Mart's tactics to counter community pressure include hiring
a formidable team of local public relations and legal consultants, including
the law firm of Michael Daley, brother of Mayor Richard M. Daley.
3/18/04
NY Bike Store Survives, Owner Point to Service as Key to over 50 Years
in Business
3/17/04
Some Communities Don't Depend on Chain Department Stores--They
Own Their Own
3/16/04
Another Piece of History Lost
A college haunt of e.e. cummings, T.S.
Eliot, and Allen Ginsburg, one of the nation's two remaining all-poetry
bookstores succumbs to chains and internet
sales.
3/7/04
Wisconsin Town Uses Zoning to Contain Big Boxes, Grow Wisely
While we don't agree
with the inevitability of big boxes presented in this article, we provide
it because it points to some wise
tools available to city and state governments to help them control their
future. Zoning is one; Wisconsin's revenue
sharing is another. We think a stronger size cap is one
under 100,000 square feet. See NewRules.org for
more on policy that promotes community.
2/29/04
Arizona challenges public subsidation of development
Should local public dollars
support absentee-owned corporations when locally-owned independent businesses
don't get the same favor? Even the state legislature is on alert. For a
reality check on the public costs of different kinds of development, see
the Fiscal Impact
Analysis from Barnstable, Mass. (also linked from our Recommended
Readings page)
2/26/04
Mayor urges chain grocery boycott
When a chain grocery decides
to pull out and urges customers to use their loyalty cards at its outlets
in other communities, the mayor cries "foul."
2/21/04
High rents force out small businesses
Property owners often find chains more lucrative tenants because their
pockets are deeper--and the trend in rising lease rates is causing many
downtown's to lose their independent business core because of it.
2/17/04
Congressional report highlights Wal-Mart's detrimental social costs
*see the report
2/13/04
To protect and serve Wal-Mart
One
small Utah community serves as a telling barometer for the effect a
big box development can have on a town--because it's their very first.
2/13/04
Is it Time for a Progressive Corporate Income Tax?
Small business owners face many challenges
when competing with global giants, including the advantage of deeper discounts
on items well beyond merchandise. Why should the federal
government add to the woes of small business owners by taxing the largest
businesses at rates often less than half the rate paid
by small businesses?
1/20/04
Big
Boxes leave more than a void
From a sprawl perspective, this article raises
the issue of how, in the wake of competition, empty hulks are left for
communities to handle while big boxes grow ever bigger. We reported on
this issue in 2002. See our article, Littering
the West with Dead Malls and Vacant Superstores.
1/15/04
Iowa Bible wholesaler blames Wal-Mart, other big box retailers for its demise
Wal-Mart's effect on businesses goes beyond the obvious
1/12/04
Wal-Mart
end-runs local laws in balky city
Apparently frustrated by local resistance to
its supersizing plans, the world's largest corporation is starting
to bypass democracy and rely on its PR to woo voters at the ballot
box to get its way.
1/11/04
Independent
supermarkets bet on customer loyalty in preparation for chains, supercenters.
1/7/04
Community
history on the block: historic neighborhood theaters falling in wake
of chain multiplexes
1/5/04
Big
box regulation sweeping California
"Wal-Mart is not shy about presenting its
case directly to voters. Wal-Mart-backed organizers have forced the
March 2 referendum on a Contra Costa County ordinance that prohibits
stores larger than 90,000 square feet from devoting more than 5%
of space to nontaxable items. Wal-Mart has already said it is willing
to spend $1 million on the campaign." (excerpted)
1/4/04
Supercenter
plans rile Mom and Pop, bring issues to surface in community
1/3/04
Black-owned
bookstores battle to survive
1/3/04
Local
pharmacies provide better service, gain fierce loyalty
General
Watching the Chains
12/5/04
Adding Fuel to the Fire
Supercenters add gasoline to "one stop shopping," create even fiercer competition for local stations.
10/30/04
Big Boxes starting to follow local design guidelines to fit in
1/25/04
Grocers
fight Wal-Mart with specialty foods
This article explores the ways other chains are
looking to differentiate themselves from the giant and stay in the game.
Notable omission: the independent grocers' perspective. The reporter
assured us she is writing a piece with that focus.