Recommended Reading
| Books Periodicals Studies |
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The Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses Order online via secure PayPal connection |
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The Home Town Advantage |
| Going Local by Michael Shuman (1998) Examines community programs for self-reliance and economic strength in a global age and includes a tremendous resource directory. |
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| The
Case Against the Global Economy -- and For a Turn Toward the Local Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith eds. (1996) This collection of essays from around the world describes campaigns to promote local economic strength and stability as well as analyzing larger issues in the global economy and corporatization. |
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Slam-Dunking
Wal-Mart |
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Better,
Not Bigger |
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| The Economic Renewal Guide by Michael Kinsley (1997) Introduces the Rocky Mountain Institute's Economic Renewal Program -plans for building prosperity by thinking outside the conventional development paradigm. |
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Changing
Places - Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl |
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Home
from Nowhere |
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| Up Against the Wal-Marts - How Your Business Can Prosper in the Shadow of the Giants by Don Taylor and Jeanne Smalling Archer (1994) An outstanding resource for business owners in all fields. Contains a wealth of strategies and tactics to help independent businesses compete successfully with the chains. | |
| Making a Place for Community by Williamson, Imbroscio & Alperovitz (2002) A far-reaching and extensively researched exploration of politics, economics and strategies for localization that excels at linking economic democracy to political democracy. |
The Ecologist, Yes, and Orion Magazines often run articles on issues related to community and business. Orion and The Ecologist both have featured our work. In Business is a green business magazine that ran a feature story on AMIBA and local IBAs. Mass business publications like Forbes and Business Week now offer small business-specific issues.
Powerful proof of the benefits of independent businesses to
their communities. Great tools for community members and organizers to use
with planning boards, city councils and others! We expect this list to grow
substantially in the next few years.
Economic Impact of Local Independent Business
San Francisco Retail Diversity Study
This three-part study, released in May 2007, calculates the market share of independents and chains in several categories: book, sporting goods, and toy stores, and casual dining restaurants. The study's second section analyzes the impact on San Francisco's economy of shopping at locally owned businesses versus chains. The final -- and perhaps most important -- part examines the impact on the city's economy of a mere 10% shift in resident spending between chains and local businesses and vice versa, quantified in terms of added revenue and jobs to the community. While the numbers are specific to the San Francisco area, a reasonable "translation" can be inferred.
Andersonville Study of Retail Economics
This report, released on October 20, 2004, extends the study done in Austin, Texas in 2003. The study compares 10 independent businesses and 10 chains in retail, restaurant and service sectors. The results further corroborate the local economic benefit of independent businesses, demonstrating that independents generate about 3 times the local economic activity as chains. Further, the researchers make the case for community governments to create policy to protect their independent businesses.
The Economic Impact of Locally Owned Businesses vs. Chains: A Case Study in Midcoast Maine [PDF]
by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Friends of Midcoast Maine, September 2003. Findings of this study indicate that three times as much money stays in the local economy when you buy goods and services from locally owned businesses as with chains. This study tracked the revenue and expenditures of eight locally owned businesses in Midcoast Maine.
Economic Impact study [PDF] in Austin, Texas (2002) substantiating the economic multiplier--of over three times--of two independent businesses, Waterloo Records and Book People, as compared to a Borders Books & Music Corp. store (planned for inclusion in a nearby--and publicly subsidized--development).
Fiscal impact analysis [PDF] in Barnstable, Massachusetts (2002) that compares the tax revenue generated by different kinds of residential and commercial development with the actual cost of providing public services for each land use. Revenue gainers: community-based businesses; revenue losers: big boxes, fast food chains and strip malls.
Released in October 2003, 10 Reasons Why Vermont's Homegrown Economy Matters: And 50 Proven Ways to Revive It is the result of two years of collaborative research by Stacy Mitchell of the New Rules Project and the Preservation Trust of Vermont on specific reasons why locally owned businesses matter and practical ways to plan for a homegrown economy, foster revitalization and unite independent businesses--no matter where you live.
Report on Independent Business impact [PDF] in Santa Fe, New Mexico (Nov. 2003), both economically and socially, and the threat the sector feels from chain competition. Commissioned by SFIBCA, AMIBA's Santa Fe affiliate.
Impact of Big Box Development
Assessment of the Direct, Indirect, and Induced Economic Effects of Chain Stores on the Regional Economy of Cape Cod (June 2005) [PDF]
This study by an economic consulting firm clearly identifies big boxes and chains as detriments to community and busts the myth perpetuated by chains that they will boost the local economy. How? By demonstrating that, by proportion, chains and independent stores account for approximately the same sales per square foot, yet independents tend to pay better wages, provide more jobs per sale and contribute more to the local economy through the multiplier effect.
Supercenters and the Transformation of the Bay Area Grocery Industry:
Issues, Trends, and Impacts (January 2004) [PDF]
This thorough report,
produced by the Bay Area Economic Forum, provides rich data on supercenter development; this study urges municipal leaders to seriously consider the grocery sector's substantial impact on the community and the local economy; they should consider proposals for supercenters with great care.
Rodino Report for the City of Los Angeles on the economic impact of Wal-Mart
A compelling, comprehensive case for the multi-faceted impacts of this big box. (The hyperlink will take you to a report index--the Rodino report, in addition to the ordinance that followed it, is noted).
Wal-Mart: A Destructive Force for Chicago Communities and Companies [PDF]
Economic impact analysis commissioned by the New School of Community Economic Development, University of Illinois-Chicago, March 25, 2004
Wal-Mart and County-Wide Poverty [PDF]
A study from Pennsylvania State University from October 18, 2004 that indicates counties with one or more Wal-Mart stores experience smaller decreases in family poverty than counties without. Possible causes include the decrease in civic capacity due to local entrepreneurs being driven out of business--people who also tend to be community leaders.
Shopping for Subsidies: How Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer Money to Finance
Its Never-Ending Growth [PDF]
This report by Good Jobs First documents over $1 billion in public subsidies and other forms of handouts that Wal-Mart has received for locating in communities.
Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart [PDF]
A report by the Democratic staff of the Committee on Education
and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives, February 16, 2004.
"Is it fair to give taxpayers' money to big corporations that will then use it to help put existing firms out of business?" question Dr. Kenneth Stone and Georgeanne Artz in their study of big box home improvement centers and their effect on host towns and surrounding communities [PDF] . Published in 2001. Findings: sales of hardware and building supplies grow in the host communities, but at the expense of sales in smaller towns nearby. Moreover, after a few years, many host communities experienced a sharp decline in hardware and building supplies sales, often dropping below their initial levels, as more big box stores opened in the surrounding region and saturated the market.
The Shils Report (1997), entitled " Measuring the Economic and Sociological Impact of the Mega-Retail Discount Chains on Small Enterprise in Urban, Suburban and Rural Communities," was groundbreaking research by Edward B. Shils, Director Emeritus of the Wharton Entrepreneurial Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The report details the effect of chains and big boxes on small businesses due to economies of scale and governmental failure to enforce antitrust laws. Other studies have built on Shils' work. Follow the link to the 250-page downloadable report.
Dr. Kenneth Stone's (Iowa State University, 1977) landmark study on Wal-Mart's effect on Iowa's rural communities 10 years after the corporation's arrival, Impact of the Wal-Mart Phenomenon on Rural Communities [PDF] , provides strong evidence of how this big box displaces locally owned independent businesses in the community and the surrounding area. It also provides Dr. Stone's advice to locals on competing with chains.