A federal judge has dismissed all charges in the antitrust case brought by three independent video rental businesses against Blockbuster Video and several major Hollywood...
Local newspapers suffer a double blow when giant chains like Home Depot or Wal-Mart come to town. Not only do these companies rarely advertise in...
Many city officials welcome large chain retailers for the tax revenue that create. Rarely do they consider the other side of the balance sheet: the...
A profile of the first Independent Business Alliance. Plotting the overthrow of the franchised world, bookstore owner David Bolduc and political organizer Jeff Milchen strategize...
A coalition of neighborhood, small business, and environmental groups has gathered more than 4,000 petition signatures against a proposed Wal-Mart store in Vancouver, Canada. …...
In mid-May, the city council of Arcata, California voted 4-to-1 to enact a citywide cap on the number formula restaurants. The measure must pass a...
Six weeks after an advisory referendum won broad support from residents, the Ocean Beach, California, planning board voted 8-to-4 in early May to recommend that...
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown vetoed an ordinance to require greater scrutiny of big box development. The measure passed the Board of Supervisors on a...
Steve Bercu, owner of Book People, a large independent bookstore in Austin, Texas, has been increasingly concerned about the decline of the city’s homegrown businesses....
To counter competition from big box retailers, independent lighting stores are banding together in a cooperative called Lighting One. The coop enables members to reduce...
Just a few years ago, industry observers were predicting the demise of independent funeral homes. Four giant companies were buying up thousands of independent mortuaries...
The now defunct Intimate Bookshop of North Carolina has filed suit against Barnes & Noble and Borders Books alleging that the chains used their market...
The drive for increased property tax revenue, and in some cases sales tax revenue, can lead local governments to make land use decisions that conflict...
In January, Canada’s university and college bookstores filed a complaint with federal competition officials over attempts by Indigo, the country’s largest book chain, to assume...
A new Salt Lake City map offers residents and visitors a colorful and handy reference for finding more than 100 unique, locally owned businesses. The...