The Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, a four-year-old, statewide grant and loan program for grocery store development, has financed over 50 independent grocery stores and...
Five years after the project was first introduced, the homeowners group, University Park Estates Neighborhood Association, has thwarted plans for a 140,000-square-foot Home Depot in...
Shopping center construction continues at a furious pace, even as chain retailers announce plans to close more than 6,500 outlets and vacancy rates soar.… Read...
During the first week of July, over 40 local business alliances across the country celebrated Independents Week, an annual event that draws public attention to...
This commentary was originally published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. What Wal-Mart has saved poor and middle-income Americans —and there’s reason to doubt the depth...
Originally published in the Times Union. The Capital Region’s future would be much better served by fostering the growth of locally owned businesses, rather than...
Seacoast Local has grown into a broad movement of independent businesses, nonprofit organizations, and citizens working together to protect and strengthen New Hampshire’s local economy,...
The grassroots group, New Scotlanders for Sound Economic Development (NS4SED), has convinced the town board in New Scotland, NY, to pass a moratorium on commercial...
Together, two grassroots groups have thwarted a development proposal that would have paved the way for a 128,000-square-foot Super Target in Simsbury, CT.… Read More
What makes Wal-Mart’s initiatives more challenging to confront than simple greenwashing is that they have just enough substance to have distracted many people, including a...
Included in the state budget passed this week by the New York legislature is a provision that requires online retailers, including Amazon.com, to collect state...
Stacy Mitchell on the Big-Box Swindle and related issues – broadcast on the Mark Johnson Show, RadioVermont WDEV, Mar. 11, 2008. … Read More
For years, chain retailers have exploited a loophole present in the tax laws of about half the states to escape paying billions of dollars in...
The success of the Powell Mercantile has inspired at least half a dozen other towns in Wyoming, Montana, and Nevada—all too small and remote to...
Sales of gift card are soaring, but most of the spending on gift cards is flowing to chain retailers. A growing number of independent retailers...