In some of the first research to examine the effectiveness of buy-local campaigns, surveys in two Philadelphia neighborhoods, conducted at the end of a month-long...
Independent remodeling businesses are being increasingly squeezed by Home Depot and Lowe’s. Having captured nearly half of all hardware and building supply sales nationally, the...
Two former television journalists are traveling cross country in search of Independent America and are making a documentary about what they find. … Read More
Communities around the country are celebrating the second annual Independents Week, which draws on the July 4th holiday to remind people of the value of...
A lawsuit filed this month alleges that Visa and MasterCard illegally fix the price of fees that small retailers pay for credit card transactions. …...
More than 40 percent of the towns surveyed for a new report by the London-based New Economics Foundation are so overrun by chain stores that...
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has presented its 2005 Main Street Civic Leadership Award to the New Rules Project, a program of the Institute...
At the request of independent movie theaters across the state, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is investigating claims that major movie theater chains use their...
“I was driving home one day and saw it on the back of a bus,” said Don Burch, owner of Qwest Outdoors, a retailer of...
By now, many community leaders recognize that when chain retail sprawls unchecked, main street loses, not just jobs and businesses, but the very essence of...
Newsstand owners in New York City have filed a legal challenge to a new law that would transfer ownership of the city’s 300 independent newsstands...
In a new report titled "Clone Town Britain," the London-based New Economics Foundation warns that the country’s town centers are rapidly being overrun by chain...
Calvert County, Maryland, has enacted regulations limiting retail stores to 120,000 square feet in the town of Prince Frederick, 75,000 square feet in three other...
"We may look back and think this is one of the most important things we’ve done," said Bristol, Rhode Island, Town Councilor Halsey Herreshoff after...
The city of Bennington, Vermont, has enacted a store size cap ordinance that effectively puts an end to attempts by Wal-Mart to build a giant...