While the number of miles logged going to work, social events, and other activities declined over the last decade, the number of miles families drive for shopping each year continued climb. Continue reading
Across the country, independent business groups that have been urging people to "buy local" are now making "bank local" an increasingly prominent part of their message, bringing new grassroots visibility and organizational infrastructure to the Move Your Money movement. Continue reading
What journalists and even environmentalists so often fail to do in reporting on Walmart’s sustainability announcements is to provide context. Continue reading
Although small and mid-sized banks control only 22 percent of all bank assets, they account for 54 percent of small business lending. Big banks, meanwhile, allocate relatively little of their resources to small businesses. The largest 20 banks, which now command 57 percent of all bank assets, devote only 18 percent of their commercial loan portfolios to small business. Continue reading
By exempting internet retailers like Amazon.com from collecting sales taxes, lawmakers provide a substantial financial incentive for people to bypass local businesses and shop online instead. Continue reading
More holiday shoppers deliberately sought out locally owned businesses this year, according to a national survey of more than 1,800 independent businesses. Continue reading
Despite growing public support, local businesses are likely to remain on the economic margins without fundamental changes in public policy. In this lecture, delivered at the Bristol Schumacher Conference in Great Britain, Stacy Mitchell proposes a set of new rules — policies that would foster local self-reliance and refashion the economy for long-term viability.
A survey of over 100 independent retailers in New England has found that almost all would like to source more of their inventory from local and regional producers, but there are barriers to doing so, including, most notably, a lack of an easy and efficient way for retailers to identify New England companies manufacturing the kinds of goods they carry. Continue reading
Credit card processing is not only highly concentrated – MasterCard, Visa, and American Express control 93 percent of the market – but competition among the card processors tends to raise, not lower, the fees they charge merchants, according to a new report from the U.S. General Accounting Office. Continue reading
Despite being outspent 12-to-1, a grassroots group campaigning against a plan to build a massive big-box complex in Mendocino County, California, won a decisive victory when voters rejected the project by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. Continue reading
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