These graphs illustrate the shifting market share of chain and independent retailers between 1982 and 2007, as well as the growing share of spending captured by Walmart. Continue reading
In this Q&A with Bookselling This Week, Stacy Mitchell talks about how big chains benefit from government favoritism and misperceptions about price and value. Continue reading
A new study has concluded that additional chain retail expansion on Cape Cod would undermine the region’s economy. Continue reading
The New Economics Foundation’s Alternative Mansion House Speech, given by Stacy Mitchell in May 2005.
Global retailing giants — including the British chain Tesco, France’s Carrefour, and Walmart — have also been lobbying for an end to rules that bar foreign direct investment in India’s retail sector. Continue reading
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 they have lost their local identity and become little more than "clone towns." Continue reading
Our response to the destructive force of mega-corporations like Wal-Mart ought to involve much more than adopting regulations that "soften the blows" and "slow the pace of change," as Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Clinton, argued in a recent New York Times op-ed entitled Don’t Blame Wal-Mart. Yes, we most certainly should raise the minimum wage and require companies to offer employees affordable health insurance, as Reich suggests. Continue reading
Banff, like many communities in western Canada, is facing a growing influx of multinational chains. Determined to save their community from becoming"Anyplace, North America," Banff officials are investigating ways to buck the chain store trend. Luckily, they are not in uncharted territory. Communities across the continent have devised effective strategies for limiting chains and nurturing locally owned businesses. Continue reading
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 control of campus bookstores. Continue reading
Published in 2000, The Hometown Advantage examines the impacts of chain retailers and provides a guide to reviving your community’s local economy. Continue reading
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