Retail

Or, for that matter, why does Best Buy have one in the Republic of Mauritius? Tax avoidance might be the answer. A growing number of big corporations are using offshore tax havens to escape paying U.S. taxes. A recent estimate suggests big companies are dodging at least $37 billion a year — and, in so doing, gaining a significant competitive advantage over small businesses.

Until now, efforts in Congress to block companies from hiding profits overseas have been slow-going. But that's changing thanks to a new coalition of small businesses that have come together to call on Congress to level the playing field. More

Newly released data from the U.S. Department of Transportation show that the average American household is driving less than it did in 2001. But, 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.

But the good news is that the growth in the number of miles Americans log for shopping has slowed substantially from the rapid increases of the 1990s, and there are signs that neighborhood businesses may be making a comeback. More

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.

"The message that big banks don't have our interest at heart and small, local banks do is really resonating," said Joe Grafton, executive director of Somerville Local First, a two-year-old coalition of independent businesses in Somerville, Massachusetts.  More

What journalists and even environmentalists so often fail to do in reporting on Wal-Mart's sustainability announcements is to provide some context.

Context is everything. Consider Wal-Mart's latest announcement: It will push some of the factories that supply its stores to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. That's a good thing in and of itself, but what happens when we measure it against Wal-Mart's overall impact on the production of goods? More

This article was originally published on Huffington Post as part of a partnership with their Move Your Money campaign. 

Banking consolidation was constricting the flow of loans to small businesses long before the recession. So it's no surprise that the money taxpayers have spent over the last sixteen months shoring up big banks has done nothing to free up credit for small businesses.

To do that, we need to focus on expanding the capacity of small banks to lend to local businesses that have, as a result of the recession and through no fault of their own, become riskier investments. A key issue is whether the Senate will quickly reauthorize a critical loan-guarantee program.
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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. More