Retail Articles and Commentaries

A growing body of evidence suggests that public enthusiasm for all things local and independent is on the rise, providing locally owned businesses with a measure of insulation from the worst effects of the recession, even as some of their biggest competitors teeter and collapse.

In January 2009, a national survey conducted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, in partnership with several organizations, found that, in an extremely challenging economic climate, independent retailers as a group are outperforming many chains.  Anecdotal reports from around the country provide further evidence that these grassroots efforts to build support for local businesses are indeed changing people's shopping habits.  More

Our response to an op-ed that attempts to discredit Buy Local campaigns. More

Abandoned big-box stores, dead and dying strip malls and empty storefronts are about to join foreclosed houses as one of the defining features of the American landscape in 2009.

Within a few months, more than one-eighth of the country's retail space will be sitting vacant, according to some estimates. That's about 1.4 billion square feet, or 50 square miles, of empty store space, ringed by roughly 150 square miles of useless parking lot.

It will be tempting to blame the weak economy for all of this wreckage. But the recession has merely been the trigger. This avalanche of vacant retail, much like the mortgage crisis, has been a long time in the making. More

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.

The economic model followed by Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers is no boon for the middle class.

Katherine Kersten tries to represent Wal-Mart as a hero of working families. But what Wal-Mart has saved poor and middle-income Americans -- and there's reason to doubt the depth and durability of the discounts Kersten cites -- it has taken that and more from them in diminished job opportunities and reduced income.

It's not just Wal-Mart. Rather, it's the economic model that Wal-Mart perfected and that others, including Home Depot and Target, also follow.  More

The Capital Region's future would be much better served by fostering the growth of locally owned businesses, rather than chasing after big-name national retailers, as was suggested in Chris Churchill's May 11 article, "Trendsetter shops bypass region."

Research shows local businesses deliver significantly greater economic returns for a community than national chains. A study conducted in Chicago by the firm Civic Economics found that every $100 spent at a national chain generated an average of $43 in additional economic activity in the local area. That same $100 spent at a locally owned store or restaurant created an average of $68 worth of new local economic activity.

Why do local businesses deliver so much more economic bang for our buck? More