Retail News

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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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.

Developers Diversified Realty, one of the largest big-box developers in the country, spent  $1.2 million trying to persuade the county's 24,000 voters to green-light an 80-acre project slated to include up to 800,000 square feet of big-box stores just north of the town of Ukiah.

Opponents of the project, organized as Save Our Local Economy, raised just $92,000, but ran a smart, creative campaign that, over the course of several months, involved more than 400 volunteers. More

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many of New Orleans' locally owned businesses reopened within days of the floodwaters subsiding and played a pivotal role in drawing people back.  National chains, meanwhile, kept their distance.

But, despite their resilience and loyalty,  locally owned businesses have been largely ignored in the city's redevelopment plans. Instead, New Orleans has been lavishing massive public subsidies on big-box development.

Now a new study finds that the city's independent businesses are not only more resilient, but generate twice the economic impact of big-box retailers like Target, while consuming a fraction of the land. The Urban Conservancy, which commissioned the study and runs an initiative called Stay Local, hopes the new data will prompt the city to change its policies.
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