First Church of Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, Parish Hall.
Presenting Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, author of “Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses ”
We are blessed with specialty restaurants and independent food markets, gift shops, hardware stores, local relaters, medical professionals, clothing boutiques, sporting goods, local banks, bakeries, yoga studios, owner-run bookstores, bicycle shops, and so on. While we celebrate these local businesses for making Jamaica Plain so special, we may wonder why the main streets of other towns are suffering. How can we preserve what we have?
A shopping trip down Center Street or Washington Street in Jamaica Plain is a unique experience thanks to the variety of independent businesses. Author Stacy Mitchell brings her insight and expertise to the Jamaica Plain Forum to discuss the disruption of the local business community by mega-box retailers, and what Americans can do it save it.
Large retail chains have become the most powerful corporations in America and are rapidly transforming our economy, communities, and landscape. In her deft and revealing book “Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s independent Businesses,†Stacy Mitchell illustrates how mega-retailers are fueling many of our most pressing problems, from the shrinking middle class to rising water pollution and diminished civic engagement.
Mitchell’s investigation takes us from the suburbs of Cleveland to a fruit farm in California, the stockroom of an Oregon Wal-Mart, and a Pennsylvania town’s Main Street. She uncovers the shocking role government policy has played in the expansion of mega-retailers and builds a compelling case that communities composed of many small businesses are healthier and more prosperous than those dominated by large chains.
More than a critique, Big-Box Swindle draws on real life to show how some communities are successfully countering the spread of mega-retailers and rebuilding their local economies. Mitchell describes innovative approaches—from cutting edge land-use policies to small-business initiatives—that together provide a detailed road map to a more prosperous and sustainable future.
Our Speaker
Stacy Mitchell is a senior researcher with the nonprofit Institute for Local Self-Reliance and has served as an advisor to communities across the country on strategies to strengthen locally owned businesses.
Mitchell regularly contributes articles and commentaries to magazines and newspapers, and produces an acclaimed monthly email newsletter, The Hometown Advantage Bulletin. She chairs the American Independent Business Alliance and is a co-founder of Portland Buy Local. She lives in Portland, Maine.
Related Links:
Big-Box Swindle
www.bigboxswindle.com
Named one of the top ten books of 2006 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer!
Big Box Tool Kit
www.bigboxtoolkit.com
Hometown Advantage
www.hometownadvantage.org
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