Michael H. Shuman

The Small-Mart Revolution (eBook, ePUB)

How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Defenders of massive multinational chains like Wal-Mart and Fortune 500 big business argue that, like it or not, there is no alternative. Their huge scale and international reach, they claim, make them more efficient and profitable, better able to deliver value, and an uncontested boon for the job market. According to the big boys, locally owned small businesses are simply quaint remnants of the past, unable to compete in the global economy. But in ,em>The Small-Mart Revolution, Michael Shuman shows that the benefits these mega-stores and huge corporations supposedly deliver to communities are illusory. Crunch the numbers and you'll find that locally owned businesses turn out to be much more reliable generators of good jobs, economic growth, tax dollars, community wealth, charitable contributions, social stability, and political participation. Unlike their global competitors, they do this without massive tax breaks and subsidies that often put local economies in a permanent hole. Plus, contrary to popular belief, local businesses are competitive with the multinationals--and gaining ground every day. Shuman highlights numerous trends that are making the old "bigger is better" economies of scale argument obsolete, and he describes a variety of innovative strategies these businesses are using to successfully compete with their over-sized competitors. He also shows how consumers, investors, and policymakers can support their own communities by "going local." The Small-Mart Revolution offers a robust alternative to "go-go" globalization, one that nurtures the creative capacities of local businesses and enables communities everywhere to thrive.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Seitenzahl: 200
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. Juli 2007
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781609944261
• Artikelnr.: 38332578

Autorenporträt

Michael Shuman, an attorney, economist, and writer, is Vice President for Enterprise Development for the Training & Development Corporation (TDC) of Bucksport, Maine. Since publication of his previous book, Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age (Routledge, 2000), he has been considered one of the nation’s fore- most experts on locally owned business. After growing up in the suburbs in Long Island and St. Louis, Shuman entered Stanford University, where he received a bachelors’ degree with distinction in international relations and economics in 1979 and a law degree in 1982. In 1980 he won First Prize in the Rabinowitch Essay Competition of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on “How to Prevent Nuclear War.”

Inhaltsangabe

Foreword by Bill McKibben
Introduction: From Wal-Mart to Small-Mart
THE GATHERING GALE
Wreckonomics
The LOIS Alternative
Amazing Shrinking Machines
THE SMALL-MART PATRIOTS
Consumers
Investors
Entrepreneurs
Policymakers
Community Builders
Globalizers
Appendix A. The Fall and Rise of Small-Scale Competitiveness
Appendix B. The Scale of Existing Business by Payroll
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Notes
Index