The Small-Mart Revolution How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition

by Shuman, Michael H.

• ISBN13: 9781576753866
• ISBN10: 1576753867
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-07-06
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Summary

Defenders of globalisation, free markets, and free trade insist there's no alternative to mega-stores like Wal- Mart - Michael Shuman begs to differ. In The Small-Mart Revolution, Shuman makes a compelling case for his alternative business model, one in which communities reap the benefits of "going local" in four key spending categories: goods, services, energy, and finance. He argues that despite the endless media coverage of multinational conglomerates, local businesses give more to charity, adapt more easily to rising labour and environmental standards, and produce more wealth for a community. They also spend more locally, thereby increasing community income and creating wealth and jobs. The Small-Mart Revolution presents a visionary yet practical roadmap for everyone concerned with mitigating the worst of globalisation.

Author Biography

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.”

Table of Contents

Foreword by Bill McKibben	ix
Introduction: From Wal-Mart to Small-Mart	1	(20)
PART ONE THE GATHERING GALE
1 Wreckonomics	21	(18)
2 The LOIS Alternative	39	(24)
3 Amazing Shrinking Machines	63	(34)
PART TWO THE SMALL-MART PATRIOTS
4 Consumers	97	(21)
5 Investors	118	(16)
6 Entrepreneurs	134	(26)
7 Policymakers	160	(29)
8 Community Builders	189	(21)
9 Globalizers	210	(15)
Appendix A. The Fall and Rise of Small-Scale Competitiveness	225	(6)
Appendix B. The Scale of Existing Business by Payroll	231	(4)
Acknowledgments	235	(8)
About the Author	243	(2)
Notes	245	(26)
Index	271