Supporting Strong Local Economies

The arrival of transnational chains into a community threatens its economic and cultural vibrancy.  While purporting to offer benefits such as job opportunities, investment in the surrounding community, and neighborhood improvement, in fact, the long-term tolls of non-local chains are often obscured and almost always unsustainable.

Our actions to support independent business, unions, and sweat-free labor are rooted in the struggles of particular communities emblematic of larger struggles.  In particular, many of our actions focus on New York's East Village, internationally recognized as a site where flourishing shops and culture are seriously threatened by a rapid influx of chain stores.  Currently, between 2nd Avenue and Avenue D and Houston Street and 14th Street there are less than 10 chain stores, making it one of the last few commercial sites in Manhattan where independently owned business predominate. The struggles to defend the East Village therefore set precedents for communities around the world.  In protecting and strengthening neighborhood diversity, we build critical case studies that emboldens healthy neighborhoods everywhere to fight their own extinction.

 
Transnational Chains Result in Reduced Quality of Life and Community Vibrancy

Economic studies have proven that transnational chains use the lure of low prices as a short term strategy designed to undermine and shutter local businesses who are unable to compete. After driving out local business competitors, these prices are slowly raised to their former level.  The effect of closing local businesses means a reduction in consumer options and locally owned businesses whose dollar contribution to the community is unparalleled by chains. Studies have proven that for every dollar spent on a local business, 70% of the money is reinvested in that same community, as compared to less than 40% for chain stores. Big box economies also result in more traffic, more pollution, and a decline in living conditions.  The arrival of super centers of 200,000 square feet or more generated an average of 42 percent more traffic (Vivian, Georgiena M., ITE Journal, August 2006).  This additional distance of driving adds up: The extra 95 bilion road miles that Americans are logging for shopping (over 1990 levels) account for 40 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, 300,000 tons of hydrocarbons, and 150,000 tons of nitrogen oxide released into the atmosphere every year (Mitchell, Stacy. Big Box Swindle: 115). 

Low-Cost Prices means Lower Wages for the Working Poor

Often, transnational chains' low-cost items are made affordable because of the poor wages offered to its employees and inequitable working conditions.  For instance, chain stores also pay demonstrably lower wages to their workers and offer far less job security, leaving workers to subsidize unlivable wages with other forms of income.  According to recent statistics by the Democratic Staff of the House Committee on Labor on Work Force, the average Wal-Mart employee requires $2,100 in public assistance such as Section 8 Housing vouchers, tax credits for the working poor, reduced cost lunches for dependent children, health care programs, and more. In another study conducted by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Poverty Guidelines, sales associates, the most common job in Wal-Mart, earned on average $8.23 an hour for annual wages of $13,861 in 2001. The 2001 poverty line for a family of three was $14,630. (“Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?”, Business Week, 10/6/03

Transnational Chains Place Strain on Municipal Budgets, Reduce the Local Tax Base, and Impoverish Communities in the Long-Term.

Buried in the discounts offered by chain stores are government subsidies such as food stamps, Medicaid, sewage and road care, special exemptions from taxes, and loopholes in regulations that protect citizens from environmental hazards. The misallocation of funds adversely impacts services like education and support of infrastructure. Their impact on real estate values and the tax base are also overwhelmingly negative.  According to a recent study on the impact of transnational chains on municipal subsidies, in 7 of 8 communities in Ohio, the arrival or transnational chains created a drain on municipal budgets. (Gross, Randal. "Understanding the Fiscal Impacts of Land Use in Ohio." Development Economics, August 2004)

Enlivening an Independent East Village takes a multi-pronged approach to making public the real cost of the so-called "low-price" illusion.  We draw attention to the numerous advantages of locally-owned, independent businesses: the preservation of consumer diversity reflective of real community needs, the support of equitable labor and jobs, the ecological accountability and mindfulness of businesses who have a strong base in their community, and the strengthening of civic engagement and creation of social capital. Our goal is to support independent businesses and healthy neighborhoods in the East Village and make public the ways in which this community functions as a model for others.

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