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Amazon Is Trying to Control the Underlying Infrastructure of Our Economy
Stacy Mitchell | June 25, 2017
 We often talk about Amazon as though it were a retailer. It's an understandable mistake. After all, Amazon sells more clothing, electronics, toys, and books than any other company. Last year, Amazon captured nearly $1 of every $2 Americans spent online. As recently as 2015, most people looking to buy something online started at a search engine. Today, a majority go straight to Amazon.
But to describe Amazon as a retailer is to misunderstand what the company actually is, and to miss the depth of the threat that it poses to our liberty and the very idea of an open, competitive market. In this op-ed for Vice's Motherboard, we look at how Amazon is trying to control the underlying infrastructure of our economy. We also examine how buying Whole Foods would expand Amazon's control of commerce — and why regulators should block the deal. Continue Reading
New Episode of Our Podcast: How Big Businesses Get Big Subsidies
June 27, 2017
 Episode 23 of our podcast looks at how big companies have become skilled at wringing big subsidies from local and state governments. In the episode, ILSR's Stacy Mitchell talks with Greg LeRoy, the executive director of Good Jobs First, about the sheer amount of the subsidies and how they warp local economic development. And they talk about a recent public policy win that could make a big difference by bringing more public transparency to these deals. Listen to the Episode
Happy Independents Week!
July 4, 2017
 Ever since the Boston Tea Party, independent businesses have been essential to our liberty and democracy. That's why this week, along with celebrating July 4, we're also celebrating locally owned businesses everywhere. It's a good time to dip back into our archives and revisit our roundup of the research on why local matters, our report on how to create spaces where locally owned businesses can thrive, and our TEDx talk on how to bring public policy into the buy local movement. We've also put together an overview on the great work of our colleagues across ILSR, from advocating for community broadband networks to making the case for energy democracy. Happy #IndieWeek!
Amazon's Bid to Acquire Whole Foods Fuels Talk About Company's Power
July 5, 2017
 In the wake of the news about Amazon's deal to buy Whole Foods, even more people are talking about Amazon's power:
- Mainstream publications have been publishing pieces asking more questions about the company, like the USA Today article that carried the headline, "Is Amazon getting too big?"
- Institutions have come out against the deal, like the Houston Chronicle did in its must-read editorial calling on federal regulators to block it as a start to "addressing the underlying problem of a political and economic order" that favors the big and powerful.
- Policymakers have, too, like U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, who voiced concerns about how the deal would impact suppliers and locally owned grocery stores.
Here's some other coverage that's been on our reading and listening lists, including pieces featuring ILSR's Stacy Mitchell: the Washington Post on how the deal would impact local food systems; the Wall Street Journal on how Amazon is leading tech platforms' takeover of the U.S.; the New York Times on how the deal would give Amazon even more monopoly power; the Associated Press on the data trove that Whole Foods would give Amazon; WNYC's show "The Takeaway" on how Amazon could upend the U.S. economy; KALW's show "Your Call" on how increasing concentration is linked to growing inequality; FAIR's show " CounterSpin" in conversation with Stacy about the deal; and Washington Bytes on Amazon and antitrust law.
In Case You Missed It
 If "monopoly" sounds like a word from another era, that's because, until recently, it was. The term was reliably used through the middle of the 20th century in newspaper headlines and State of the Union addresses alike, but starting in the 1970s, it began to retreat from public consciousness. The story of why carries lessons for how an economic policy's effectiveness can be its own undoing — and about how people are thinking about corporate power today. Because monopoly is back.
In this piece for The Atlantic, ILSR's Stacy Mitchell looks at the history of the anti-monopoly movement in the U.S., and how today, as economic concentration soars, monopoly could again be just the word we need . Continue reading.
News Stories We’re Following
- As malls and big-box stores close, "Main Streets will be OK because... They offer community. They offer real connection and meaning."
- In towns already hit by steel mill closings, the latest casualty is retail jobs — and e-commerce isn't filling the gap.
- The benefits of deciding to "opt local," in our purchases and our public policy.
- Here's how a locally owned Cleveland hardware store, and others like it, continue to thrive in an Amazon world: love for what they do, connection to place, and ability to make their stores about community and experience.
- A Kansas town rises to defend its 53-year-old locally owned grocery store from a Dollar General.
- Jersey City decides to keep in place its restrictions on where chain stores can locate downtown.
- As Walmart tells its vendors to stop using Amazon's cloud services, it underlines how Amazon's dominance comes not just from its retail arm, but from its infrastructure.
- Nike's decision to start selling its products directly on Amazon tells a story about how Amazon uses its power as a platform to magnify its power as a retailer.
- The price that meatpackers pay for cattle has plummeted, but the price that customers pay for beef at the grocery store hasn't — which highlights the monopoly power of the big four meatpackers.
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