Last week, we talked about how big box retailers are getting smaller. Why is the big box retail sector making this expensive and difficult change to smaller stores? Because consumers have already started changing. Humorist David Sedaris summed up this consumer feeling in an interview. “I’d rather go to an actual shop — preferably a small…
“Everything gigantic in American [retail] is about to get smaller or die.” That’s the dramatic claim by contrarian economist James Kunstler,writing about the big retail sector in Business Insider. He says big retail is on the brink of scale implosion. Kunstler points to the same trends that are affecting small towns: online shopping, global delivery,…
“Big data” and “mining big data” are terms that are appearing in business magazines and journals at lot these days. Yet small-business owners often are not sure if and how big data fits into their business. Nor do they know where to get it and how to analyze it, even if they would have it….
Guest post by Rick Skorupski Population migration – a net loss or a net gain for the The Plains States? Thanks to Grow Spink Inc. (an economic development non profit in north eastern South Dakota), I had the opportunity to go the Symposium on Small Towns at the University of Minnesota – Morris in June…
If you believe what you read or hear from the media, then all small towns are dying. But that’s not the real story. The real story is much too nuanced for a sound bite or 3 minute story: some small towns are dying, most are surviving, and some are prospering. And any town can choose…
Business in rural areas just isn’t the same as what urban business pundits assume. I like to break through that urban bias with special trends for rural small business. I’ll share a short overview here, and you can download the full report here. No cost, and no sign-up needed. Trend 1. Stage 2 businesses bloom…
BALLE is the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. It’s all about local businesses working together to make their local economy prosper, with a focus on locally-owned businesses, sustainability, green jobs, and thinking local first. There is a national organization, and local networks have formed in many cities, towns and regions. I’m reporting today from…
A “cash mob” is a group of regular people who decide to all support the same local business on the same day. Today is International Cash Mob Day. If you don’t have a cash mob in your town, now is the time to organize one. What are the rules? There are no rules, or each…
Since 2006, this site has been helping people like you in small towns move forward without waiting on outside experts, big budgets, or perfect plans. You don’t need any of that to get started.
If you care about your business, your downtown, or your community, you’ll find ideas here you can actually use. Take one. Try it out. Let me know how it goes for you.
Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.
We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses.
Copyright © 2006–2026 Becky McCray • Site by Webdancers