Greenfield, Mass., kept out Walmart to help local businesses stay solvent, but now struggles with a foe much harder to fight: Amazon.
Al Norman headed up the fight in his hometown of Greenfield and other towns like it for the past 25 years, and runs a website called Sprawl Busters, an "International Clearinghouse on Big Box Anti-Sprawl Information."
"But Norman and business owners in Greenfield are noticing that the Main Street stores are now struggling in the face of another force that’s become more and more powerful in recent years: e-commerce," Alana Semuels reports for The Atlantic. "Many customers who kept shopping in Greenfield’s downtown because Walmart was too far away are now turning to Amazon and other websites that offer free and fast shipping for basic needs, sapping business away from local stores that had survived for so long. Facing competition from a company as enormous as Amazon, some local stores are having trouble staying open." It's a long story, but worth the time. Read it here.
Al Norman headed up the fight in his hometown of Greenfield and other towns like it for the past 25 years, and runs a website called Sprawl Busters, an "International Clearinghouse on Big Box Anti-Sprawl Information."
"But Norman and business owners in Greenfield are noticing that the Main Street stores are now struggling in the face of another force that’s become more and more powerful in recent years: e-commerce," Alana Semuels reports for The Atlantic. "Many customers who kept shopping in Greenfield’s downtown because Walmart was too far away are now turning to Amazon and other websites that offer free and fast shipping for basic needs, sapping business away from local stores that had survived for so long. Facing competition from a company as enormous as Amazon, some local stores are having trouble staying open." It's a long story, but worth the time. Read it here.
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