1. When Walmart moves into an area, the number of small retail businesses falls significantly as many are forced to close. A study found that within 4 miles of a Chicago Walmart, 25% of small businesses closed after it opened. 2. Walmart claims small businesses can thrive alongside it, but studies show Walmart openings lead to large negative effects on competing businesses and no increase in sales at non-competing businesses. 3. When small businesses close, the local community suffers losses in retail jobs, money leaving the community, and declines in civic participation and neighborhood well-being.

1. What Happens to Small Businesses
When Walmart Moves In?

2. As Walmart and other big-box chains have
expanded across the country, the number of
small retail businesses has fallen by 39%.
Number of small retailers per 1 million people
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
1982 1987 1992 1997 2002 2007
Source: US Economic Census

3. Cities are one of the few places where local
businesses continue to thrive.
But, now, with Walmart pushing to get into
urban areas, these businesses are under threat.

4. After Walmart opened in Chicago
in 2006, one-quarter of the small
businesses within a 4-mile radius
of the store closed.
Source: “The Impact of an Urban Wal-Mart Store on
Area Businesses,” Loyola University Chicago, 2009.

5. Walmart’s new, smaller “Neighborhood Market”
and “Express” stores are no less destructive.
A study of a Neighborhood Market store in
Seattle found that it would reduce sales at
nearby businesses by over $25 million.
Source: "The Economic Impact of a Walmart Store in the Skyway
Neighborhood of South Seattle," C.S. Fowler Consulting LLC, April 2012.

6. Walmart claims: “Small businesses that
MYTH adapt can thrive and grow side by side
with Walmart.”

7. Walmart claims: “Small businesses that
MYTH adapt can thrive and grow side by side
with Walmart.”
A study of 1,200 big-box store openings FACT
nationally found:
• “large, negative effects” on nearby competing
businesses, including many store closures.
• no increase in customers or sales for non-
competing businesses (i.e., those offering
different products than the big-box store).
Source: "Mom-and-Pop meet Big-Box: Complements or substitutes?"
Journal of Urban Economics, 2010.

8. When Walmart destroys small
businesses, the surrounding
neighborhood suffers significant
economic and social losses.

9. 1. Dozens of Local Entrepreneurs
Lose Their Livelihoods

10. 2. Retail Employment Declines
600
450
300 360 Average number of jobs created by a Walmart store
150
0
-150
-300
Average number of jobs lost at other
-450 -507 businesses after Walmart opens
-600
Source: "The effects of Wal-Mart on local labor markets," Journal of
Urban Economics, 2008.

11. 3. Money Leaves the Community
As local retailers close, local suppliers and service providers, such as printers and
accountants, see their revenue decline. Walmart has no need for these services.
Additional Local Economic Activity Created for Every $1 Million in Sales
Big-Box Local Retailers
$160,000
$320,000
$0 $100,000 $200,000 $300,000 $400,000
Source: “Thinking Outside the Box: A Report on Independent Merchants
and the Local Economy,” Civic Economics, 2009.

12. 4. Neighborhood Well-Being Declines
Several studies have found that when locally
owned businesses are displaced by Walmart:
• Civic participation and voter turnout fall
• The number of active nonprofit
organizations drops
• Residents are less likely to know and
interact with their neighbors
Source: “Local Ownership Makes Communities Healthier, Wealthier and
Wiser,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance, July 18, 2012. (Reporting on the
findings of several published sociological research studies.)

13. 5. The Community Risks Its Future
on a Single Absentee-Owned Store
Walmart may come in... and then leave.

14. With so much at stake, many small business
owners are now joining the campaign to
block Walmart’s aggressive urban expansion
and fight for new city policies.

15. Cities have many policy options for controlling
the spread of big-box retailers and protecting
neighborhoods from their damaging effects.
Here are a few:
• Ban or limit “formula” businesses from most
neighborhoods, as San Francisco has done
• Require large retail stores to pass an economic and
community impact review before they can open.
• Mandate that large retailers pay a living wage and
give back to the community.

16. Find studies, policy models, and much more
under the Independent Business tab at
www.ilsr.org