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The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition
by Michael H. Shuman
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
2006

"THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE" (in the words of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher) to globalization and the primacy of the multinational corporation. According to the defenders of this status quo philosophy—dubbed TINA—there is only one road to economic success: get large multinationals to locate in your local community, and export your goods as widely as possible all across the globe. Because of their huge scale and international reach, these multinational retailers and manufacturers are seen by TINA proponents as being more efficient and profitable, more able to deliver better prices for their goods, and more able provide jobs in the communities that they are located in. To TINA proponents locally owned small businesses are simply quaint remnants of the past, no longer able to compete in the global economy.

But Michael Shuman in his new book The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition proposes an alternative economic model based on local ownership and import substitution—or as he calls it: LOIS. He shows how contrary to popular myth, locally owned businesses are competitive with the multinationals and how they're gaining ground every day. And he challenges us all to not only buy locally produced goods, but also to apply the LOIS philosophy across the board to non-retail goods like home mortgages.

Shuman highlights eight trends that are making the old "bigger is better" economies of scale argument obsolete, and he describes a variety of innovative strategies these businesses are using to successfully compete with their over-sized competitors. He also shows how consumers can support these businesses by "going local" in their spending and how investors, policymakers, and global organizers can join the Small-Mart Revolution as well.
The Small-Mart Revolution is not just a book title. As Shuman makes clear, the Small-Mart Revolution is a movement and a call to arms to revitalize our communities by producing, selling, buying, and aspiring to conduct all aspects of modern day business on a local level. The Small-Mart Revolution offers a robust alternative to "go-go" globalization, one that nurtures the creative capacities of local businesses and enables communities everywhere to thrive.

Based in Washington, DC, Michael H. Shuman is vice president for Enterprise Development at the Training and Development Corporation (TDC) of Bucksport, Maine, where he leads development of the Worksphere Program, a national effort to support worker well-being. He is co-director of the Worksphere Institute, which recently received a $400,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation to identify income tax and public spending inequities facing small business in 25 states. He is also an organizer of Maine First Investments, an enterprise intended to help small companies in the state issue local stock that can be traded on an intrastate stock exchange.

A noted economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, Shuman is widely recognized for his research into the economic advantages of small-scale businesses in an era of globalization. He has authored, coauthored, or edited seven books, including the just-published The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006) and Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age (Free Press, 1998). He served as a senior editor for the recently published Encyclopedia of Community and is a cofounder and active participant in the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. He is president of Bay Friendly Chicken, a community-owned start-up located in Salisbury, Maryland.

Shuman received an A.B. with distinction in economics and international relations from Stanford University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

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