Check out StayLocal and Urban Conservancy’s most impactful pieces of work below!
StayLocal Reports
New Orleans Independent Business Trends: Focus Group Report (2022)
Southeast Louisiana is not an easy place to run a business, and the cascading disasters of recent years, including the impacts of the Covid pandemic and Hurricane Ida presented recent threats to the viability of many local businesses. In January of 2022, we sat down with five business owners representing a range of business types, sizes, ages and locations throughout metro New Orleans. This report documents the outcomes of that facilitated discussion, wherein we explored how the economic climate might influence outcomes for New Orleans’ independent businesses in 2022.
New Orleans Independent Business Trends (2014 - 2018)
The success of the independent business community is vital for New Orleans’ economic future, as well as its sense of community, character and place. This annual report gives a snapshot of how our independents are faring, and arms us with insight on how best to foster a thriving independent business sector.
2014 Report | 2015 Report | 2016 Report | 2017 Report | 2018 Report
"Policy As Told By Pizza" - 2017 Report Summary
Magazine Street Report (2014)
Throughout 2013, StayLocal received reports from member businesses along Magazine Street about a tide of unaffordable rent increases occurring along the corridor, coinciding with an increased interest in Magazine Street from national chains. In response to these reports, StayLocal surveyed Magazine Street independent business owners to assess the pervasiveness of this trend.
Thinking Outside the Box (2009)
This study was undertaken to provide the people and policy makers of New Orleans with tangible economic guidance in choosing between strategies to restore commercial services to the entire city.
Business Summit Report (2007)
On January 12 and 13, 2007 StayLocal hosted a Business Recovery Summit to bring together local businesses and advocacy organizations to stimulate new dialogue and develop a foundation for new partnerships to catalyze business recovery in New Orleans. This report is a summary of our findings.
Biz Future
Biz Future
Are you ready to contribute ideas about our collective Biz Future?
StayLocal and its partners at New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce, FEMA, Evacuteer, and Louisiana Small Business Development Center hosted a virtual town hall in July of 2020. The discussion was framed by business owners with the aim to isolate the most timely ways StayLocal can
-advocate for solutions that equitably support very small and micro businesses
-elevate business owners who prioritize their employees’ well-being, and
-bring an adaptive and holistic approach to our economy’s long-term survival.
The New Orleans community has rallied to support our local independent businesses as the pandemic rages on. At the same time, increased awareness of racial disparity in economic opportunities in nearly every form has shone a light on challenges that business owners of color experience. These disparities threaten the survival of New Orleans’ Black-owned businesses.
As these two national crises converge and our economy falters, we are looking for the most effective ideas, those which will produce and reproduce benefit throughout our community, and those which will can prevent the loss of New Orleans’ Black-owned businesses.
Louisiana and New Orleans are funding specific programs. Louisiana reimbursed some businesses for Covid-19 related costs that they incurred staying open for business, the state legislature passed tax incentives in the June 2020 fiscal session, and Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s Office of Community and Economic Development offered funding to restaurants which were held to restrictions on indoor occupancy to expand outdoors.
What’s missing? We’ve heard a variety of unmet needs. Supplies for and methods of assisting employees fluctuates, and there is a real need for rent relief for business owners operating locations at reduced capacity. We’ve also heard the technical assistance (TA), the kind of one-on-one support provided to a business owner seeking DBE certification, for example, or compiling financial statements suitable for submission to PPP and other programs, is lacking. (2022 update: there are now more programs to address business owners’ financial fitness).
What’s working? New Orleans’ FEMA-supported meal program for those at risk distributed food orders to restaurants through Chef’s Brigade and NOCHI, which helped keep some restaurant kitchens staffed. And SBA’s “bridge” grant which provided $1,000 per employee was initially very effective, and later supplemented with more direct assistance.
You can find the full hour of Town Hall Discussion below. We’re asking you to join us in this effort. There is more work to be done on the road ahead.
So all of us understand a range of policy ideas, the following links contain further information on recommended programs in development or those already in place in other US cities. Whether you are comparing ideas or generating your own, please reach out to Maryann Miller, StayLocal Program Manager at maryann@staylocal.org so we can help make the connections that can move the best ideas to the top of the list.
American Sustainable Business Council Policy Recommendations
Findings from Goldman Sach’s 10K Small Businesses Covid-19 Survey
Draft Recommendations of the Small Business and Retail Task Force to the Resilient Louisiana Commission . These recommendations are proposed and not necessarily adopted by RLC.
Survey: Is Your Business Ready for Continued Disruption?
Resource: Continuity Planning Guide
Amazon
House Judiciary Report: Investigation of Competition in the Digital Marketplace (2020)
When a 16-month inquiry into the current state of competition in the digital economy was published in October 2020, challenges to open markets presented by the dominance of Big Tech, were documented extensively. The full report, which you can read here, has set the stage for the recently work by the House Judiciary to pass five bills which will be considered by the full House in fall of 2021.
The Ending Platform Monopolies Act includes measures to breaking up and regulate monopolies, strengthen antitrust laws, and set a higher bar for allowing mergers. Read the full fact sheet here.
For many independently owned retailer businesses, breaking up Amazon will relieve some of the decades-long pressure on the ability to freely and fairly participate in markets. Read more about structural separation, which can leveling the e-commerce playing field for indie businesses, here.
Independent Business Survey (2019)
The ILSR (Institute for Local Self-Reliance) has just published the results of its Independent Business Survey conducted in May of 2019. The resulting report details the struggles faced by American independent businesses such as rising commercial rents, climbing health insurance costs and the monopolization of retail by Amazon. Surveys collected from owners of New Orleans businesses which participated are included; read the full report here. See what local to GNO business owners’ advise about e-commerce from the local perspective here.
PrimeNumbers: Amazon and American Communities (2019)
This report published by Civic Economics and the American Booksellers Association draws from the most recent data to analyze the negative impact Amazon’s sales have on community economies, from farm towns to mid-sized cities and exurbs. This timely information is essential to quantifying Amazon’s effects on sales tax revenues, employment rates, and commercial real estate values, and includes new insight on the different ways the retail giant manages Amazon Marketplace.
Techniques Local Businesses Use to Sell Online (2019)
When faced with the dominance of giant online retailers, New Orleans business owners have adapted their online marketing while retaining their local customer base. Learn more when you watch this broadcast of the panel discussion with participants Flynn Zaiger, Mike Massey and Juan Barreto. hosted by StayLocal and moderated by Lynnette White-Colin, Vice President of Small Business Development at New Orleans Business Alliance.
The Power of Local: 3 Reasons to Rethink Your Amazon Account (2017)
It seems like you can buy anything online these days, but there are some things Amazon cannot deliver. Independent businesses beat Amazon in job creation, economic impact, and diversity. “Shop Local” is a common phrase, but few grasp small businesses' massive on our economy. Get the facts about the power of local, and learn why independent businesses are crucial to our community’s success. See the presentation or skim the fact sheet.
Report: How Amazon’s Tightening Grip on the Economy Is Stifling Competition, Eroding Jobs, and Threatening Communities (2016)
Amazon captures nearly one in every two dollars that Americans spend online. But Amazon is far more than a big, aggressive retailer. This report by The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), a national nonprofit research and educational organization, aims to pull back Amazon’s cloak of invisibility. It presents new data; draws on interviews with dozens of manufacturers, retailers, and others; and synthesizes a broad body of previous reporting and scholarship.
Policy
E-Fairness
We advocate for a level playing field to resolve sales tax discrepancies between brick & mortar retailers and out of state online sellers that hinder local businesses’ ability to compete and grow their business.
Invest Local
We work with local and national experts to open opportunities for individuals to invest in local businesses they know and trust as well as allow local businesses to raise funds from their local community.
How Rising Commercial Rents Are Threatening Independent Businesses, and What Cities Are Doing About It (2016)
ILSR’s new report examines how high rents are shuttering businesses and stunting entrepreneurship, and explores 6 strategies that cities are using to create an affordable spaces where local businesses can thrive.
Advocacy
Shift to Small Challenge
From pharmacies to groceries, we challenge New Orleanians to shift their shopping from national retailers to local businesses! The Shift to Small Challenge is an opportunity to think about where we spend our dollars and the impact that has on our community.
SourceNola
StayLocal's annual summer SourceNOLA campaign encourages businesses to pledge to switch at least one aspect of their operations over to a local service provider. Our goal is to raise the profile of our local service providers and link businesses with the local resources they need to grow.
Small Business Saturday
Every November year we celebrate Small Business Saturday, a national shopping holiday after Black Friday and before Cyber Monday that encourages consumers to shop local.
ShopNOLA for the Holidays
The goal of ShopNOLA for the Holidays is to have New Orleans residents do 10% of their shopping locally during the gifting season. We publish an annual list of events, discounts, and other festivities that make local gift shopping easy.
10 Years Out (2015)
We recognize the local businesses that were crucial to the recovery of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, highlight their resilience and advocate for the importance of business disruptor preparedness.
Dollar Store
New Orleans Places Limits on Dollar Stores
New Orleans is grappling with the proliferation of dollar stores in its neighborhoods. Consumers are facing limited selection outside of the products dollar stores offer and thus choose from less diverse merchandise where dollar stores are the sole option for non-prepared food purchases, especially at locations local shoppers travel to on foot.
In 2019, New Orleans City Council took up the matter at the urging of councilmembers in District E and District C), locations host to almost half of the city’s 36 dollar stores.* A two-mile buffer is now required between new (since 2020) dollar stores in New Orleans East, Algiers, and Gentilly, and a one-mile buffer in the rest of the city, as well as allowing grocers to have more floor space if they commit to locating in areas with low fresh food access.
City planners studied the issue extensively in 2018—including interviewing community leaders in Tulsa, OK and Kansas City, KS as well as grocers currently operating in New Orleans—ultimately making recommendations and suggesting initiatives contained in the 2018 "Small Box Retail Diversity Study". Community groups were consulted on the recommendations with a potential impact on New Orleans East as they were being drafted including via a “listening post” where residents who voiced concern about the rapid increase in the number of dollar stores stated the problem began as far back as 2014.
StayLocal supported the recommendations, which are the right steps to take considering the proliferation of dollar stores is deterring full-line grocers from opening in some neighborhoods, and preventing existing corner stores from fully thriving.
*StayLocal wishes to acknowledge the leadership of former councilmembers Cindy Nguyen and Kristin Palmer on this issue.
Dollar Stores Throughout Louisiana
In 2023 Institute for Local Self-Reliance recently released the report The Dollar Store Invasion, pinpointing the predatory tactics dollar chains are using and demanding federal regulation of dollar stores’ activity which reduce the number of grocery stores and other local businesses. This work builds on ILSR’s earlier work mapping the rise of dollar stores in March, 2019 and explaining the aggressive way the companies were growing in this factsheet.
Listen to Louisiana Public Radio coverage of the ubiquitous stores in urban, suburban and rural places in our state or read award winning coverage by Gulf States Newsroom of how dollar stores place economic burdens on our region here.
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