iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Institute for Local Self-Reliance

John Farrell @johnffarrell.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

A city taxing large retailers 1% to fund community solar, free AC for low-income households, and clean energy job training. Turns out when communities design the policy, they build things that actually help people. vist.ly/55wve via Monica Samayoa at WGLT

wglt.org

How one Oregon city has raised a billion dollars for climate change

The Portland Clean Energy Fund has raised a billion dollars for climate change action via a retail tax on large corporations in the city. Other cities are starting to shape similar funds.

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Reposted by Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Inequality.org @inequality.org · 08/05/2026

A new podcast from @ilsr.bsky.social takes listeners to the communities that the data center boom is upending. inequality.org/article/i-st...

inequality.org

I Was Already Suspicious of the Data Center Boom. Then I Stood In Data Center Alley

Pockets of opposition to the data center boom are emerging all over the country.

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Maybe the federal government is applying the rope-a-dope strategy and saving all of its "make them pay" punches for the lawsuit?

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

How does $30,000 sound to you? That's how much they paid to sponsor Small Business Week, and our guess is that Visa, which charges small businesses extraordinary swipe fees that often account for their second- or third-largest expense, didn't have to pay much more.

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

If Bezos can pay $10 million to sponsor the Met Gala and Amazon can drop another $350,000 for a table there, then the price they'd be willing to pay to prey on small businesses must be a hefty sum, right?

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

As ILSR's Building Local Power podcast host, Danny Caine, said, "Amazon sponsoring Small Business Week is like a lion hosting zebra week."

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

It must account for the fact that Amazon's aggressive push into the public procurement market has pummeled small businesses, with the number of independent suppliers of office products, furniture, and janitorial goods, for example, dropping from about 1,300 to 900 over the last decade.

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

It surely would have to be enough to account for the fact that the fees Amazon charges to sell on its platform amount to 45% of seller revenue, according to our last estimate in 2023, and some say it now easily exceeds 50%.

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

It surely would have to be enough to account for the fact that the federal government, via the Federal Trade Commission, and 17 states are currently suing them for illegally maintaining monopoly power.

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Can you guess how much Amazon paid to sponsor the U.S. Small Business Administration's Small Business Week? Take a guess. Seriously. Before you read further, reply with your guess.

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Reposted by Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

1. Amazon has built powerful pricing algorithms that have learned how to steer prices upward — not just on Amazon, but across the web. I have a new piece on how these algorithms work, and how they help sustain Amazon’s monopoly.

washingtonmonthly.com

How Amazon’s AI Algorithms Raise the Prices You Pay

Amazon can steer market-wide prices without ever colluding—exposing a gap in antitrust law that the FTC is now fighting to close.

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Reposted by Institute for Local Self-Reliance

The Forge: Organizing Strategy and Practice @forgeorganizing.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

We organized a special issue w/ @liberation-gen.bsky.social "The Corporate Power of It All" — and it's now live! Seven conversations with organizers, researchers, and frontline leaders on how corporate power shapes our lives and how we fight back. Read it here: forgeorganizing.org/issues/corpo...

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Who is the constituency demanding we let Live Nation and Ticketmaster keep robbing everyone with the ridiculous fees and terrible service? Kudos to the states for taking up the mantle and not selling the people out.

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Reposted by Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Post Growth Institute @postgrowth.org · 15/01/2026

People around the world are hungry for economic systems change. Reclaim the Economy Week is a new moment for us to amplify and showcase the many ways we can redesign our economies. Find events near you, communication kits, and more at: www.reclaimtheeconomy.org #postgrowthalliance

Black and white cut-outs of three people against a blue and black background with white text reading, "Reclaim the Economy, 26 Jan - 1 Feb 2026, Join us for our online launch event on Monday 26 Jan"

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Reposted by Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

1. New York’s affordability crisis flows from a deeper problem: essential systems — groceries, energy, Internet, banking, healthcare — have consolidated in the hands of distant corporations. Today, ILSR sent the Mamdani team a memo laying out policies to reclaim local control.

ilsr.org

A Local Self-Reliance Agenda for New York City: ILSR's Memo to Mamdani |

The Mamdani administration has a crucial opportunity to reverse New York City's affordability crisis; this ILSR policy memo suggests strategies to do so.

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Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

1. For at least 10 years, Pepsi has conspired with Walmart to force up grocery prices. That’s the shocking evidence made public today in an unsealed FTC lawsuit. The suit was abandoned in May by the Trump FTC just before it was to be un-redacted. We went to court to get it unsealed & won.

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

As ILSR Senior Researcher Ron Knox puts it, "enforcing the Robinson-Patman Act is not just good for competition, it's good for consumers because it actually creates the competitive environment that leads to low food prices." 12/12

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

The PepsiCo filing makes it abundantly clear that it's time to start enforcing the Robinson-Patman Act. Doing so will restore competition, level the playing field, and lower prices for everyone. 11/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

There's a solution to the higher prices caused by this anticompetitive corporate behavior: enforcing the antitrust laws that prohibit it. These laws are already on the books, but they've been ignored for decades. 10/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

ILSR co-director Stacy Mitchell says, "For years, PepsiCo has been systematically weaponizing its relationship with Walmart to crush competition — not through better service or efficiency, but through discriminatory dealing that the Robinson-Patman Act explicitly prohibits.” 9/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

The complaint alleges that Walmart's low prices are not a result of competition. They are the result of artificially inflating everyone else's prices. 8/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

The part about raising prices for non-Walmart retailers is key. Walmart's low prices don't actually mean lower prices for consumers. They mean higher prices, since everyone except Walmart has to pay more for Pepsi products. 7/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

According to the complaint, PepsiCo maintained Walmart’s "price gap" by tracking prices on behalf of Walmart, raising wholesale prices for non-Walmart retailers, and funding Walmart's promotional displays and price reductions while reducing promotional support to competing retailers. 6/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

The complaint outlines a secret plan in which sales executives at Pepsi work to "keep Walmart happy" by ensuring that Walmart has lower prices on Pepsi products than any other competitor, including Target, Kroger, Food Lion, and independent grocers. 5/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

The alleged scheme carried out by Pepsi on Walmart's behalf demonstrates that this kind of anticompetitive behavior doesn't actually lower prices for consumers. It raises them. 4/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Though Trump's FTC unceremoniously abandoned the case, the complaint alleges a shocking conspiracy to raise prices at every retailer except Walmart. 3/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Today, we received further confirmation of the answer. ILSR successfully sued to release the largely unredacted 2024 FTC complaint, which alleges price discrimination by PepsiCo in favor of Walmart. 2/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

This morning, we drove around and checked the price of a 12-pack of Pepsi at three different places. At an independent grocery store in Columbus, Ohio, it was $11.99. At a nearby Kroger, it was $10.99. Then, at the closest Walmart, it was $7.28. No surprise, right? But why the discrepancies? 🧵 1/

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Athena Coalition @athenaforall.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Too many state and local governments blindly trust Amazon to offer low prices on things like school supplies. In reality, the site's dynamic pricing means schools can pay wildly different prices for items purchased on the same day. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

theguardian.com

US schools face big price swings for basics under Amazon’s ‘dynamic pricing’, report claims

Amazon calls the report ‘flawed and misleading’ and says it offers lower prices than competitors

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Reposted by Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

1. Amazon has become a major force in how cities, counties & schools buy basic supplies. Our new report finds Amazon is using opaque pricing algorithms to drive up costs and eliminate transparency—while harming competition by pushing out better-performing independent suppliers.

ilsr.org

Turning Public Money into Amazon’s Profits | Independent Business

Amazon has quietly captured a growing share of government purchasing. This major report explains how, and what to do about it.

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Learn more about this remarkable collective effort by reading ILSR's new report, "Seeking the Commonwealth of Connection." ilsr.org/wp-content/u... 9/9

ilsr.org

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

"People are feeling like there's a rising quality of life in these beautiful but rural communities that had felt like they were stagnant before," says Jessica Auer, author of a new ILSR report on the remarkable collective effort by a rural region to claim their connectivity future. 8/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

The result is Internet rates that are often lower than what the average customer of telecom monopolies pays, and additional service provision made possible for the communities. 7/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Moreover, these 19 Western Massachusetts communities are now in control of how much they pay for Internet and what happens with the resulting revenue from the municipal networks. 6/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Now that these 19 communities have banded together to take their connectivity into their own hands, they're reliably using tools many of us take for granted — video calls, telehealth, remote work, and businesses taking EBT and conducting credit card transactions. 5/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

These corporations decided there wasn't enough money to extract and enrich shareholders, so they refused to invest in these communities. This left citizens, businesses, and municipal governments to turn to each other. 4/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

This lesser-of-two-evils choice was a result of telecom monopolies' refusal to invest in the region's infrastructure. 3/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

The years-long effort to bring high-speed fiber to rural Western Massachusetts was born out of constantly being left behind by big tech and telecom monopolies. Folks in rural Western Massachusetts had to choose slow and decaying DSL infrastructure or no internet at all. 2/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Why did 19 rural communities in Western Massachusetts collectively create the most geographically dense cluster of municipal fiber networks in the United States, resulting in world-class Internet access, often at a fraction of the price charged by telecom monopolies? 🧵 1/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

In this world, the playing field would be level enough that a community-oriented independent business can hold its own against big chain competitors by prioritizing community investment. This world is not only possible, but within reach. 8/8

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Individual businesses go bankrupt all the time, but that's not what we're talking about here. The point is that we should demand a regulatory and economic environment that creates opportunities rather than obstacles for a business like Books Inc. to thrive. 7/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

It's good that Books Inc.'s stores won't close. Shuttered bookstores are a significant loss to their communities. But the answer to struggling bookstores shouldn't be a purchase by hedge fund-owned megachains. Our goal should be a world in which Books Inc. doesn't go bankrupt in the first place. 6/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

In short, an indie bookstore invests in its community while a Barnes & Noble extracts from it. 5/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Barnes & Noble is owned by Elliott Investment Management L.P., a huge New York City hedge fund. Where an independent bookstore's goal is to invest in its community and circulate money locally, a hedge fund's goal is to extract as many resources as possible in order to line shareholders' pockets. 4/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

This is the third time this has happened — Barnes & Noble has also acquired indie bookstore landmarks Tattered Cover in Denver and University Bookstore in Seattle. It is clear that the "indie bookstore" brand and community clout are valuable enough to attract the interest of big chains. 3/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Yes, Books Inc.'s stores will stay open, continuing to operate in their communities. But Barnes & Noble and a truly independent bookstore are two different business models. An independent bookstore is locally owned and therefore recirculates money in its community much more than a chain. 2/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Longtime California bookstore chain Books Inc. filed for bankruptcy in January 2025. In September, Barnes & Noble announced plans to acquire Books Inc., keeping the store's brand identity intact and retaining employees. This is good news, right? Well, it's complicated. 🧵 1/

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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Our Local Energy Policy Toolkit is now available to all lawmakers and advocates who want to build clean energy economies in their community — without waiting for Congress. Check it out: ilsr.org/energy/local...

ilsr.org

Local Energy Policy Toolkit | ILSR Energy Democracy Initiative

Find policy tools, examples, and interactive stories from cities and towns taking action to promote local, clean energy and fight corporate control.

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