My friend Nan is worried. One of her favorite shops in downtown Boston might be closing. She likes the shop assistants, with whom she’s become friendly. She likes seeing her neighbors at the shop. She is annoyed that the Internet has eroded the shop’s business.

And it isn’t just the Internet that is a threat. For a number of years big box discount stores have undercut small local businesses in price, and some small businesses have failed because of it.

More recently, the Great Recession, as one wag recently has called it, has made it hard for businesses large or small to succeed.

So with this triple threat, how can our small, local businesses survive? Continue reading →