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Interview with Jeff Milchen
American Independent Business Alliance
by Brad Johnson
Jeff Milchen is co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance (http://www.AMIBA.net) and director of Reclaimingdemocracy.org. He lives and works in Bozeman, Montana. I spoke with him in Washington where he was scheduled to testify at a hearing about Wal-Mart’s efforts to enter the banking industry. He can be reached through the AMIBA website or by calling 406-582-1255.
HD: Can you start off by telling us the history of the American Independent Business Alliance?
JM: Back in 1997, I was living in Boulder, Colorado, and got together with a local independent bookstore owner. We shared a concern about what was happening in the communities around us and the country: corporate chains coming in and displacing local businesses. We wanted to take some pro-active measures to assure that didn’t happen in Boulder. We started discussing some ideas with other individuals we thought would share our interests. The Boulder Independent Business Alliance, at that time the first organization of its kind in the country, came out of that. We wanted to bring together businesses, citizens, and community organizations to figure out ways to support local independent businesses and create opportunities for entrepreneurs.
HD: You have your headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. Do you feel you benefit from being headquartered so far away from Washington D.C.?
JM: There are some limitations, but there are also some advantages to being connected to what’s happening in small town America. We’re in a town that is more representative of the country.
HD: How does your network work in practice? What’s the process for starting a local chapter of AMIBA?
JM: We usually start out by having a phone conversation, and ask them to order an information packet. The second step is usually to do a workshop in the community. We try to create the critical mass of interest and excitement that leads to people getting together and moving things forward.
HD: You started the Boulder chapter with a bookseller. What other types of businesses have participated?
JM: There’s no typical business that joins, it’s really a wide range. Our members include retail, wholesale, food and beverage, and service oriented businesses. Booksellers have played an important role because their trade group, the Independent Booksellers Association, has asked us to present at their regional trade shows.
HD: What kinds of local campaigns have been most successful?
JM: Saving money for member businesses through cooperative purchasing efforts, and gaining customers for smaller, lesser known businesses through cooperative marketing efforts are some of many different methods. Successful marketing efforts include cards that offer consumers a community discount on purchases. We’ve also formed important connections with non-profits. For example, in Boulder we had a community benefit card that was sold by non-profits as a fundraiser for them while also building a customer base for local businesses. We’ve also tried to create a political voice for independent businesses not typically represented by existing organizations
HD: What’s been your biggest challenge in getting independent business owners to work together?
JM: Convincing owners that there’s something that can make a concrete difference. Presentations play a key role in getting people to realize that this approach has made a difference in other places, and there’s no reason that it couldn’t happen in their community.
HD: Business owners are notoriously busy; so how do you convince them that this important?
JM: Well, that’s why in-person gatherings are so important. We show them what people like themselves have done successfully. And when there are 100 people in a room, that in itself helps convince owners that there are other people who share their interest.
HD: Do people from all sides of the political spectrum participate in your organization?
JM: Our membership is pretty diverse. We encourage our affiliates to present themselves in a way that doesn’t define them as a liberal or conservative group. Working together to support local independent businesses is the starting point. Some independent business alliances have done environmental and social justice work. But that’s not the main mission of the Alliance. We want to build the broadest possible coalition and then branch out from there.
HD: You’re here in Washington testifying before the FDIC in opposition to Wal-Mart’s application to enter the banking business. Can you talk about that?
JM: Well, there is a point at which corporations become too big. Allowing them to gain more size and power poses a threat not only to every independent business, but also to democracy itself. Wal-Mart has reached that size. In a broader sense, the industrial loan corporation that Wal-Mart is seeking to start is kind of a loophole in a law that very deliberately keeps corporations in either commerce or banking, maintaining a separation between them. The reason for that separation is as valid today as it ever was: to prevent dangerous accumulations of power that would allow corporations to abuse their market power by anti-competitive practices. For example, imagine that Wal-Mart drives out the local bank in a small town. Then independent business owners who want to start a small business or expand have to go to Wal-Mart to ask for a loan. If you’re trying to run or expand a hardware store do you want to depend on Wal-Mart to help you out?
HD: Why do you think Wal-Mart is such a lightning rod for criticism?
JM: Partly it is size alone. We’re talking about a global corporation whose size and reach is unprecedented. Wal-Mart has impacted almost everyone’s community in some form or another. The impacts are very visible. In smaller towns and rural areas where Wal-Mart came in 1996, by 1999 50% of the shops on Main St were closed. They have engaged in what many would consider offensive practices to a greater degree than some competitors. Still, Target’s business model is nearly identical to Wal-Mart’s and you rarely hear about a community protesting a new Target store.
HD: Your Austin chapter did a marketing campaign with the slogan “Keep Austin Weird.” Is maintaining diversity a key issue for your local networks?
JM: It’s certainly important to me and to many of the people who get involved. They value having a unique character to their community, whether it’s a small town or a big city. As a result of homogenization, that’s becoming more rare. If people aren’t pro-active in maintaining the independent businesses that give the place its unique character, then it will end up looking like everywhere else. And this will limit the community’s ability to be economically independent and self-sufficient.
HD: The issue of “buying local” food campaigns comes up a lot. Do you have a lot of members from the agriculture sector of the economy?
JM: We’re certainly promoting local restaurants and local farms, and we’ve seen grocers or restaurant owners in our networks getting together with the local farmer. Alliance members end up doing more business with each other. In every sector we encourage members to find ways to support each other, and sometimes that has led to more business for local farms.
HD: You’re also involved with an organization called Reclaiming Democracy. Can you explain what they do?
JM: We’re working to revitalize American democracy, focusing specifically on revoking the power of large corporations to dominate commerce and politics. In order to have a democratic republic we need to limit the ability of corporations to dominate citizens.
HD: Is this a long term effort to gradually shift the balance of power back to citizens?
JM: We need to build the next great social movement in the United States: a democracy movement that’s not about electing Democrats instead of Republicans, or electing candidate X instead of candidate Y. It’s about long-term, slow, grassroots building from the community level on up. Ultimately we need to challenge the idea that corporations have the same rights as people. Democracy is on the decline for the first time in American history. People keep focusing on the next election and short term damage control, rather than focusing on longer-term issues like corporate power.
Brad Johnson is a regular contributor to HopeDance. He can be reached at Brad25710@aol.com.
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