The Reading Well
What We’re Reading
Retail Revolution: The New Rules of Retail Call for Small Business Empowerment
“At the neighborhood level, the absence of the right retail spaces will continue to be an obstacle to retail innovation and equity. Neighborhoods with retail are more valuable and more resilient, so inequality will persist as long as all neighborhoods don’t have decent retail amenities.”
Racial Justice Project & ACLU, New York Law School
Dell Gines, Kansas City Fed
Unshared Bounty: How Structural Racism Contributes to the Creation and Persistence of Food Deserts
“Statistics comparing supermarket access in minority communities to non-minority communities are troubling. One study surveying the 25 largest cities found that all the cities studied except for Cleveland, Ohio had fewer stores per capita in low-income neighborhoods.”
[READ HERE]
Black Women Business Startups
“Businesses owned by black women have experienced unprecedented growth over the past two decades. This report, based on national data and a series of interviews with black women business owners, presents a summary of business owners' motivation, challenges, support and financial trends.”
Perry &Rothwell &Harshbarger, Brookings Institution
Five-star Reviews, One-star Profits: The Devaluation of Businesses in Black Communities
“In Black-majority neighborhoods, poorly rated establishments grow at roughly the same low rate as highly rated establishments—and both perform worse than poorly rated businesses in neighborhoods which are less than 1% Black.”
Jeff Wells, Grocery Dive
How the Pandemic Could Fundamentally Alter Store Layouts
“With online grocery adoption accelerating ahead of schedule and expected to become a regular habit for a significant number of shoppers, grocers need more space close to where customers live and work to pick and assemble same-day orders…”
Gines &Sampson, KC Fed
Building Entrepreneurship Ecosystems in Communities of Color
“Inclusive ecosystem building needs to be a local economic development priority. While it is important that diverse entrepreneurs have equitable access in local ecosystems, it is equally, if not more, important that ecosystem building occurs in communities of color themselves.”