BIBA's History

In the fall of 1997, several independent Boulder, Colorado business owners, under immense economic pressure from chain store proliferation, banded together under the banner of the Boulder Independent Business Alliance. Since that time, the Alliance has grown to over 125 member businesses, encompassing nearly every facet of the independent business community.

BIBA is a non-profit grassroots organization of locally owned businesses working to support community-based independent businesses through cooperative efforts in purchasing, marketing and advertising, public information and advocacy. Biba accomplishes its mission with the support of a part-time professional director and the expertise of business volunteers.

• The first BIBA Guide rolled off the press in 1998, leading customers to 40 member businesses. The Guide now is distributed at the point of purchase through numerous locations around Boulder County.
• BIBA coffee cups developed in 1999 as a collaborative effort among independent cafes as a response to corporations like Starbuck's and Peaberry. Included contact information for local cafes and information about the need to support them.
• BIBA bookmarks developed as a reference to independent book, music and video stores in 1999. Renewed the effort in 2000 when Borders came to Boulder.
• BIBA entered the public policy realm with the Community Vitality Act in November 1999. The package of local policy initiatives, designed to support Boulder's independent business community, raised dialogue and awareness in Boulder County on the issue of supporting community-based business and gained BIBA regional and national recognition and press because it was the most aggressive, comprehensive package of its kind.
• BIBA launched the Community Benefit Card in 2001. Over 65% of the member businesses saw the advantage of participating through offering discounts to cardholders.
• BIBA will present the first public showcase of locally owned independent businesses on September 8, 2003 at Celebrate Local! - Biba's first annual live barter and expo.
• Biba launched its first online newsletter, Independents Online, to keep members informed about local issues and businesses.

Why BIBA?

Local independent businesses increasingly are being displaced by national chain stores that have become the dominant retailers of everything from books and office supplies to groceries, hardware, and coffee. As corporate businesses displace local merchants, America's towns are becoming marked by stark uniformity and lack of human scale.

The shift from local ownership to absent corporate control also has dramatically altered the landscapes of daily community life. While local retailers traditionally have been an integral part of healthy neighborhoods and strong city centers, knitting together a variety of public land uses and providing a sense of distinct local identity, national chain stores often herald the demise of Main Street. They locate at the edge of town in massive, automobile-dependent, single-purpose shopping centers, as well as drive up lease rates in city centers because of their ability to pay more for space. An Iowa study of Wal-Mart Corporation indicated that when Wal-Mart entered communities, 84 percent of the corporation's business was taken from existing community businesses.

A community dependent upon absentee-owned chain stores also allows corporate retailers to make demands that local governments find hard to refuse, a practice that subverts local democratic processes n favor of private interests. This largely becomes manifest in the form of tax breaks or subsidies to corporate retailers as enticement to locate in the community.

Many corporations also take advantage of their immense capital and multinational reach to escape public policies designed for human and environmental concerns through financial or physical flight to less "regulated" towns, states, or countries. As the corporations that own the chain stores further consolidate every consumer purchase, they muster the political power to control public policies at every level of government.