Good morning!
Here are today’s highlights:
Can one entrepreneur revitalize America’s empty downtowns?
The economics don’t seem promising, but there’s a new wave of scrappy coffee shops.
Some of the oldest barbecue joints in Texas are failing.
Toshifumi Suzuki brought 7-Eleven to Japan, reinvented it, and opened tens of thousands of locations.
BUSINESS GROUPS
The local chambers that represent small businesses are shutting down: “Last year, the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce abruptly announced its closure. A months-long investigation by the Baltimore Business Journal found the organization had become mired by a number of issues. It had pulled back services and resources and had its nonprofit tax exemption revoked. It also had reduced the size, frequency, and variety of its events. CEO Brent Howard blamed the creation of additional business interest groups in the region for creating more competition.”
“A review by The Business Journals of news reports since 2024 found 17 chamber of commerce closures that had drawn coverage. For those organizations that have continued to operate, financial headwinds have emerged. Chambers across the country are teetering on the edge of a financial cliff, with revenue growth failing to keep pace with inflation, according to an analysis of 4,813 chamber of commerce organizations and 22,290 Form 990 financial documents filed by those nonprofit chambers with the Internal Revenue Service from 2019 to 2024.”
“Over the last few decades, chambers of commerce have seen a lot of their core functions overtaken by new technology. Pre-internet, people would use their local chambers to find reputable vendors, contractors and network with other businesses, Bwarie said. Times have changed, and many chambers have not figured out how to be similarly valuable in 2026.”
“There’s a personal element, as well. As long-time chamber CEOs or other veteran executives move on or die, it leaves a gap of institutional knowledge, and there’s a loss of personal connections that cannot be replicated. When a local chamber dies, Bwarie said, it’s tough to bring it back.” READ MORE
