Assorted Links Monday

For years Walmart steamrolled through small downtown businesses as they aggressively expanded across the country. According to a leaked memo, they now face a similar prospect themselves, from Amazon, Instacart, and others.

For the first time since its founding in 1965, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration this year added equity to its investment priorities. Dennis Alvord, the acting assistant secretary of commerce for economic development, said the EDA will support a "diverse range" of activities with its grants to encourage an equitable recovery from COVID-19.

When the techies took over Tahoe: Spun-out Teslas on snowy roads. Cabins bought for cash, sight unseen. A shoveling disaster. Locals bemoan the pandemic-induced migration of Bay Area residents to the mountains. But there are two sides to the Zoom-town story.

The great wings rush: To see the future of food delivery, just look at chicken wings

Taxpayers fleeing California took $8.8 billion in gross income to other states. $2.2 billion went to Arizona, and $2.3 billion went to Nevada.

More than one-third of small businesses "in jeopardy" of closing this summer: As small businesses complain that it has never been harder for them to hire workers according to a recent NFIB survey, many are facing growing pressure to survive. As the American economy continues to reopen, some fear it might not happen soon enough to save thousands of small businesses. Data from Alignable's June Revenue Poll shows that 35% of all small business owners are still at risk of closing permanently by the end of the summer.

2019 saw a dramatic shift in the way Americans drink: At the beginning of the decade, it seemed like the biggest trends in drinking were about extremes: Craft breweries competed to create the bitterest, hoppiest double IPAs; mixologists with mustaches poured stiff negronis and turned their noses up at anything that didn’t taste like straight liquor. Meanwhile, college kids scoured bodega aisles for cans of Four Loko that would get them the drunkest while keeping them awake enough to party the longest.  But 2019 began something different.