Boston: Beacon Press, (2006.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - SIGNED on the title page. The subtitle really accurately describes this book - as Mitchell traces the dramatic growth of megastores - from big boxes like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Costco, and Staples to chains like Starbucks, Olive Garden, Blockbuster, and Old Navy - and the simultaneous decline of independent businesses, she also answers many of the arguments made in favor of these stores, and describes no-so-obvious impact of these companies and the big-box mentality on everything from soaring gasoline consumption to rising poverty rates, failing family farms, and declining voting levels. She exposes the role government policy has played in the expansion of mega-retailers and builds a compelling case that communities composed of many small, locally owned businesses are healthier and more prosperous than those dominated by a few large chains. A thoughtful and well-presented book by an author clearly in favor of independent stores. Notes, index, 317 pp. ISBN: 0-807035009.

Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, (1952) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - A special presentation copy of this informal history of the first hundred years of Chicago's fabled department store. INSCRIBED (but not personalized) by Chairman of the Board Hughston M. McBain and dated in the year of publication. Laid in is a small typed note indicating that the recipient had had a charge account with Fields for 25 years or more and so they arranged for a special presentation edition to be published. In the 1930s and during World War II, McBain was instrumental in taking many of the actions that returned Fields not just to profitability but to once again become a leader and trend-setter in the retail business. Illustrated throughout with photographs. Index. 384 pp. Bound in black cloth with an illustration in gilt of a hand holding a rose on the front cover, and the words "presentation copy" stamped in gilt on the lower left side. Gilt stamping on the spine.