Large chain stores such as Wal-Mart have been around for many years, and they do not always hurt smaller businesses, an SIUC professor says.

Jonathan Bean, an associate history professor, said his 1996 book, Beyond the Broker State, Federal Policies toward Small Business 1936-1961, is a specialized study based on the politics of small businesses.

It’s looking at the continuing importance of small business in the American life, and particularly American politics, Bean said of the book, which is based on his Ph.D. dissertation.

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You can see it with the Wal-Mart debates of today; that’s sort of a faint echo of what was happening in the late 1800s when Sears and Roebuck mail-order catalogs arrived in small towns.

Bean, who has been researching the small-business debate for about five years, is working on a second book about the challenges facing small business through the 1980s.

We have this continuing notion that there is a crisis among small business, he said. If you listen to politicians, the sky has been falling for 130 years.

Bean said although there has been conflict between the two types of business, small businesses have survived.

Small business is remarkably resilient, he said. There are more small businesses today than there ever were.

He said politicians have introduced a paradox by trying to help small businesses.

For 200 years we have been told small business is the backbone of democracy and embodies free enterprise, Bean said. Politicians are saying that small business is entitled to federal aid because it embodies free enterprise, and that doesn’t make much sense. It’s a contradiction.

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The debate of small business versus big business is not uncommon in Carbondale, and most recently in July some liquor store owners requested that the Carbondale City Council decrease the number of liquor licenses.

Some liquor store owners were concerned that Schnucks, 915 W. Main St., could lease part of its building to a liquor store and receive bulk discount rates.

Bean said many small businesses now face more challenges from the government than from large businesses.

A small business has more to fear from the IRS , OSHA, EPA and all the regulatory agencies that burden the small businesses than they do from Wal-Mart, he said.

Bruce Perschbacher, owner of Yesteryear Tobacconists, 200 W. Monroe St., said his store has survived because of the type of business it provides.

Obviously, a lot of what we do is an unusual business, Perschbacher said. You’re dealing with a lot of imported and specialty goods.

Perschbacher managed another tobacco shop for 15 years before opening Yesteryear seven years ago. He said although he enjoys owning the tobacco shop, he and his wife, Patti, both have second jobs.

We knew it was a business we wouldn’t get rich on, but I wanted to get involved with it after 15 years, he said. I eat, sleep and breathe for this.

He said that since the recent rise in the popularity of cigars, many new tobacco businesses have opened up, but probably will not survive.

You have a lot of people who want to be on the bandwagon, but as soon as the craze dies, they’ll be the first to fall off, Perschbacher said, and we’ll still be here.

Tom Redmond, Carbondale Planning Services director, said large businesses do not always drive the smaller ones out.

I don’t think it’s necessarily true that if a Wal-Mart comes to town, all the smaller businesses fold up and die, Redmond said.

He said the arrival of a large business often can help smaller businesses.

It’s possible that a Lowe’s, a Barnes and Noble or a Super Wal-Mart will get people into Carbondale that wouldn’t normally come, and maybe they’ll stop downtown at a restaurant or shop, he said. It’ll certainly keep them (small businesses) on their toes.

Carbondale City Councilwoman Maggie Flanagan said large businesses such as Wal-Mart have driven some businesses out of Carbondale.

They did drive a lot of things out of downtown, but they are here, and we have to make sure it has a positive impact, Flanagan said.

She said the small businesses that survive have to find a unique service, including being customer-oriented.

Retail people have to find their niche, she said. There’re a lot of benefits to one-to-one service and unique products that will keep you coming back.

Redmond said altering the way business is conducted can help small businesses.

You don’t try to compete head on, he said, but by providing a service that people might value, not necessarily the lowest price.