The International Mass Retail Association (IMRA) is the world’s leading alliance of retailers and their product and service suppliers committed to bringing price-competitive value to the world’s consumers. IMRA represents many of the best-known and most successful retailers in the world, who operate thousands of stores worldwide along with their product and service suppliers.

Mass retailers are the first choice of American consumers for price, value and convenience. Mass retailers have revolutionized the way America shops, re-engineered the global supply chain and redefined relationships between sellers and suppliers. Today, America’s mass retailers create markets for consumer products not only here at home, but around the world. Mass retailers are also some of the largest private employers in America, creating millions of jobs for hard working people of all skill levels.

The IMRA 2001 Mass Retail Agenda identifies issues of concern to America’s mass retailers and their product and service suppliers and is the centerpiece of the IMRA state legislative and regulatory agenda.

CIVIL JUSTICE REFORM:
No business can operate successfully--especially at mass retailers’ low profit margins--if subjected to abusive or frivolous lawsuits. Common-sense legal reforms, particularly in product liability and class-action lawsuits, protect consumers and businesses alike.

STABLE STACKING OF MERCHANDISE:
The safety of employees and customers is of paramount importance to mass retailers. Mass retailers have programs and procedures in place to identify potential safety hazards and are continually reviewing their operations to improve these practices to ensure a safe shopping environment.

EMPLOYMENT:
Mass retailers provide millions of good jobs. Government mandates increase operational costs, reduce the number of people mass retailers can employ and make it difficult to offer job-based benefits used to retain valuable employees. IMRA’s employment-related priorities include opposing minimum wage increases and creation of “living wage” laws.

LOSS PREVENTION:
An increasing and costly problem for mass retailers is organized retail theft, as criminal enterprises systematically steal large quantities of popular items, then repackage and resell stolen merchandise. IMRA supports efforts to pass state laws to help stem this crime. IMRA also supports state legislation to place anti-theft restrictions on flea market vendors and other itinerant sellers.

PRIVACY:
Mass retailers and suppliers are experiencing an unprecedented growth in the collection, use and storage of consumer information. Retailers are extremely sensitive to the privacy concerns of their customers and want to ensure that any public policies that are enacted respect their responsibility as the guardians of this personal information to ensure it is collected, used and stored properly. IMRA supports the continued legality of “opt-out” privacy rules and opposes mandating “opt-in” rules.

SMART GROWTH/CONSUMER CHOICE:
Consumers flock to mass retailers for good reasons. Policies should preserve the ability of consumers to shop at the stores of their choice in their local community for the most competitive prices they expect. IMRA’s priorities include preventing slow-growth/anti-growth legislation and state ballot initiatives. IMRA is the lead opponent of these anti-growth initiatives, and remains the only national retail association actively working to defeat these proposals.

TAXES:
Business taxes are in fact paid by shareholders and consumers. IMRA supports tax policies that are fair and make sense. IMRA’s tax-related priorities include a level playing field for sales tax collection on the Internet and supporting state efforts to streamline their sales tax collection processes.