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© Karen Bleier/AFP - Getty ImagesOccupy DC supporters read an adult comic book at the protest in Washington this week. Many small business owners support the movement, according to one survey.
The Occupy Wall Street movement now active in some 400 cities nationwide is a cry of protest against the concentration of power among big companies in general and big banks in particular.

So how is it playing on Main Street, where small business often holds sway?

The surprising answer is that many small businesses support the movement, although the community is sharply divided, with some opponents citing the anti-capitalist rhetoric of the protesters.

The survey from e-mail marketing company VerticalResponse, which says most of its customers are small businesses, found that 49 percent support the loosely defined OWS movement and 47 percent oppose it.

While the 212 survey respondents were nearly evenly divided, respondents who disagree with the message of OWS were more negative in their perception of the movement, according to VerticalResponse.

The outlook on OWS seems at least partially determined by where respondents fall on the income distribution scale. Those who think they fall in the bottom half of the income spectrum are more likely to support the movement; detractors are more likely to think they're richer than the average American.

Marty Metro, founder and CEO of UsedCardboardBoxes.com, a company that buys, sells and recycles shipping and packing materials, says OWS is too disorganized to have a meaningful impact and detracts from more serious discussion of the challenges small businesses face.

"I'm not a fan in any way, shape or form of the way the movement is trying to state their case. ... It appears to be in such a grass-roots approach that people won't take them seriously," he says. "I think there is a real issue, and it's upsetting to me this is the way we're trying to solve the issues."

Metro says that while his company is small, he hopes that will change in the future.

"We're a small business with goal of being a big business," he says. "I built a for-profit, eco-friendly business that employs people, and we're trying to fight big business that way. It sounds like the Occupy Wall Street people are just against big business in the first place."

Other entrepreneurs empathize with the movement.

"Clearly, the bailout of the big banks has not helped small businesses," says Mark Klaiman, co-owner of pet daycare facility Pet Camp. "I think there's great sympathy in the small business community for making sure that public funds are distributed to the public instead of sitting in large bank silos."

Klaiman is concerned about the costs municipalities incur due to protesters for services such as sanitation and law enforcement. "If I had my way, I'd have banks pay for it. I think they have largely caused this problem," he says.