Chain store

A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management, and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate many retail markets, dining markets, and service categories in many parts of the world. A franchised retail establishment is one form of a chain store. In 2005, the world's largest retail chain, Walmart, became the world's largest corporation based on gross sales.[1]

History

In 1792, Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna established W.H. Smith as a news vending business in London that would become a national concern in the mid-19th century under the management of their grandson William Henry Smith.[2][3] The world's oldest national retail chain, the firm took advantage of the railway boom during the Industrial Revolution by opening newsstands at railway stations beginning in 1848.[3] The firm, now called WHSmith, had more than 1,400 locations as of 2017.[4]

In the U.S., chain stores likely began with J. Stiner & Company, which operated several tea shops in New York City around 1860.[5] By 1900,

Characteristics

A chain store is characterised by the ownership or franchise relationship between the local business or outlet and a controlling business.

Restaurant chains

A restaurant chain is a set of related restaurants in many different locations that are either under shared corporate ownership or franchising agreements.[26] Typically, the restaurants within a chain are built to a standard format through architectural prototype development and offer a standard menu and/or services.[16] Fast-food restaurants are the most common, but sit-down restaurant chains also exist.[27] Restaurant chains locations are often found near highways, shopping malls, and densely populated urban or tourist areas.

Opposition

The displacement of independent businesses by chains has sparked increased collaboration among independent businesses and communities to prevent chain proliferation. These efforts include community-based organizing through independent business alliances (in the U.S. and Canada) and "buy local" campaigns.[31] In the U.S., trade organizations such as the American Booksellers Association and American Specialty Toy Retailers do national promotion and advocacy.[32] Nongovernmental organizations, such as the New Economics Foundation provide research and tools for pro-independent business education and policy while the American Independent Business Alliance, provide direct assistance for community-level organizing.[33]

Regulation and exclusion

A variety of towns and cities in the United States whose residents wish to retain their distinctive character—such as San Francisco;[34] Provincetown, Massachusetts and other Cape Cod villages; Bristol, Rhode Island;[35] McCall, Idaho; Port Townsend, Washington; Ogunquit, Maine; Windermere, Florida; and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California—closely regulate or even exclude chain stores. They do not exclude the chain itself, only the standardized formula the chain uses, described as "formula businesses".[36] For example, a restaurant owned by McDonald's often sells hamburgers, but does not use the formula franchise operation with the golden arches and standardized menu, uniforms, and procedures. The supposed reason these towns regulate chain stores is aesthetics and tourism.[36] Proponents of formula restaurants and formula retail allege the restrictions are used to protect independent businesses from competition.

See also

• Formula restaurant
• List of bookstore chains
• List of Canadian clothing store chains
• List of clothing and footwear shops in the United Kingdom
• List of restaurant chains
• List of supermarket chains

Further reading

• Carroll, Glenn R., and Magnus Thor Torfason. "Restaurant Organizational Forms and Community in the US in 2005." City & Community 10#1 (2011): 1–24.
• Ingram, Paul, and Hayagreeva Rao. "Store Wars: The Enactment and Repeal of Anti-Chain-Store Legislation in America." American Journal of Sociology 110#2 (2004): 446–487.
• Lebhar, Godfrey Montague, and W. C. Shaw. Chain stores in America, 1859-1962 (Chain Store Publishing Corporation, 1963).
• Levinson, Marc. "The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America" (2019). ISBN 978-0-578-56210-0.
• Matsunaga, Louella. The changing face of Japanese retail: Working in a chain store (Routledge, 2012).
• Newman, Benjamin J., and John V. Kane. "Backlash against the 'Big Box', Local Small Business and Public Opinion toward Business Corporations." Public Opinion Quarterly 78#4 (2014): 984–1002.
• Phillips, Charles F. "The Chain Store in the United States and Canada," American Economic Review 27#1 (1937), pp. 87–95 in JSTOR
• Schragger, Richard. "The Anti-Chain Store Movement, Localist Ideology, and the Remnants of the Progressive Constitution, 1920-1940." Iowa Law Review 90 (2005): 1011+.
• Scroop, Daniel. "The anti-chain store movement and the politics of consumption." American Quarterly 60#4 (2008): 925–949.

External links