Clone Towns: When Chain Stores Take Over

Alarmed by the proliferation of chain stores, the London-based New Economics Foundation spent a year surveying the high streets of more than 100 British towns and 27 London neighborhoods. They found that about one-third have sufficient numbers of locally owned businesses to qualify as "home towns." More than 40 percent are so dominated by chains as to be dubbed "clone towns." And the rest are somewhere in between. The survey also counted the types of businesses and found that "home towns" provide a significantly broader range of goods and services than "clone towns." The New Economics Foundation offers serveral strategies for turning the tide, including new planning policies and economic development initiatives.