Regular retail chains should be distinguished from franchises and voluntary or cooperative chains in which retail units retain their individual ownership. The latter retain their own profits and bear their own financial losses, while in regular chains, the central organization assumes full responsibility for the financial situation of its sales units. Most large chain stores associate a central unit with warehouse units (i.e., wholesale distribution centres) and sales units (i.e., retail stores). The central unit contains the administrative offices, while the warehouses process incoming shipments and send outgoing shipments to the various points of sale. Purchases may be based on both the central unit and warehouses, but sales and related operations are only carried out in separate retail units. Some retail chains even have their own production facilities, pushing vertical integration a step further. Tracking sales and inventory levels makes operations even more efficient by providing consistent data on popular products, consumer preferences, and product availability. In 1792, Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna W.H. founded Smith as a newspaper organ in London that would become a national society in the mid-19th century under the leadership of their grandson William Henry Smith.
[2] [3] As the oldest national retail chain in the world, the company took advantage of the railway boom during the Industrial Revolution by opening newsstands at stations beginning in 1848. [3] The company, now called WHSmith, had over 1,400 locations in 2017. [4] Isidore, Benjamin and Modeste Dewachter developed the idea of the department store chain in Belgium in 1868,[7][8] ten years before A&P began offering more than coffee and tea. They started with four sites for the Dewachter Houses: La Louvière, Mons, Namur and Leuze. They were then founded on January 1, 1875 as Dewachter brothers. [9] The brothers offered ready-to-wear clothing for men and children, as well as special clothing such as riding clothing and beachwear. [8] Isidor owned 51% of the company, while his brothers shared the remaining 49%. [9] Under the leadership of Isidore (and later his son Louis), Maisons Dewachter became one of the most recognizable names in Belgium and France, with stores in 20 towns and villages. Some cities had several stores, such as Bordeaux, in France.
[8] [10] [11] Louis Dewachter also became an internationally renowned landscape painter who painted under the pseudonym Louis Dewis. Britannica.com: Encyclopedia articles on chain stores A restaurant chain is a series of related restaurants in many different locations that are either jointly owned (e.g., McDonald`s in the United States) or franchise agreements. [26] Typically, chain restaurants are built in a standard format through the development of architectural prototypes and offer a standard menu and/or services. [16] Company-owned retail stores distributed nationally or globally, such as Body Shop, KMart or Wal-Mart. Typical attributes are (1) similar architecture, (2) store design and layout, and (3) product selection. A variety of cities in the United States whose residents want to preserve their distinctive character – such as San Francisco; [30] Provincetown, Massachusetts and other Cape Cod villages; Bristol, RI; [31] McCall, Idaho; Port Townsend, Washington; Ogunquit, Maine; Windermere, Florida and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California – regulate and even exclude chain stores. They do not exclude the chain itself, but only the standardized formula used by the chain, called “formula transactions”. [32] For example, there could often be a McDonald`s-owned restaurant selling hamburgers, but not the operation of formula franchises with the golden arches and standard menus, uniforms and procedures. The reason these cities regulate chain stores is aesthetics and tourism. [32] Proponents of formula restaurants and infant formula retailing argue that the restrictions are intended to protect independent businesses from competition. [21] [33] Fast food restaurants are the most common, but there are also chains of seated restaurants.
In 1896, Samuel Isaacs of Whitechapel, East London, opened the first fish and chips restaurant (as opposed to a snack bar) in London, and its popularity saw a rapid expansion of the chain with more restaurants in London and beyond, including Brighton, Ramsgate, Margate and other seaside resorts in southern England.[27] In 1864, the Aerated Bread Company (ABC) began operating a chain of tea shops in Britain.[28] ABC was surpassed as the market leader in this field by Lyons, which was co-founded by Joseph Lyons in 1884. From 1909, Lyons operated a chain of tea rooms that became an integral part of Britain`s High Street, and at its peak the business had about 200 cafes. [29] Restaurant chains are often located near highways, shopping malls, and densely populated urban or tourist areas. Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for chain stores The strongest chains were department stores, grocery stores, limited-price variety stores, ready-to-wear stores like the Gap, and pharmacies. Many banks, hotels and cinemas are also owned by chains. The size of the channels varies from local (i.e. serving a single city or metropolitan area) to regional (serving a large part of the country) to national or even international. They also vary in the class of products sold, from cheap products from Target or Wal-Mart to elite jewelry from Cartier or Tiffany & Co.
Physical retail chains are in decline as retail has shifted to online shopping, resulting in historically high vacancy rates. [22] The century-old Radio Shack chain grew from 7,400 stores in 2001 to 400 stores in 2018. [23] FYE is the last remaining music channel in the U.S., growing from over 1,000 at its peak to 270 locations in 2018. [24] In 2019, Payless ShoeSource announced that it would close the remaining 2,100 stores in the United States. [25] The replacement of independent companies by channels has led to increased cooperation between independent companies and communities to prevent the proliferation of channels. These efforts include community organizing through independent business alliances (in the U.S. and Canada) and “Buy Local” campaigns. In the United States, trade organizations such as the American Booksellers Association and the American Specialty Toy Retailers advertise and advocate nationally.
NGOs such as the New Rules Project and the New Economics Foundation provide research and tools for independent trade education and policy, while the American Independent Business Alliance provides direct support to community-based organizations. The main competitive disadvantage of retail chains is their centralized focus and strictly standardized operating procedures, which limit the flexibility of individual sales units and hinder useful innovation. Store chains also tend to offer less customer service than individual stores. In the United States, retail chains probably began with J. Stiner & Company, which operated several tea rooms in New York around 1860. By 1900, George Huntington Hartford had transformed the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, originally a New York-based tea merchant, into a grocery chain that operated nearly 200 stores.[5] Dozens of other grocery stores, pharmacies, tobacconists, and variety stores opened other locations around the same time, making retail chains common in the United States around 1910. Several state legislators considered measures to curb chain growth, and in 1914, concerns about retail chains were a factor in the passage of the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act.[6] While chains are typically “preparations for retail,” A chain refers to ownership or franchising, while “retail formula” or “business formula” refers to the characteristics of the business. [15] There is significant overlap because the main characteristic of a formula retail store is that it is controlled as part of a business relationship and is generally part of a chain. Nevertheless, most codified by-laws are based on definitions of retail sale of infant formula (e.g. Formula restaurants),[16][17][18] in part because a restriction on “chains” may be considered an inappropriate restriction on interstate commerce (in the United States) or an overrun of municipal zoning authority (i.e., the regulation of “who owns it” rather than the characteristics of the business).
[19] [20] Uncodified restrictions sometimes target “chains”. A municipal ordinance may attempt to prohibit “forms of agreement” to preserve the character of a community and support local businesses that serve the surrounding neighbourhood. [21] A retail store or chain is a retail store where multiple locations share a brand, central management and standard business practices. They now dominate the retail and hospitality market and many service categories in many parts of the world. A franchised retail establishment is a form of store. In 2005, the world`s largest retail chain, Walmart, became the world`s largest company in terms of gross sales. [1] Store chains, one of two or more retail stores that have the same property and sell the same product lines. Store chains are an important segment of retail in America, Western Europe and Japan.
Together with the department store and the mail order company, chain stores represent the first successful application of large-scale integrated methods to a form of commerce.