[withinboredom]

Those big chains drain money from the local economy though. Small independent stores only send the cost of supplies/restocking out of the local economy. Chains mean there is continuously less money circulating in the town and requires people who import money from other local economies. Having chains in your town means that within a generation or two, the town will be effectively dead and hardly ever grow.

[DrBazza]

> Those big chains drain money from the local economy though

Exactly, all revenue goes back to HQ, and then off to somewhere else.

In some cases being part of a large company means the smaller branches that don't barely break even stay open and it's "good" for those towns in boom years.

But as soon as there's an economic downturn, they are the first stores to be closed.

[lotsofpulp]

> Having chains in your town means that within a generation or two, the town will be effectively dead and hardly ever grow.

This is not true in the US. There are lots of places with chains (everywhere?) that are growing.

[withinboredom]

This is true for suburbs because the money comes from outside of the local economy since those people mostly commute to work. For actual small towns, nowhere near a large city, it's quite a different story, almost reminiscent of a 3rd world country.