[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.