A Target chain store.

Chain stores are a range of retail outlets which share a brand and central management, usually with standardised business methods and practices. Such stores may be branches owned by one company or franchises owned by local individuals or firms and operated under contract with the parent corporation. Features common to all chains are centralised marketing and purchasing, which often result in economies of scale, meaning lower costs and presumably higher profits. Download high resolution version (884x594, 100 KB)Description: Photograph of a Target store exterior Source: Photograph taken by Jerome C. Skeene on 10 April 2004. ... Download high resolution version (884x594, 100 KB)Description: Photograph of a Target store exterior Source: Photograph taken by Jerome C. Skeene on 10 April 2004. ... Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1902. ... This article is about brands in marketing. ... This is a list of types of companies, i. ... This article or section should include material from Franchise agreement Franchising - from the French for Free, is a method of doing business wherein a franchisor licenses trademarks and methods of doing business to a franchisee in exchange for a recurring royalty fee. ... Firm can have several meanings: Firm - a loose legal term for a company. ... Traditionally, Marketing has been a term applied to the craft of linking the producers (or potential producers) of a product or service with customers, both existing and potential. ... Look up Trade in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Trade centers on the exchange of goods and/or services. ... ... In economics, business, and accounting, a cost is a price paid, or otherwise associated with, a commercial event or economic transaction. ... Profit is defined as the residual value gained from business operations. ...

These characteristics also apply to chain restaurants and some service-oriented chain businesses. Some argue that the standardised products which result from such centralisation are culturally detrimental; for example, chain music stores are frowned upon by some for stocking works of more popular music if they exclude less well known, usually independent artists. Critics of chains allege that they are economically damaging to communities because they extract capital that otherwise would recirculate in the local economy with independently owned businesses. The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ... Popular music, sometimes abbreviated pop music, is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are broadly popular. ...

The displacement of independent businesses by chains has generated controversy in many nations and has sparked increased collaboration among independent businesses and communities to prevent chain proliferation. Such efforts occur within national trade groups such as the American Booksellers Association and Council of Independent Restaurants of America as well as community-based coalitions such as Independent Business Alliances. National entities like the American Independent Business Alliance and The New Rules Project promote these efforts in the U.S. In Britain, the New Economics Foundation promotes community-based economics and independent ownership. The American Booksellers Association is a non-profit industry association founded in 1900 that promotes independent bookstores. ...

By 2004, the world's largest retail chain, Wal-Mart, was the world's largest corporation in terms of gross sales. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ...

See Also

• List of supermarkets contains a number of chain stores.

Supermarkets, past and present, include: Transnational Originating (HQ) country first. ...

External links

• American Independent Business Alliance (http://amiba.net)
• The New Rules Project (http://newrules.org)
• New Economics Foundation (http://www.neweconomics.org/)

Independent Trade Groups

• American Booksellers Association (http://bookweb.org)