Cities put shackles on chain stores
By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
For Bristol, R.I., a quaint waterfront town that commemorates its Revolutionary War heritage with a three-week
Fourth of July celebration, the arrival of a Dunkin' Donuts on its historic main street was greeted as an invasion.
With visions of the chain's pink-and-orange logo amid the colonial architecture on Hope
Street, leaders of a town that calls itself the most patriotic in America quickly drafted an
ordinance to keep chain stores out. It was too late to stop Dunkin' Donuts. But franchise
owner Joseph Prazeres nevertheless worked with the town to blend in. The shop's sign is in
gold-leaf letters. Inside: cherry cabinetry, wainscoting and architectural lighting rather than
Formica and neon.
Bristol's experience is a sign that Wal-Mart and other "big-box" retailers aren't the only
commercial ventures facing community resistance. Small chain stores and restaurants are
also being locked out of urban neighborhoods by cities that want to protect local businesses
and the cachet of their communities.
The backlash against chain or "formula" stores of any size is fueling regulations to stop
national chains from moving into the heart of urban shopping districts. Some towns are
limiting the number of chain restaurants and retail stores. Others are setting strict size and
design requirements to keep out cookie-cutter stores. A few are banning them outright.
"There's an anti-chain-store instinct," says Jim Schwab, senior research associate at the
American Planning Association, a group that represents local planners. "And it's not strictly a
big-box issue."
Companies such as Starbucks and McDonald's for years have had to change the look of their
stores to meet local design standards. But the anti-chain movement reaches far beyond
aesthetics by barring chain stores altogether.
"The reaction is largely driven by sameness," says Dick Outcalt, a partner in Outcalt &
Johnson Retail Strategists in Seattle. "The populace is more empowered protecting the feel
of a community because they realize that commercially, aesthetically and from the propertyvalue standpoint, uniqueness has value."
The opposition is intensifying because corporations from Crate & Barrel to Banana Republic
are rediscovering downtowns. After abandoning urban centers for suburban malls and strip
shopping centers, many retailers are coming back because people are returning to cities.
Opponents of chain stores say the companies spread suburban sameness and ruin the
distinctive character of neighborhoods.
"Some (communities) are simply interested in how these things look," says Stacy Mitchell,
senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an advocacy group in
Minneapolis, and author of The Hometown Advantage: How to Defend Your Main Street
Against Chain Stores ... and Why It Matters. "But almost all are much more concerned about
the loss of locally owned businesses."
In Bristol, chain stores now can't fill more than a 2,500-square-foot storefront. They have to
apply for a special-use permit from the zoning board, get a "certificate of appropriateness"
from the Historic District Commission and meet appearance standards.
Anti-chain movements are brewing in Missouri, Florida and Ohio. Mitchell says independent
business owners in Tampa are hosting a public forum to discuss whether chain stores are
preferable to homegrown businesses. A similar group in St. Louis organized an
"Independents Week."
"It's certainly on retailers' radar screen," says Paul Kelly, a senior vice president of the Retail
Industry Leaders Association, which represents chain retailers. "Whether it's regarded as a
threat, I don't believe that's the case."
Kelly says chain retailers have faced opposition for almost a century. "Woolworth, Sears and
all those guys faced that back in the '20s and '30s when they started expanding," he says.
"Nobody likes competition, except consumers. ... Consumers deserve a lot of choice, and
chain retailing is one of those choices."
Chain stores face resistance mostly in upscale neighborhoods:
•San Francisco recently passed a citywide ordinance to regulate formula retail — defined as
chains of 12 or more stores. Such stores are now banned in a four-block area of the Hayes
Valley neighborhood. In the Cole Valley district, chains must prove to the planning
commission that they're compatible with the neighborhood. In all districts, businesses and
residents within 150 feet of a proposed chain store must be notified when it applies for a
permit to open.
"We don't want San Francisco to look like Trenton, N.J., or Topeka, Kan.," says Ed Bedard,
vice president of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association.
He says chains restrict customers' choices by putting mom-and-pop stores out of business.
"Part of what is so lovable about Hayes Valley is that there is no Starbucks here," he says.
San Francisco officials say they have received calls from officials in Cambridge, Mass.,
Chicago and cities in Minnesota and New York who are interested in similar restrictions.
•Coronado, Calif., allows no more than 10 chain restaurants. A California appeals court
upheld the restriction last year.
•In St. Paul, residents of the Grand Avenue Business District, an old neighborhood once
served by streetcars, are working on a 10-year development plan. High on their list of
concerns: Chain stores such as J. Crew, Restoration Hardware and Ben & Jerry's are taking
over storefronts.
"We've been looking at formula-business ordinances as one of a range of options," says
Merritt Clapp-Smith, a local resident who is working on the plan. "People like to come here
because it's different, because they're not seeing things they're seeing elsewhere."
•Arcata, Calif., an old lumber town 280 miles northwest of San Francisco that was a center
of the hippie movement in the 1960s and '70s, is full of cottage industries from jewelry and
food products to recycled glassware.
The city's 17,000 residents want to keep it that way. In 1998, 55% approved a ballot initiative
to form the City of Arcata Committee on Democracy and Corporations.
"Citizens were concerned about corporate power issues," committee chairman Paul
Cienfuegos says. "There's a revulsion against what's happening all over the United States.
You drive through pretty much any town and you go, 'Where am I?' "
After town-hall meetings, the city passed an ordinance that limits the number of chain
restaurants. Arcata now has nine. One would have to leave before another could open.
Peter Cohen, a San Francisco community activist who helped write that city's chain-store
legislation, says, "Now that ... a big city can do this ... it's going to become a much bigger
trend."