Really? Because I don’t think there are any Walmart stores in New York. And Chicago appears to only have the smaller format stores.
I like you Little Nemo but you screwed that one up badly. Wal-Mart’s business model specifically excluded big cities for decades. Their goal was to hit smaller towns and wipe out the competition through selection, convenience, and low prices. They do exist in some big cities proper today but only some because they require a lot of real estate for even one store. However, there are many less densely populated areas that Wal-Mart has stores within a few miles of each other. Some of my family lives in the Northwest Arkansas region where Wal-Mart is headquartered. There are plenty of them around there but the Fayetteville/Bentonville/Springfield, Arkansas region is not something anyone would think of when they imagine a big city.
One thing I’ve noticed in big cities, or at least in Dallas, is the regional chain: a set of 4-6 stores, usually owned by a family or a small group, that has basically tapped out the local market but lacks the funding/chutzpah/broad appeal to go any further. The smallest are 2-3 stores: the biggest have locations in both Dallas and Austin. Something about Dallas really encourages this model: there’s a lot more regional chains around here than “big” chains, especially in food. Small cities have the big chains and only the big chains. Little towns have not much. Are these sorts of regional chains common in other big cities?
There are no Cheesecake Factories in Canada.
Tuscaloosa, AL (pop. 92,000) has four Starbucks locations.
- Stand alone store.
- Inside Barnes & Noble in the same shopping center.
- Inside Target.
- In University of Alabama student center.
Or in New Mexico.
Another fun fact about Philadelphia: no Cheesecake Factory.
You can swap it out for Lululemon, maybe.
I live in what I would assume is a fairly major city but have never seen half those stores. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I have seen many of those in small college towns and similar. Some are also in “towns” that are really just big shopping malls. When mall towns are developed that require 30-40 commutes from most points in a city, I am not sure if they are really “part” of the city or not. Are the suburbs/ MSA and all that counted in this?
Actually, there are ninety-six WalMarts in New York. There’s just none in New York City.
I’ll admit, however, my rule of thumb is flawed - even in New York. NYC, which is clearly a big city, does not have a WalMart. Queensbury, which I don’t think many people would call a big city, has two WalMarts.
But I think the central premise is sound. Specific businesses may avoid an area for various reasons (like WalMart and New York City). But when a business decides to open a second store in a city where it already has a presence, that’s strong evidence that the city is big. So if the rule doesn’t work specifically for WalMart, there’s probably some other business it does work for.
Lexington, KY is by no means a big city (more of a great big town) and it has four Wal-Marts. Hell, Owensboro, KY isn’t even an especially big town and it has two.
I live in a suburb of San Francisco of about 15,000 people. We have a rather large retail area; whenever I want to joke about how big our town is, I usually say something like “We have a Best Buy! AND an In-N-Out!”
For me, a city is “big” when it shows up on contemporary musicians’ tours, has a professional league sporting team of some sort, and has at least one big electronics specialty store like MicroCenter or Fry’s Electronics somewhat near by.
There is a Target in Dorchester/South Boston (South Bay Shopping Center).
My neighborhood 25 miles north of Tokyo has a McDonalds, Denny’s, Red Lobster, Coco’s, KFC, Baskin-Robbins, Starbucks, Tully’s and IMAX Theater within a 10-minute drive. Yet, it’s considered “inaka” (the countryside) by most of my Japanese friends.
[NOTE: I just listed some western-based businesses in my area that came to mind.]
how about density? a city is one where you can find at least 3 branches of a chain store within 15 minutes walking distance from a point.
Really? Given the subject of the thread is “cities” not “states”, I didn’t think it was necessary to specify that I was referring to the City of New York and not the State of New York.
There seems to be some misunderstanding about what constitutes a “big city” and the target demographic for big box stores and chain restaurants.
Most of the chains you describe are more associated with suburbs and exerbs than any sort of urban downtown. Typically they are large stores that service a widely decentralized population. Often they are clustered in or around a large mall. I don’t know about the midwest where they have a lot more space, but I doubt you have to travel more than 30-45 minutes anywhere on the Eastern seaboard to find most of those stores.
In other words, having those chains doesn’t make a “real city”. It just means you live near civilization.
“Real” cities have what you describe. Headquarters or at least major facilities for large corporations. A distinct “comercial core” of tall buildings. Professional sports teams and international airports and cultural centers.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, in a large city, chain restaurants are often regarded as an inferior dining choice. A big city will typically have a population that is dense and diverse enough to support high end local restaurants and botique clothing stores.
Or zero.
Some chains that do seem more distinctive to big cities (or wealthier suburbs):
Smith & Wolynsky (restaurant)
Ruths Chris (restaurant)
Tourneau (watches / jewelry)
Tiffanys (jewelrey)
Morimotos (restaurant)
Thomas Pink (clothing)
Brooks Brothers (clothing)
William Sonoma (home shit)
But again, being driving distance from a high-end suburban mall does not make a “big city”.
I’m not exactly sure what chains you’re talking about, but I’m sure a big part of the phenomenon in the DFW area is that for such a large metropolitan area, it’s remarkably decentralized.
Whereas in most cities, like say… Houston, you have the city proper, and then you have a bunch of much, much smaller bedroom communities surrounding the area (Pearland, Sugarland, Katy, Tomball, et al.), in the Dallas area, you have a city of just over a million in Dallas, a city of about 3/4 of a million in Fort Worth, and then you have another half-dozen cities between 100k and 300k bordering them, or each other- Frisco, Richardson, Garland, Mesquite, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Plano, Carrollton, Irving, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, etc…)
This I think makes the retail landscape a lot different than a more centralized model like Houston, where despite having shopping malls and what-not scattered around the city, there’s often one or maybe 2 locations for a local store, while in the Dallas area, you can have one in each town.
I keep thinking of a burger chain called “Scotty P’s” which has locations in multiple cities in the area- their whole schtick is vintage stuff for that particular community- so the Dallas one has old-timey Dallas photos, and the menu items are named after Dallas pioneers. The Frisco one has Frisco photos and pioneers, etc… You couldn’t really do that in Houston as easily, unless you were very particular about where you put your restaurants.
This is actually true. While NYC doesn’t have even one, the biggest city in the lower 48, Jacksonville, has 10. And Anchorage has 2. But the biggest city in the US, Sitka, doesn’t have one.