WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Chain stores and chain restaurants are beginning to feel the sting of community rejection as more and more towns just say "No" to corporate sameness.
Resistance once reserved for McDonald's and Home Depot is spreading to less visible chains like Dunkin' Donuts and Urban Outfitter, USA Today reported Tuesday.
"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 property-value standpoint, uniqueness has value."
The opposition, sharpest in prosperous communities, is intensifying because corporations from Crate & Barrel to Banana Republic are rediscovering downtowns.
It also is driven by community interest in preserving locally owned proprietors with historic links to a specific area.
"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."
