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Old 11-30-2003, 10:42 PM
kerry kerry is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 18,350
I spent the last two summers in the UK and France. It seemed to me that the large chain stores (Sainsburys for groceries in the UK and E. Leclerc for everything in France) had NOT put the small main street stores out of business. There are still small bakeries, groceries and butchers on the main streets in towns with large chain stores. Why does that happen in Europe? Is it because Europeans are more likely to walk when shopping so still prefer the main street whereas American are more likely to drive to a store? Or are there laws to help preserve the small shop owner? For instance, in France, you can't even buy aspirin in a grocery store (even though you can buy alcohol there). You have to go to a drugstore. Maybe I just misread the situation. Maybe there just aren't people willing to tailgate at Walmart. Any European members who can enlighten us?
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