On Mass Distribution

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Abstract
This article considers the problem of chain store development in a particular area of retail trade – the restaurant industry. Restaurants have been singled out as the quintessential example of chain store organization. In this article, it is suggested that, in spite of the increasingly huge size of the market, substantial segments of the industry are composed of single, independent establishments. After drawing on the distinction between full-service and fast-food restaurants, the author shows that mass distribution develops in a bipolar fashion across proximate fields – high in the fast-food sector and minimal in the full-service sector. Differential chain store growth is traced to variation in profit environments. Data from the economic census on chain store development from 1963 to 1992 are used to support the conclusion that different profit environments generate different market structures and different strategies for survival.

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