why must every moderately successful store in the UK be immediately turned into a chain?

this question was answered after 1 minute- if you do something well, and are making money at it(presumably), why wouldn't you want to expand?

You can buy 3 apples and one fish in Tesco.

Also, some of us have children who behave in restaurants, whether it's a pizza hut coz it's next to the cinema or a nice wee bistro.

xp

Darragh - because the appeal of some businesses and therefore their main USP is that they're unique?

wee-bistros were the reason maddie went missing

Maddy would still be with her parents if they'd taken her to McDonalds.

Oh I'd never take my kids for tapas, it's hard enough to get them to choose one thing.

and the vast majority of these families will be a snapshot of urban upper middle class, much like the clientele you mainly see sitting outside restaurants in any major european city.

Not in my experience.

No I know that Onimo - I quite like other people's children most of the time, it was said partly in jest. But some people are quite happy to let their children run riot (some people of all classes and income levels, before we go down that route.)

As for the smaller portions thing - you can in big superstores, but in the smaller branches I've really struggled to buy small amounts. And to get to a big store most of the time you need a car. (I'm basing this on personal experience, so may not be wholly accurate.)

also, those three apples and one fish are going to cost almost exactly what they cost at the wee shop around the corner

there are plenty of shopping configs for which the whole "supermarkets are cheaper" truism is AN CANARD (i.e. i can get a litre of puglian olive oil for a fiver at my farmer's mkt and carrots at 50p a bunch)

hey another thread where we can hate on corn:

Food is scarcer now thanks to market liberalisation, which helped to cut excess production and lower stocks. At the same time demand for grains and other food commodities has shot up in China, India and other countries with rapidly growing economies. The biofuel industry is gobbling up an increasing share of the corn and sugar crops. And this year floods and droughts around the world destroyed much of the harvest in countries such as Britain, which had one of the wettest years in recent history, and Australia, which had one of the driest.

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10085859

of course that puglian olive oil is produced by african slave labour.. er eek

yeah the big-box grocery stores are only remarkably cheaper if you're buying shitty food, in my experience.

ok not to be too pejorative or classist, but "shitty" as in cases of coke, potato chips, frozen chicken, etc

in my experience, cases of coke and enormous bags of potato chips are enjoyed by rich and poor bastards alike

hmmmmmm.

yes that is my experience also

don't see as many middle-class kids eating mccain micro-chips and processed not-quite-chicken-burgers bought in frozen bulk, though, do you?

Darragh - because the appeal of some businesses and therefore their main USP is that they're unique?

yes, but to be fair business owners that know that this is their USP aren't going to expand, are they? the chain stores/restaurants that we're discussing are exactly the opposite, as are their selling points- cheap, mass marketed and (usually) predictable wares.

does it all just come down to demand? you don't see many antiques stores branching out into chains.

maybe there's a niche there......

yes, but to be fair business owners that know that this is their USP aren't going to expand, are they?

actually, yes: i can think of one glasgow-based, food-related business straight away that is desperate to run before it can walk (well: walk straighter, with fewer stumbles) and is in danger of fucking itself right up.

and therefore soon won't be a good stand-alone store for very long.

McFopp?

exactly!

it's sort of like the mid-90's insistence that every moderately successful band have some long, interminable "career"

xxpost

well, it's an interesting case: it began as an upmarket, slightly wanky but quite likeable women's clothing shop with a wee cafe -- which was fucking ace. so now they've opened a restaurant-cum-deli, which is good but has some teething problems (IMHO) ... yet already they're crowing about wanting to become a chain and have stores in major cities throughout england.

and i think, get it up you, you dicks: why not worry about doing one thing properly first? once again, though, it's the attitude that annoys me ... i see their "we're going to take our values to other cities!" stance as being just as annoying as "oh, you can't eat at chain X or shop at supermarket A! eat at independent place Y and buy at grocer B instead."

fundamentally, i loathe the middle classes of which i am part :(

has mono got a chain yet?

Tracer have you been to a Rasa yet during their time in London? I think they've done the 'small/burgeoning chain' thing quite well. It helps that their food is gorgeous but each restaurant is similar quality and feel yet themed - one is vegetarian, one does meat, one for seafood etc, but all Keralan food.

Of course this would probably evaporated if they opened many more restaurants, think there are only five or so.

Evaporate, even. Lol grammar.

rasa express on euston road is rubbish though.

has mono got a chain yet?

yes! well: it did have. stereo, in the west end [1]. but i believe it's now shut.

you'd think they'd have learned their lesson: mono, IIRC, was started by refugees from the 13th note, which fucked up royally (the 13th note on king street was being run by receivers for a long time; fuck knows who has it now) when it opened a second premises.

[1] actually, not really the west end but the arse end of argyle street and a total PITA to get to.

was stereo twice the size as mono? i was hoping there'll be another chain called meningitis or something.

can someone take me somewhere nice to eat this saturday?

that flying duck club is part of mono i think.

Do we know that the UK has more chain restaurants than the US? It doesn't seem likely to me, especially with the US casual dining places like Denny's et al.

of course it has less!

per capita, or whatever I mean. Isn't Tracer's argument that the UK favours chain restaurants more than anywhere else?

it certainly doesn't have less, but most probably fewer

i don't have an argument, i have a question!

The old Stereo is now 78, still owned by the Mono folk. And a new Stereo in town has just opened up on Renfield Lane (I'm going there tonight! I love me those chains). Plus The Flying Duck, yes.

xpost Ah, okay. I just hadn't noticed any glut of chain restaurants. But I live in a Scots town of just less than 20,000 folk, and we only got our first fast food place a couple of years ago.

was it an american chain?

have fun selling out to your colonialist pigdog masters, Alba

x-post - yeah, subway. :(

And a new Stereo in town has just opened up on Renfield Lane (I'm going there tonight! I love me those chains)

rly? whereabouts?

also, ken: is it this w/e you're up? 'cos i'll almost certainly be on arran :(

Renfield Lane isn't very long.

i can't actually think which one renfield lane is. what else is on it?

nothing it is a shit old lane between hope st and renfield st. one up from gordon st in front of central station

I thought that was Drury Street/Lane?

No wait that's one over isn't it?

ban glasgow

BANG LASGOW?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/music/reviews/singles/2002/02/25/something01.jpg