This report came out earlier in the week, but we haven’t had a chance to take a look at it before now. The Center for an Urban Future released its fifth annual survey, “State of the Chains,” which tracks the growth of national chains in New York City.
We looked at the chain store issue in the cover story of our July print magazine. This year, there was a lot of debate in the neighborhood, mostly surrounding the invasion of the LES by 7-Eleven. In our story we noted that the 2011 report from the center found there were 37 national chain stores in area code 10002, which encompasses much of the Lower East Side and Chinatown. What’s the story this year? According to the researchers, there were 36 retail stores run by national chains when the survey was conducted during the summer.
In all of New York City, the report found, the number of chains grew in the past year by 2.4%. There are just over 7,000 chain locations in the five boroughs. The companies with the most stores in NYC are: Dunkin’ Donuts, Subway and Starbucks. 7-Eleven now has 98 locations in the city, up from 83 last year.
The East Village (area code 10003) clocked in with 179 chain stores, up 12 from 2011. The EV has more chain outlets than any other neighborhood besides New Springville on Staten Island and the Garment District/Koreatown.
The full report is available on the center’s web site.
