CLONE TOWN This term was coined last summer by a left-wing think
tank, the New Economics Foundation (which calls itself, however, a
"think-and-do tank"), when it launched a survey to find the British
towns whose shopping centers have the most national chains and US
branded outlets such as Gap and Starbucks, to what it considered to be
the detriment of local diversity and independent retailers. This week
it reported on its findings and the term is back in the news.
The city of Exeter came bottom with almost all the locally operated
stores in its centre driven out by high rents and business rates; at
the top was Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, with three national
retailers among its 50 shops. The report also coined "home town"
for places like Hebden Bridge, and "border town" for one in which
"colonization by the clones" wasn't yet fully established. The
Foundation argues that planning law ought to be used to ensure that
developers guarantee affordable space for locally owned stores and
urges local communities to fight back against "bloated retail
behemoths" that dominate "identikit" clone-town high streets.
|
