Iridesco Watercooler

Chain stores, New York City

Top ten chain stores in NYC, by number of retails stores:

1. Dunkin’ Donuts (341)
2. Subway (335)
3. McDonald’s (248)
4. Starbucks (235)
5. Duane Reade (216)
6. Baskin-Robbin (215)
7. Rite Aid (209)
8. Radio Shack (116)
9. GNC (115)
10. Payless (109)

According to a survey by Center for an Urban Future.  See the entire list, broken down by New York’s 5 boroughs in a PDF here.

My observations:

1. Starbucks has the most retail stores in Manhattan (186), followed by Duane Reade (139) and Subway (136), while Dunkin Donuts comes in at #4 with only 78 stores. 
   
2. Dunkin Donuts dominates the retail scene on Staten Island (a whopping 29 stores - somebody needs to look into that).
3. I would’ve guessed fast-food and drug stores to dominate the top 20 - but Radio Shack?
4. There are as many American Apparel retail stores as there are Barnes and Noble (16).
5. 3 tax services: Jackson Hewitt Tax Service (83, #15 on the list), Liberty Tax Service (43), H&R Block (29),
   
6. Sports clubs in NYC: New York Sports Clubs (55), Curves (47), Equinox (20), Bally Total Fitness (17), Crunch (12), and Gold’s Gym (5).

Update: we’ve made a spreadsheet out of the data on Google Spreadsheets.