Brooklyn boasts more chain stores, says report

The times they are a chain-gin’.

After the Center for an Urban Future’s latest “State of Chains” report—a comprehensive annual ranking of New York City’s national retailers—was released earlier this month, Brooklyn outranks most other boroughs with its number of chain stores, second only to the Bronx.

“Our eighth annual ranking of national retailers in New York City shows that the growth in chain store locations across the city slowed considerably over the last year,” the Center writes in its report. “Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens were the only boroughs to experience net increases in the number of national retailers, while the net number of locations declined in Manhattan and on Staten Island.”

Brooklyn chain stores increased by 2.6 percent over the past year, according to the report—taking the number from 1,592 stores last year to 1,633 stores in 2015. The Bronx reported an even higher increase in chain stores with 3.3 percent.

Although Brooklyn’s numbers are climbing—currently boasting 1,600 national retail outlets—Manhattan and Queens still outnumber the borough; Manhattan with 2,804 nation retail stores and Queens with 1,749.

Some of the retailers that expanded their reach in the borough this year include: Sprint had a net gain of 20 stores in Brooklyn over the past year (from five in 2014 to 25 in 2015); Dunkin Donuts grew by 10 stores (from 125 in 2014 to 135 in 2015); Metro PCS had a net gain of 10 stores (from 107 in 2014 to 117 in 2015); T-Mobile grew by 10 stores (from 50 in 2014 to 60 in 2015); Starbucks grew by five stores (from 27 in 2014 to 32 in 2015); and Nathan’s expanded by three stores (from seven in 2014 to 10 in 2015); among others.

Scaling back some of their locations, stores like Radio Shack, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, Bally Total Fitness, Lucille Roberts, White Castle, McDonald’s and Subway, closed several of their sites in Brooklyn.

For the eight consecutive year, however, Dunkin Donuts remains at the top of the list as the largest national retailer in New York City, with a total of 568 stores.

To view the full report, visit nycfuture.org/research/publications/state-of-the-chains-2015.