By Jim Simmons and Shizue Kamikihara

this report begins with the idle question: "What do you suppose is the impact of the fast food formats on the traditional small town coffee shop"?  The answer, as we shall see is "Not very much, since these formats prefer larger markets", but the process of answering this question has extended our earlier research on location strategies of chain and franchise organizations into Western Canada.  Its many widely dispersed smaller communities  enable us to explore the strategies of a variety of commercial formats that target smaller centres, formats such as banks, service stations and hardware stores.

This report will explore how many formats operate in Western Canada, what kind of places they choose and to what degree they have penetrated the smaller markets.  The study also examines the impact of format strategies on the communities themselves.