In No Choice, Klein indicates how the promise of a huge array of consumer choice has been betrayed by mergers, franchising and corporate censorship. Single-brand stores now predominate in many urban centres—Nike Town, Roots, The Body Shop—and single-brand pioneer Disney has gone far beyond Disney World to create the Disney Magic cruise ship, and Celebration, Fla., where you can live the complete Disney life.

Diesel is an innovative international design company, manufacturing and distributing jeans and casual clothing as well as accessories, through over 120 single-brand stores and 10,000 independent outlets worldwide.

The car market has become less predictable not only because of economic and energy-related situations but also because of shifting consumer preferences. In the highly fragmented marketplace of today, the dealer who has taken a portfolio approach to his business, and is diversified by product lines or geographically, may not be as vulnerable to economic jolts or changing customer tastes as the dealer who operates out of a single brand store.