> Now the mom and pop lost a bunch of money and the big company got a new location at a big savings. Why did the big company save money this way? If it's cheap

> Now the mom and pop lost a bunch of money and the big company got a new location at a big savings. Why did the big company save money this way? If it's cheaper for them to just wait for bankruptcy, why don't they just always do that? It seems the only answer is that they are counting on continuing the popular "brand" of the independent store. But that brand is exactly tied up to this store not being part of the big chain, so continuing it would be pure deceit. Or as ClumsyPilot says, the business wasn't going bankrupt at all. Bit chain just wanted it, and now they can't.