Information is power. So is maps.

A new study intending to rank the nation’s metropolitan areas in independent retail strength resulted in great news for the coasts, but not so much for Eau Claire and the Midwest.

Produced by Civic Economics, the Indie City Index took retail statistics from 363 metropolitan areas, looked at the portion comprised by chain sales, and thus deduced the “strength” of the independent sector. A sector, they remind, that recirculates substantially more money into the local economy than its chain counterparts and has a bigger impact on community development and vitality.

“The score of a place is based on the proportion of total sales captured by major chains,” said Dan Houston, of Civic Economics. He added that they created the index with 100 representing the national average. “Eau Claire ranked 251 based on an index score of 86.9, meaning below average. That means that, in the Eau Claire metropolitan area, major chains are capturing a larger share of sales than in other markets.”

Overall it’s clear that the New England and Pacific regions of the nation have the biggest stronghold, and areas in New York, Oregon, California, Massachusetts, Texas, and Arizona top the list. Eau Claire, meanwhile, resulted in similar scores to Madison (236), La Crosse (213), and Green Bay (248); better scores than Minneapolis (283), Milwaukee (289), Rochester (315), and Racine (358); and worse scores than St. Cloud (199), Duluth (141), Janesville (41), Oshkosh (34), and Wausau (26).

To put this in further context, they compiled the data into a map that colorized the areas to show their degree of indie retail strength. Yellow indicates terrible, two shades of orange mark the middle ground, and red means awesome. Wisconsin and Minnesota have no yellow (though the rest of the Midwest is speckled with it), and Eau Claire is a light orange. In the entire Midwest, it appears roughly 20 markets are the dark orange. And the Wausau area is the only red area in the entire Midwest. In fact, the closest red spots are in Colorado to the west, Georgia to the south, and West Virginia to the east. 

What does this mean? The Midwest apparently loves chains. And Eau Claire may not be exemplary nation-wide, but compared to its neighbors in the Midwest we’re doing OK (the average Midwest market’s score is between 84.5 and 90.2).

Visit IndieCityIndex.com for more info.