1.   Beyond the mergers, chains have taken over independent pharmacies, providing the opportunity to close old stores and open others under the new concept.

2.   But when a corporate food-service chain took over the cafeteria concession, he was summarily fired.

3.   Drug store chains have taken notice.

4.   It is not as if the fast-food chains took up the issue without ample encouragement from outsiders.

5.   Major chains will take one or two copies from an independent label, unless the label is prepared to buy costly shelf space within a listening station.

6.   The Atlanta-based home improvement chain is taking a page from its mass retail brethren as it faces one of the toughest holiday seasons in recent memory.

7.   The big department-store chains have also taken to advertising in college newspapers and on movie screens.

8.   The big national chains can take advantage of scale to win lower prices from their suppliers.

9.   The chain can take the IOUs across the country and back.

10.   The giant bookstore chains had taken away the market, she was told.