What's the difference between "chain" and "franchise"? Are they interchangeable?
Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
"Chains" and "franchises" are very similar and both refer to having multiple business locations, however there is a slight difference between them and they are not totally interchangeable. A "chain" refers to a single company which owns many different separate location businesses. In a "franchise", different locations are owned separately by individuals and not by a single company.