Capacity utilisation has fallen, all four of the publicly-quoted chains lost money in their last full recorded year, and their share prices have crashed (see chart).

ECONOMIST: Movie theatres

But the costs hit home when ecosystem degradation translates into lost lives or illness, when scarcities bring supply chains to a grinding halt, when homes are destroyed or jobs lost, or when preventable damage from natural disasters overwhelms the budgets of insurers and governments.

FORBES: The Next Global Debt Crisis

But the company gradually lost its advantage as mainstream food chains copied its formula.

ECONOMIST: BUSINESS BRITAIN

One of them said, The very time I thought I was lost, My dungeon shook and my chains fell off.

NPR: An Author's Companion in Rage, Exile and Return

Yucho has recently lost some of its payments business to Japan's convenience-store chains, which together have an even more comprehensive branch network than the post office.

ECONOMIST: Japanese finance

"A lot is lost because Justice Department and Medicare investigators have reeled in HCA and other for-profit hospital chains, " says Scott Gottlieb , a physician and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute .

FORBES: Healing Thyself