It would appear that Hatfield is becoming a clone town. An increasing amount of shops and companies based in Hatfield town centre are part of a chain, meaning there are sites for the same businesses in numerous other places around the UK. This would connote that Hatfield has very similar shops and services to that of other towns around the country, suggesting that it is becoming a clone town, due to its similarities. There are various shops in Hatfield which have many stores around the UK. New Look, for example, has almost 600 stores in the UK, and a further 300 around Europe, making it a very large chain. Another large chain present in Hatfield is Asda, which has over 630 stores around the UK. The presence of chains like these mean that Hatfield shows various similarities to many other towns in the country, so it appears to be a clone town, as it would not really stand out as different from other places.
There are other chains in Hatfield, but they are smaller, and their presence is not as common, so the impact of giving the impression of Hatfield having been cloned is not as great. Simmons is a bakery chain based within Hertfordshire. It is classed as an independent bakery, as the stores are exclusively located in this county, but even so, there are a total of 35 shops in just this county, so travelling around Hertfordshire, it is not uncommon to see Simmons, so its presence in Hatfield does not stand out and presents Hatfield as a clone town within Hertfordshire.
Having said that, Hatfield town centre does have various independent shops/businesses as well, which help to make it somewhat different from other towns in the UK. Smarty is one of these, a shop which sells school uniform. The only Smarty store is in Hatfield, so in this was Hatfield has something unique, showing it is not a complete clone town. In addition to Smarty, there is a wide range of independent shops catering for the largely ethnic diverse population of Hatfield. Pak Halal Butchers provides halal meat for the Muslims living in and around Hatfield, and there are also various independent Polish food shops. These are quite unique, and although similar shops would be present in certain other areas of the country, the shops in Hatfield are generally independent, making the town different from others, suggesting that the argument of Hatfield being a clone town may not be totally valid.
Overall, however, as the table shows, the vast majority of shops in Hatfield are part of a chain, meaning there are branches throughout the country, or county, so there are significant similarities between Hatfield and other towns in the UK, suggesting that Hatfield is progressively becoming more of a clone town as more large chain retailers and companies expand.