Entry regulations against big-boxes have been introduced in many countries to protect independent retailers. Analyzing a planning reform launched in the U.K. in the 1990s, I show that entry regulations may in fact accelerate the decline of independents by increasing the attractiveness of smaller in-town store formats for retail chains. The causal impact of planning regulation is estimated using variation in local political control across the U.K., which exogenously affects the ease of entry for big-boxes in this specific institutional framework. The analysis shows that up to 17% of the independents' employment decline between 1998 and 2004 can be attributed to the regulatory reform.