Via District, Measured.

Today in “signs of a rapidly changing D.C.:” the number of “mom and pop” stores in D.C. has sharply declined in the past 15 years.

The busy minds behind D.C.’s Office of Revenue Analysis blog District, Measured have a new report out that pulls U.S. Census data about how the number of “mom and pop” shops—stores with only a handful of employees—in the District has changed between 1998 and 2012. According to the data, the number of stores with one to four employees declined by 14 percent between 1998 and 2012. Those with five to nine employees declined by 24 percent, and stores with 10 to 19 employees declined by 11 percent.

Conversely, the number of bigger stores—namely big box retailers—increased a lot over the past 15 years. Between 1998 and 2012, the number of stores employing between 100 and 249 people and over 250 people both increased by 50 percent.

Of course, as District, Measure notes, stores with fewer than 20 employees account for more than 85 percent of all retail stores in D.C., even though they’re declining.

So which stores are vanishing and what’s replacing them? According to Census data, butchers, auto dealers, florists, book stores, and a few others are all declining, while D.C. is seeing an increase in pet, furniture, cosmetics, and convenience stores.

You can see the full breakdown of the data here.