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lol, McD's represented as a black blight on an otherwise beautiful landscape?
lol, McD's represented as a black blight on an otherwise beautiful landscape?
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Why does Consumerist have to post articles about fast food places during lunchtime? I don't even have a Sonic around here, for Pete's sake!
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You have my sympathy. I couldn't make through summer without a large strawberry limeade at least 4x a week.
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Then I won't mention their chili dogs, milkshakes, Cherry Lime Aide, onion rings, or toaster sandwiches.
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Man I'm glad I'm not pregnant anymore. That would have sent me to my car, and down the street.
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Pregnancy cravings are the worst. Mine was what I called \"greaseburgers\" from Checkers, which was within walking distance from our house. 3 for $5. Oh yeah. They were thick burgers with mushrooms in a beefy sauce, they came with swiss cheese, but I got (liquid, not slices) american cheese instead. Ohmigod. They were super thick and slippery from all the goodies, and the juices would drip off my elbows. Limited time thing, of course. I bet if they got rid of them while I was still pregnant, I probably would have driven right into the side of the store and set it on fire as I was walking away.
Yeah, and I'm 5 months pregnant, AND stuck without a car today! It's torture, I tell ya!
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I'm glad I'm not high right now, because that would have sent me on the 3 hour drive to my nearest Sonic.
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First of all, hamburger hegemony is the funniest and best description I've ever heard of McD's. Second, everyone in the southeast knows that CHICK-FIL-A RULES ALL.
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... unless you happen to be hungry on a Sunday.
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Seriously! Every time I pass by the one CFA near me in Los Angeles it happens to be a Sunday and they're closed!
You shouldn't eat fast food on Sunday anyways. Sundays are all about potlucks at church. Duh.
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Which is funny as just about every event I've been to at Truett's ranch, has been on a Sunday.
I met him once when I worked at Chick-fil-a. He seemed like a really genuine guy. I was 14 and he told me that I should be proud for already working, then he gave me a signed book.
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I'm a Truett fan. I hear his son Dan is decent as well.
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I think the summary here is wrong. This is literally an 8 vs. 1 chart. McDonald's is, and probably always will be, by far the most dominant fast food empire.
What this shows is if the other 8 combined outweigh McDonald's in an area, the most predominant competitor is highlighted, which answers idip's question.
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Thanks for explaining this, it didn't make sense to me at al.
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Exactly. The first map in the linked article is more appropriate - it shows that a large swath of the US is \"in the black\" (i.e. in a McDonald's-dominated area).
The black image in the newslink is a hell of a lot easier to read and understand...
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Agreed. The weird gradient in the background makes it really difficult to see the saturation of anybody but McDonalds.
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I think my area would look a lot different if Dunkin Donuts were a part of this map.
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I'm surprised how dominant McD's is in the northeast but nowhere else. For once, the rest of the country shows it's smarter by holding off the ubiquitous and far-inferior burger MickeyD's.
Personally, I'm waiting for Whataburger to open a franchise near me.
Geez, thanks for making me long for college again -- we had 2 Whataburgers on campus that took our university food plan.
I wish they'd come out this way too...
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Oh MAN I wish Whataburger would come to Missouri. I emailed them and begged but no dice. They are sooo good.
I must try In and Out before I die, too.
Huh; I always thought Carl's Jr. and Hardees were the same company -- but they're listed here as separate.
same parent company, I think, but different chains.
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I'd trade a lot of that black in my state for more yellow, purple and light blue.
Also, more Lee's Chicken.
Taco Bell was the only restaurant to survive the Franchise Wars. Now all restaurants are Taco Bell.
Unless you are outside of the USA then it's Pizza Hut.
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The other map is pretty awesome too. It includes Sonic, which is this huge blue splotch near the middle of the US. I live in the heart of Sonic territory, and we have so many that it's very easy to be equidistant from two or three at any time. It's a matter of choosing which one has the best carhops or which one is the easiest to get into/out of depending on traffic and street conditions.
I'd also like to see a time-lapse of these places, especially with Sonic. Sonic has grown exponentially in the last several years.
Fun fact: the parking spaces at Sonic are always slanted for a reason. At the very first Sonic, the owner noticed that teenagers would pull into the spaces, get their food, then sit around talking to each other out their car windows, therefore preventing new customers from coming in. He slanted the parking slots so that the car windows no longer lined up, so teens would get their food and migrate to a nearby parking lot to chat.
If McDonalds and the rest are not careful Sonic is going to take over the fast food business everywhere. The Sonic building is delivered on the back of three trucks and can be setup on lots that would never be able to support a McDonalds or Wendy's.
Sonic has successfully overcome many customers biggest objections to eating at fast food restaurants; Waiting in line with a bunch of screaming kids or crawling through a 10 minute stop and go drive through line. People park next to a menu, order when they are ready, pay when they are ready and wait in the comfort of their car for their food.
The chain is spreading like a forest fire and is extremely profitable. It now costs more for a franchisee to open a Sonic then it does to open a Mcdonalds.
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I just moved to the heart of sonic territory much to mine and my husbands delight since there was one sonic were we used to live in ca and it was a 20 minute drive, but dismay as well because there is no in-n-out.
It was amazing driving out here from CA....every tiny Podunk town had a sonic I mean EVERY town. Didn't matter how big or small. It was kind of amazing.
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Wow, that map is not only informative but really soothing to look at.
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Data is flawed. No In-N-Out Burger in California? Pshaw!
... now I really need In and out.
You've got the wrong map. That map is combining all other restaurants against mcdonalds. Take a look at the map with all restaurants independent of each other and McD is much stronger. http://www.weathersealed.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/alone.jpg
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Sonic threw up purple gook in the bottom middle of that map - right on top of my territory.
Yes! I knew I saw the almost entirely black map yesterday. That one makes sense. The one here is just showing that when combined all together, other burger joints beat McDonalds, but taken by themselves, McDonald's is still way ahead of everyone else.
Did you notice all the little black MdDonalds dots that appear to be surrounded on all fronts by a Dairy Queen or Hardee's?
What's with that?
McDonalds is famous in the industry for having a top notch Real Estate department. Many chains (especially Burger King) have avoided the cost of running a serious demographics operation by simply building across the street from McDonalds.
This worked well for BK for a while but many people (like me) will never choose to eat at Burger King when a McDonalds is available.
This map has to be incorrect. It shows that Hardees are dominant in my state, yet we haven't had Hardees since the 90s when they were replaced by Carls Jr. We don't have that many Carls Jrs though. We definitely have more McDonalds. I think this map is definitely wrong.
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Carl's Jr. is the same as Hardees. Exact same company!
It's beautiful, in an Idiocracy sort of way.
Previous poster was right, this is indeed the wrong map. McDonald dominates about 90% of the country. This is the wrong image.
I do not think these maps are done well at all. It really bothers me that the background is incorporated into the areas being mapped. Especially, the black one (when you click on the link). Terrible! McDonald's is portrayed as a black dot, but the background is black too and therefore indistinguishable from areas with no information (rural areas, but also Great Lakes, everywhere outside US, etc.) As a person who looks at maps for my day job, it's hurts my eyes to look at these.
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I live in the midwest and was surprised that Dairy Queen was so popular for burgers in the west coast. My brothers apartment is in front of a 7-11 and Dairy Queen and right before DQ closes their is always a line at least 10 deep. I was like why are there so many people at DQ and he was like people love their burgers they line up for them before they close. I have never had a burger at DQ ever.
They aren't bad burgers, but the DQs in the my area are for the most part, nasty establishments. Old and dirty and never updated. They are also one of the most frequently cited for health code violations.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1529864-100x100.png\")
Damn, Texas! That's a lot of Dairy Queens!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-804913-100x100.png\")
Dairy Queen actually closed a LOT of stores in a recent bankruptcy of several franchisees. Ever since then it's gone downhill pretty bad.
Now you know you're in a rural area/major national highway when you see a Dairy Queen. The holdovers in the suburbs all shut down.
Kinda sad, Blizzards and Dipped Cones are ftw! Now I want one :(
Dairy Queen fries are amazing. Man cannot live by McDonald's alone.
Texans are umm, different. Dr Pepper outsells Coke and Pepsi combined down there and people actually eat at Dairy Queen.
Where else are you supposed to go after football games? :)
Seriously, I'll cut somebody for a mint blizzard in the middle of July.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-367619-100x100.png\")
It would be interesting to compare this with hear attack and cancer occurrences and obesity counts and compare with this chart.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1525062-100x100.png\")
cancer?
Living in strip mall hell, we have all the good stuff: Chick fil a, Sonic, Whataburger and DQ. I'm glad McDonald's not my only option for a fast food burger.
But now I'm wondering what regional goodies am I missing out on....
i like how the influence of Hardees in eastern NC/SC extends 100 miles out into the ocean.
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I'm puzzled that Hardees shows up as having a significant presence in Maryland. There are literally a grand total of 5 Hardees in the entire state.
This map is BS, Hardees and Carl's Jr. are the same exact thing!
Its interesting that it misses Subway, who IIRC is the largest restaurant chain in the country.
JAck
I agree on the flawed map claims. Texas should be covered in another set of dots indicating the Whataburger chain.
I agree. They are the second most populist chain here, behind Sonic.
background color makes it very hard to read.
They ain't kidding with Sonic domination in Texas. We have 7 or 8 in our town alone, compared to 3 Whataburgers, 2 McD's, 2 Jacks, one Dairy Queen, Burger King and Wendys. Oh yeah, and we just got our first Carl's Jr.
Last September/October, my husband, two dogs and I made a massive road trip. We went from Austin, to Indiana, then through Illinois to Wisconsin, across part of Iowa, Minnesota, N and S Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.
You know who we saw in every single small town on that trip? Subway. The place might not even have any other fast food joint, but by God, they had a Subway.
The weird thing? We didn't eat there even once on that trip. We did eat at White Castle three times (they don't have them here, so it's actually a treat), but that was about it for fast food. We mostly bought lunch-type food at local groceries. It was awesome.
Just thought the Subway thing was interesting.
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Polishing a turd - 21st century style.
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O...M....G.....that is MEAN! where is White Castle????? *Throws tantrum and cries*
![http://www.weathersealed.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/alone.jpg](\"http://www.weathersealed.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/alone.jpg\"){kind=link}
That's interesting... my area shows to be dominated by Jack in the Box, but in my city there are easily 3x's as many McDonald's as there are Jack in the Box's.
That's because they posted the wrong map. Consumerist's quality control is pretty low, though, so don't expect it to change any time soon.
Here's the more informative map -- most of the map is deep deep black, i.e., McDonald's.
http://www.weathersealed.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/alone.jpg
Well, down here (North Texas) Sonic and Subway franchise with the same method: They don't care how many franchisees they screw over by shoving them all in the same area, more stores=more fees=more money.
I'm sure the other guys are similar, but Sonic and Subway are notoriously the worst. So.. we may have six Sonics in one very small city, but one of them is the most central, and usually the most profitable/well known. I've spoken with some of the other franchise owners wile organizing fundraisers and such, and new stores are constantly opening up that are more central, taking away old, established franchises business, etc etc. Or the old store is so entrenched that they open one up a block away and it's dead. And I kid you not, there are several areas around here where sonics are less than a mile apart. The only other store that happens with is McDonalds, and I can only really think of one instance (a college area).
I know a lot of the chains spread their franchises out at least somewhat, so it's not like that's an unheard of practice.
AND everyone knows Whataburger rules the south.