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Sure, we're mean and we're poorly dressed...but at least we shun fast food chains
By Kaz on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 4:33pm
Ok, Bostonians are the worst dressed city in America. Sure, Bostonians are the #1 headstrong-not-heartstrong city. But did you know that we're also the least likely to spend money in fast food chains?
According to a survey of 100 American cities' spending data, Boston not only spends the least on fast food every year, but we spend 92% less than the national average! The next closest city is Philadelphia with a meer 63% less than the national average. On the other end of the spectrum is Plano, TX which spends more than twice the national average (and almost 30x more than we do!).
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Comments
Of course, that's not
Of course, that's not counting Chinese take-out, or pizza, or any non-chains.
Well...
It's not fat if it's cat.
Correct
If you follow the links back to the original survey, you'll see that they included: McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC, Taco Bell, Subway, Pizza Hut, Arby's, and Burger King.
Other than McDonald's...and maybe Subway, I'd have a hard time telling you where any more than about 3 locations for each of those places even exist in Boston (the closest Arby's is in Marlborough). It's something I noticed a few years ago when BU shoved out its Taco Bell (which was replaced with a Starbucks) and McDonald's (replaced with a smaller-chain chicken finger joint called Raising Cane's).
I like it. I like to think we prefer to have smaller, more independent groups over the major chains in general.
There's an Arby's in West Roxbury
but overall, I agree with the point you and NotWhitey are making. We eat just as much junk, just sold by different purveyors.
That Arbys has been gone for about 5 years now.
And Boston is lucky with all the good Burrito Places around. Never any reason to go to Taco Bell anymore unless you are constipated and the over the counter laxitives aren't working.
5? More like 10! It was
5? More like 10! It was robbed almost weekly!
There WAS an Arby's in West Roxbury
Closed a long time ago. I think it was replaced by one of those exotic Dunkin' Donuts.
That strip on the VFW parkway
That strip on the VFW parkway has a McDonalds, a Burger King, a double Long John Silver plus something else, and a Dunkies.
Somerville, for instance, has ...
one McDonald's (Davis Square), one Burger King (across from Target), one KFC/Taco Bell combination (on Broadway in East Somerville), no Pizza Hut, no Arby's, and no Wendy's. We do seem to have a growing number of Subways: Davis Square, Somerville Ave sorta near Porter Square, Union Square, and a brand new one in Powderhouse Square.
On the other hand, we've also got an Anna's, a Chipotle, an Au Bon Pain, and a Domino's (all in Davis Square), and quite a large number of non-chain pizzerias, sub shops, taco joints, coffee shops, Chinese take-outs, and the like scattered all over the city. Not to mention about 10 Dunkin Donuts, and two Starbucks.
KFC-ee ya later
The KFC/Taco Bell is going away soon...so there's that. And then maybe someday we'll have cheap sweedish meatballs and boiled fish plates at the Ikea cafeteria...
East Somerville KFC going away?
I didn't know that. Can you tell us more, such as when it is closing and what might be replacing it?
Technically...
There are two Mcdonalds...The one at Twin Cities is in Somerville, not Cambridge.
There used to be a Burger King...
...at BU on Comm Ave sort of diagonally across from Warren Towers. It was there for years, and then vanished a number of years ago. I forget what's there now.
The absolute worst of the worst
Along that no-man's land on what used to be Rte. 1 where nobody's ever sure if they're in Boston or Dedham, there was, briefly, a Long John Silver's. You know it's bad when it's replaced by a Taco Bell and that's a step up.
Not replaced.
Long John Silver's was not replaced by Taco Bell at all. They share the building, or at least they did for a few years. Likely still in there, I'd guess. Don't care to find out for myself, though...
Thanks
I was probably subconsciously willing it to go away...
As stated, it's still there
As stated, it's still there along with TB.
Fast Food Nation alive and, er, well in Roslindale
Specifically, American Legion Highway, where in one short stretch you've got McDonald's, Popeye's, KFC, some other fried-chicken place (New York Fried Chicken?), Dunkin' Donuts and Wendy's. Also, the Simco nobody ever mentions, but they're exempt because they're local.
Simco
What do you thing of their dogs? ;~}
Never had one
Not enough of a connoisseur to know, so I've stuck to their fried seafood.
Conclusion
Eating crappy fast food makes you happy and gives you a good wardrobe.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
To that point
An illustration
Being that Boston was fully
Being that Boston was fully built out before the rise of the fast food chains, I suspect it was hard for them to enter the market. In a lot of cities, there were large empty stretches of land to build on. Since the big chains generally like stand-alone buildings, Boston was not fertile territory for them. I had been hearing about McDonalds for many years before I saw my first one in Boston.
In 5 years, the BU/Kenmore
In 5 years, the BU/Kenmore area lost:
Mcdonalds on Boylston (demolished, temp parking lot)
Mcdonalds on Comm Ave (now a BU owned food place)
Taco Bell on Comm Ave (now Starbucks)
Pizza Hut on Comm Ave (now Starbucks)
Burger King on Comm Ave (demolished for parking lot
Burger King in BU student union (became panda express)
And supposedly the BK on Boylston is also slated for demolition.
That leaves the Mcondalds in Kenmore....which closes at 11pm. A couple of Subways (Comm Ave Warren Towers and Comm/Mass Ave) and not much else when it comes to national fast food chains.
Oh wait, the Popeyes in Kenmore is still there right?
Impressive change anyway.
Whenever I get my . . .
. . . bi-weekly or monthly fast food craving (injected into all of us by "the man" at birth no doubt) I usually hop in the car and drive to Revere to get a Wendy's triple.
Glad more fast food chains are not about town or I might succumb more often.
Maybe it's best not to know
...but there is a Wendy's (and a Taco Hell) in the Northeastern student center, right in the center of town.
Yeah-
- I pretty much like to keep my fast food eating confined guiltily to my car in the parking lot of the Wendy's after I go through the drive thru.
Ice Cream
I suspect we make up for the fast food with ice cream.
noooooo...
We're ranked worst dressed? Nooooo!
DD?
Dunkin Donuts on that list?
Plano
I grew up in Plano - I can completely believe that they came in first. My sister still lives there, and I remember a few years ago watching in horror as she fed her <6 month old daughter McDonalds, using as justification the fact that she had teeth.
This is what makes Massachusetts special
For all the complaining on UHub, MA really is unique in the US for the number of local businesses. When I first came here I couldn't believe how many non-chains were around which I still love. Go out to the mid-West and it's just horrible chains everywhere. Is the food in Boston better for you? Maybe not, but at least you get a choice instead of the same crap everywhere else in the US.
Plano, Tx (a suburb of
Plano, Tx (a suburb of Dallas) isn't the midwest.
On another note I was horrified to see how many people in Dallas use the drive-thru for breakfast.
Skewed data for Los Angeles, too
Someone pointed out on another discussion board that LA ranks low because the survey doesn't include that area's dominant chains -- In-N-Out Burger, Jack in the Box, and Carls Jr.
Carl's Jr . . .
. . . Reminds me of "Idiocracy". If you haven't seen that one- it is good.