From Weather Sealed, we get this terrific map of the 8 largest American burger chains:
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click for ginormous map
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Hat tip Flowing Data
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
Q: Why do Economists provide estimates of inflation to the nearest tenth of a percent? A: To prove they have a sense of humour.
"The Greek offer is not sufficient and they have to go away to come up with a revised plan," said a spokesman for the German Finance Ministry. The Greeks must first have a plan that satisfies the Germans which this comment states they clearly don't yet and then the Greek Parliament will vote on it this weekend. This said, whatever package gets voted on in Greece is basically an up or down vote on euro membership so we are entering another uncertain weekend for global markets. A failed vote will likely lead to a hard default which may be what...
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March 10th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Mickey D’s has a huge offshore presence…
March 10th, 2010 at 9:33 am
The Big Chill!
Burger King blames cold weather for sales drop
Bad weather is keeping customers away from Burger King, the company said. But its sales deterioration is worse than that of some of its major competitors.
Burger King on Tuesday blamed winter storms and cold weather for a dramatic drop in sales for January and February.
The Miami fast-food chain said January and February same-store sales in the United States and Canada were down 8.2 percent. Same-store sales are considered the best measure of a chain’s health. Worldwide same-store sales were down 5.4 percent.
Burger King Chief Executive John Chidsey noted in a statement that “U.S. and Canada January sales were impacted by adverse weather conditions, which worsened in February, resulting in lower than anticipated sales.”
Burger King attributed about 3 percentage points of the sales decline to “inclement weather” in the Central and Eastern United States, where over 75 percent of the chain’s restaurants are located.
…Burger King’s national competitors — Taco Bell, Wendy’s and McDonald’s — are “having significantly better performance, which we believe underscores Burger King’s struggle with brand momentum.”
McDonald’s U.S. same-store sales increased .6 percent in February, after a .7 percent decline in January.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:46 am
Best in quality of service is Culver’s, mostly a midwestern regional chain. Wife and I stumbled upon one during a trip to MN. Food was good, but the custard ice cream and malts were very good. And, of course, it was very clean, which was a shocker to a New Orleans boy.
What really impressed my was how nice all the employees were, in contrast to the usual Micky D’s counter help. I attributed this to the Minnesota niceness which is almost scary and is parodied by Prairie Home Companion. During the Katrina evacuation we found that there was a location in the Woodlands, north of Houston. What was really surprising was that the employees there were as eerily eager to please as those in MN, so it must be a strong part of the corporate culture and training. I wish more would adopt it. Sometimes drive the 20-30 miles up there just to partake of some junk food in pleasant surroundings.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:52 am
Looks like somebody ralphed light purple all over Texas and Oklahoma.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:16 am
lalaland is right.
Is the black color “McDonald’s”, or is the black color “no data”, oceans, Great Lakes, Gulf, etc.?
From Weathersealed.com (Flowing Data’s source for this graphic):
“In this and the following graphic, each individual restaurant location has equal power. The entity that controls each point casts the most aggregate burger force upon it, as calculated by the inverse-square law – kind of like a chart outlining the gravitational wells of galactic star clusters, but in an alternate, fast food universe.”
???
What is burger force?
Lots of other questions that these articles aren’t clear on.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Lot of downer cow eaters in Texas where Omnivore Dilemma is prolly not a hot seller…
The beef I eat, and the hamburgers from that beef are raised not more than a mile from my house…
I literally can watch future angus dine on grass as I ride by on bike…
Even the Hamburgers at the local drive-in are safe to eat ’cause the folks who raise the angus also bought the Fairlee drive-in across the river…
I will never eat downer cow again, evah-
Seen and read way to much to trust that less than, toxic laden stuff…
March 10th, 2010 at 10:39 am
For the record; the map above is black as night where I live…
March 10th, 2010 at 11:03 am
could we get an overlay in comparison to obesity rates in the US LOL
March 10th, 2010 at 11:57 am
“Seen and read way to much to trust that less than, toxic laden stuff…”
yes, but that’s a “Theory”..
yet, we, still, wonder why Health-Care costs are, “coincidentally”, still, climbing..
~~
next up, they should chart Grocery Stores..
rktbrkr!~
March 10th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Looks similar to this diabetes map: http://media.skinnychef.com/misc/exploding-diabetes.jpg
March 10th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
So if I tell you that Dairy Queen and Sonic are the dominant burger joints where I’m from, you can easily place where that is? How funny. Of course, they have nothing on the sales of the taqueria chains. Sonic has car hops on skates, and they will sell you chili covered tater tots.
As far as RF is concerned, we largely knew our beef on the hoof when I was a kid, but no longer. Nothing sold commercially is safe, so I miss the reference to Texas. You are aware that most all of the beef grown there is actually primarily pasture fed, right? They supplement with cake feed. It is the feed lots that pump cattle full of crap, and those are the same anywhere you go. I wouldn’t feel too smug about your meat unless you are finishing and fattening it onsite before slaughter.
I pick out a nice chuck roast and grind it at home now. Only way to feel comfortable. But when I lived in Texas there was always a butcher around (at least one) who not only knew his suppliers, but took delivery of whole carcasses and recleaned them in shop.
March 10th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Is that a map of the grease stains left behind?
March 10th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
mknowles – it is obvious from diabetes map that diabetes is god’s punishment for eating shellfish.
Those old testament rules have been around for a long time for sure.
Gordo
March 10th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
@ Marcus Aurelius:
“Looks like somebody ralphed light purple all over Texas and Oklahoma”
That would be Sonic, and “ralphed” is appropriate. Just say no.
March 10th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Hardees and Carl’s Jr are both owned by CKR, have virtually identical advertising and menus, and an integrated supply chain. For all intents and purposes, they are a single chain that is operated under two different brand names in different geographies for historical reasons. They really should show up as a single color on the map.
March 11th, 2010 at 11:24 am
Having the color of largest category being equal to the background color = ChartFail!