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How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

datapointed.net

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Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#2

Post by jasonkester »

Back when Starbucks first exploded to such ludicrous levels that you'd sometimes find two of them sharing a single parking lot, the expectation became that there would always be a Starbucks nearby.

So much so that when I tried to drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles early one morning, I was surprised, then baffled, then amazed, then outraged that there was no Starbucks at all on I-10. I spent nearly 4 hours driving with no mocha in me at all, and was likely a hazard to other drivers.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that somebody had driven off the road on that stretch and sued Starbucks for negligence in not providing the requisite number of restaurants per square meter that its customer base had come to expect.

Fortunately, they've now put one in Blythe, so the drive is much less perilous.

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#4

Post by steve-howard »

>Which begs the question: just how far away can you get from our world of generic convenience? And how would you figure that out?

I'm an insomniac much of the time. Some weeks/months I don't sleep until it's light out. Out here in suburban Chicago, the only places still open to me when it's late and I'm hungry are 7-11, McDonald's, and Burger King. So I'll take "generic convenience," because it at least makes my life a little easier to be able to get something resembling food when there's nothing else open.

(Yes, I could plan ahead and put things in my fridge and cook food. I'll get back to you when I have the energy or the inclination to do that).

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#6

Post by pyre »

Tossrock wrote: post #3

This post is from 2009, he updated it in 2010: http://www.datapointed.net/2010/09/distance-to-nearest-mcdon... He also visited the spot http://www.datapointed.net/2010/10/the-farthest-place-from-m... which makes for a pretty entertaining tale.

Also, previous discussion:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=840542

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#7

Post by narcissus »

I know it's not really related but still... this article reminded of the section in the book 'Behind The Golden Arches' that discussed that although many people think that there are too many McDonald's restaurants around, there are still more car dealerships.

And how many times do you buy a car compared to a burger?

So this article claims around 13,000 McDonald's restaurants, and I just found a page that claims 37,500 separate car and truck dealership franchises.

I don't know exactly what it is about those numbers that amaze me but every time I think about it I'm gobsmacked...

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#8

Post by tzs »

> Which begs the question: just how far away can you get from our world of generic convenience?

An interesting kind of related question is to ask what is the farthest you've ever been away from other humans.

For most of us, we've never been more than a few miles from others.

I've read that the record is probably held by one of the Apollo astronauts who remained in lunar orbit while the landing party landed.

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#10

Post by grecy »

I grew up in rural Australia, and we used to host a ton of exchange students from North America.

Driving from Melbourne back to my home town, there is a huge billboard saying "Next McDonalds 100km" (60 mi.). Many times we would have to pull over so the American exchange students could take a photo, as they were in disbelief they were so far away from one.

On that same road you're easily 250km (130mi.) away, but there is no sign.

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