McDonald’s: Nowhere in Iceland, everywhere in U.S.
October 26, 2009Jon Brooks Comments OffMcDonald’s is closing in Iceland because the collapse of the country’s currency has doubled the cost of importing the ingredients the fast-food chain uses.
Around the world, though, the Golden Arches is still a golden goose. September sales were up 5% as “consumers sought low-cost meals,” according to Forbes.
But we don’t need a quarterly report to tell us that McDonald’s is still going strong in the U.S. We know that from this post from the blog Weather Sealed:
…just how far away can you get from our world of generic convenience? And how would you figure that out?
As I hurtled down the highway, a pair of golden arches crept over the horizon, and the proverbial lightbulb smacked me in the forehead. To gauge the creep of cookie-cutter commercialism, there’s no better barometer than McDonald’s – ubiquitous fast food chain and inaugural megacorporate colonizer of small towns nationwide.
So, I set out to determine the farthest point from a Micky Dee’s – in the lower 48 states, at least. This endeavor required information, and the nice folks at AggData were kind enough to provide it to me: a complete list of all 13,000-or-so U.S. restaurants, in CSV format, geolocated for maximum convenience. From there, a bit of software engineering gymnastics, and…
Behold, a visualization of the contiguous United States, colored by distance to the nearest domestic McDonald’s!
So where, exactly, in the U.S. would you be so far away from a Quarter Pounder with Cheese that you’d be in no danger of succumbing to the temptation to buy one? (Note: Vegetarians and Michael Pollan fanatics excluded from this thought experiment.)
Well, seems like your best best is in South Dakota.
Between the tiny Dakotan hamlets of Meadow and Glad Valley lies the McFarthest Spot: 107 miles distant from the nearest McDonald’s, as the crow flies, and 145 miles by car!
145 miles? That wouldn’t stop some people…
