on June 18, 2026, 11:40:19, in reply to "The problem is that the VAST majority of the country doesn’t live in places like we do."
The have vanishingly small local options...but I guess nearly every form of retail consumption has gone that way.
They had a killer local spot "Burgers and Beer". It opened after I had left but it was like my go-to when I came back home. Great burgers. A solid collection of beers. It closed this year. Local German restaurant, closed. Local coffee shop / restaurant down to one. Pizza, Casey's seems like the go-to. The olds meet up at McDonalds for coffee instead of the local place.
Why is that and why has that happened? General downward socio-economic glidepath of the rural midwest forcing cheaper food choices?
Anyway, I'm tangenting way hard away from the original point. 
Previous Message
These are the options they have available and they serve a purpose in that regard. Obviously there’s another discussion to be had about why local businesses can’t survive in small towns anymore, but I don’t begrudge people for liking these kinds of places.
Its really only a last ~20 years development for these places to be mock worthy, I grew up in a good sized Chicago suburb in the 80’s/90’s and even then a night out at Pizza Hut or Olive Garden was a delicacy. There were a few other restaurants in town but nothing like it is now where there’s one on every corner. Previous Message
...likely dwarf other categories in American food dollars is what I'm talking about.
As an aside...I think the chicken places do the best...because thus far it seems hard to fuck up fried chicken.
Burger places can be decent to good but probably has the widest gulf in the category.
Chain pizza is almost as a rule completely inedible and the chain "ethnic" just isn't really comparable to their actual cultural equivalent. At all.
I'm not sure if they're popular and thus ubiquitous crowding out all else or if they crowded out all else and became popular. Either way, it's a sad state of affairs. Previous MessagePrevious MessagePrevious Message
The king of fast food has been dethroned after more than a decade on top.
That's according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, a report released this week based on thousands of customer surveys reflecting on recent experiences with major restaurant chains.
Beloved chicken chain Chick-fil-A has sat atop the index for 11 years, but 16,464 respondents knocked it from the top spot in favor of the sandwich shop Jersey Mike's, which was routinely praised for freshness, food variety and value.
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Other top quick-service restaurants include Jimmy John's and Panda Express (Tied-3rd), KFC, Papa John's and Domino's (Tied-4th), Raising Cane's, Starbuck's and Subway (Tied-5th) and Burger King, Dunkin' and Little Caesars (Tied-6th).
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Other consumer rankings from the report:
Best sandwich: Jersey Mike's, Jimmy John's, Subway, Arby's
Best pizza: Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Little Ceasers
Best burger: Burger King, Culver's, Sonic, Wendy's, Five Guys
Best full service: Texas Roadhouse, LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Applebee's, Chili's, Cracker Barrel.
https://www.mlive.com/business/2026/06/popular-sandwich-chain-ends-chick-fil-as-11-year-run-atop-fast-food-rankings.html
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- IlliniSax05 June 18, 2026, 11:37:53