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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPlaces that support Donald Trump also tend to have the most franchise foods.
The most common restaurant cuisine in every state, and a chain-restaurant mystery - this is the title of the article from WaPo
When Clio Andris and Xiaofan Liang gave us early access to the latest update of their delightful data on chain restaurants, they already had identified its most compelling mystery: Places that support Donald Trump also tend to have the most franchise foods. But why? It turns out the foodscape is very political, said Liang, a PhD candidate at Georgia Techs School of City & Regional Planning. Places with a high percentage of Trump voters have a higher percentage of chains. We didnt expect it. Chain restaurants those ubiquitous monuments to corporate consistency, from Applebees to Arbys, Olive Garden to Pizza Hut are most common in Kentucky, West Virginia and Alabama. Theyre rarest in Vermont, Alaska and Hawaii. Maine, New York and D.C. also tend to have fewer chains.
The chain restaurant capital of the country is the metro area around Anniston, Ala., home to the Talladega Superspeedway. Nearly 3 in 5 restaurants there are chains. Nestled in the southern reaches of Appalachia, off the interstate between Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta, Anniston is accustomed to life as a national punching bag. It has been named among the most dangerous and fastest shrinking cities and appears on lists of the worst places to live and the places where workers are most likely to be replaced by robots. In 2019, local reporter and author Tim Lockette wrote a helpful guide for residents titled, FIVE THINGS to know when Anniston lands on a 10 worst list again.
Anniston lies in Calhoun County, which Trump won in 2020 with 73 percent of the two-party vote, which excludes votes cast for third-party candidates. That makes it an exemplar of the Trump-chain restaurant nexus. In the Trumpiest fifth of the United States, counties where Trump received at least 63.3 percent of the two-party vote in the past presidential election, 37 percent of the restaurants are chains. In the least Trumpy fifth, where Trump received less than 32.1 percent of the vote, its 23 percent.
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While the Trump vote correlates with the presence of chain restaurants, it clearly doesnt explain it. Our gut told us to look at population density. The density divide is the Ur-cleavage from which so many other modern American divisions flow. As places get more rural, education and income levels fall and Trump support rises. But chains dont fit perfectly into this worldview. Chain restaurant concentration peaks in midsize cities and suburbs and tends to be lower in both the most urban and most rural areas. And at every density level, the political divide remains: Rural areas won by Biden have fewer chains than rural areas won by Trump. Same goes for suburbs and major cities.
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One by one, we ruled out the possibilities: It wasnt age, either of people or of the community (as measured by the year a typical dwelling was erected). It wasnt concentration of White population. It wasnt income. In the end, we identified one factor that transcended politics and explained the presence of chain restaurants throughout the nation: driving. Specifically, the share of the workforce that drives to work each day.
(snip)
About 83 percent of workers commute by car nationally, but only 80 percent of folks in Biden counties do so, compared with 90 percent of workers in Trump counties. The share of car commuters ranges from 55 percent in the deep-blue New York City metro area to 96 percent around bright red Decatur, Ala. Alabama as a whole ranks second in car commuting (behind Mississippi) and third in chain restaurants (behind Kentucky and West Virginia) as people in the South tend to be more likely to drive to work than folks in other regions.
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https://wapo.st/3T4faDk
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jimfields33
(16,673 posts)He is touching every aspect of life. Weve never had a story on restaurants and presidents before. The guys been gone two years it seems he never left.
Kingofalldems
(38,616 posts)And his supporters are traitors just like him.
jimfields33
(16,673 posts)in their minds constantly. Its kind of sad that the country has made his wish of getting the attention seeking he wants. When theres serious news about him like getting indicted or arrested thats fine. Im talking about his food and what people want and why they choose a restaurant or not go to a restaurant because People are obsessed with him. Very strange. You cant help everybody. Some are way gone. Absolutely no hope for some.
GoCubsGo
(32,149 posts)This is really about conservatism. It was like this long before Trump came into the picture. Conservatives don't like change or things that are different. It's not surprising that they tend to gravitate toward fast food restaurants, which is consistent over time, and from place to place. If you don't like "different," you'll be more inclined to get the same, old Big Mac than you would try, say, an Indian restaurant.
JI7
(89,381 posts)betsuni
(26,212 posts)JI7
(89,381 posts)It just comes off as how Republicans view things and how things should be run.
betsuni
(26,212 posts)you could tell most of the failures were Republicans. Didn't know anything about food, didn't care. Doing things the cheapest way possible, treating staff poorly. Insisting customers loved their frozen-food-reheated-in-the-microwave menu while standing in an empty restaurant. Blaming everyone else but themselves. Typical.
Historic NY
(37,496 posts)I went to a McDonald's a couple of months ago, the first place I was in since 2015 on the NJ Tpkl
kimbutgar
(21,492 posts)Those fast foods are so processed and unhealthy. It explains the appearance of so many of TFG supporters and the chemical laden foods poisoned their brains so much they cant think critically anymore.
Retrograde
(10,235 posts)At least in the more urban areas. A lot of lower-priced and more casual places around here are run by immigrants: if you're willing to work hard and put in long hours a restaurant gives you flexibility - and you can hire your relatives to help out! And when the kids finally get through college and can support you, you can retire (Happened to one of my favorite local places: watched the kids go from doing their homework in a corner of the dining room to busing tables after school to helping with serving on holidays when they were in college. A few years after the youngest graduated the parents decided to sell the building and retire.)
ProfessorGAC
(66,107 posts)High population density areas can support many more niche & varied cuisine restaurants.
Here in Illinois there are more Applebee's & Chipotle joints than in Decatur, but there's 90x the people, so there's room for choice & independence.
This study feels pointless.
Genki Hikari
(1,766 posts)Rural vs suburban vs urban, ages, race, gender.
The data still held. that rwnj counties had more chain restaurants.
The only correlations seemed to be politics, chain restaurants and more commuting by car. It's all there in the article.
What more could they have added as a factor? Eye color? Preferences in nail polish?
What?
ProfessorGAC
(66,107 posts)I've done tons of mathematical modeling.
I wouldn't have bothered with this.
The results are self-evident. We learn nothing from this.