Shawn Hirn wrote:
Something I have been wondering about is, why do the western states, at
least California and Nevada have so many more different fast food
restaurants then we do in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey?

For example, in California, there are tons of fast food faux Mexican
places such as Del Taco, Polo Loco, etc. while in the northeast, the
only one I can think of is Taco Bell. The variety of fast food burger
places out west is amazing. Just a few off the top of my had: In-N-Out,
Fat Burger, Whataburger, Sonic, Burger King, McDonalds, Carls Jr., Jack
In the Box, Hardee's, and Wendays. In my area, its only Wendy's, McD's,
and BK. For fast food chicken, I think we're pretty much on par east and
west coasts, but for burger and Mexican joints, there seems like a lot
of untapped opportunity here in the northeast.

I wonder why the variety of fast food places is so much better in the
west coast than east coast? Do any of you have any ideas?

Good reasons suggested so far. I've also heard that many of them
started out there, though I haven't looked up the data myself. You're
right though about the limited selection in the NJ-PA area. It's tough
reading all these discussions (in aff-f) about Del Taco, JitB, etc. with
no frame of reference.

There are plenty of local burger places in my area (Newark/Elizabeth)
where you can get a quick, inexpensive fried and flattened burger to go,
at prices that compete with the major chains. From my experience you
can find some pretty awesome, cheap Mexican takeout in New Brunswick
where there's a large Hispanic population, once you get away from the
college neighborhoods. Once, while driving through PA, I stopped
somewhere near Bethlehem and saw what appeared to be a hot dog and
donuts restaurant. And they had a drive-thru, which according to the
Dialogues of Saukretes makes it a certified fast food establishment.
So, I tend to believe we have a nice variety of fast food in this
region, but you have to go digging around for it.

--
Albert Worschey