Just how far away can one get from the generic convenience of Starbucks, Subway, or OfficeMax at any given time? Turns out, not very. Stephen von Worley at Weather Sealed set out to chart the urban sprawl of America by mapping the 13,000+ locations of McDonald's across the lower 48 states. With the aid of Agg Data, he created a striking map of the US, colored by distance to the nearest domestic Mickey D's. Gorgeous, but terrifying.
The fast food chain is wall-to-wall across the eastern US and southern regions. Unsurprisingly, the ratio thins as we move west into Big Sky Country. As McWorley reports:
"For maximum McSparseness, we look westward, towards the deepest, darkest holes in our map. There, in a patch of rolling grassland, loosely hemmed in by Bismarck, Dickinson, Pierre, and the greater Rapid City-Spearfish-Sturgis metropolitan area, we find our answer. 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!"
Related Stories: | Topics:Design, info graphic, infographic, McDonald's, Weather Sealed, United States, Starbucks Corporation, OfficeMax Inc., Stephen von Worley, McDonald's Corporation |
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Recent Comments | 15 Total
September 24, 2009 at 5:47pm by Paul Acosta
This is kind of freaky!
September 25, 2009 at 10:08am by Andy Kaufman
It's a great dose of perspective, for sure. It doesn't strike me as terrifying, though I understand if someone likes open spaces, they definitely want to move West!
Here's another way to look at the map: each of those lights represent an employer who is providing opportunity and benefits. Last I heard the McEmployee count was over half a million in the US and nearly 2 million globally. Newsweek had them on the map for one of the top 25 greenest big companies, which is a move in the right direction: http://greenrankings.newsweek.com/companies/view/mcdonald-s
My point: success isn't necessarily terrifying, though it does demand responsibility....
September 25, 2009 at 12:02pm by Mark Petticord
Kind of reminds me of an article I wrote about our convenience culture. Remember Burger Kings Jingle? hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us... http://bit.ly/zXPmq
September 25, 2009 at 12:08pm by Barry Dennis
I bet the map would look exactly the same for similar large distrbution enterprises like Subway. How about Social Datasets; poor people, minorities, Chevrolets. Be interesting to see if it held up for Sex Offenders, convicted politicians, ex-beauty queens, family farms, rat populations, you pick 'em.
September 25, 2009 at 12:08pm by Barry Dennis
I bet the map would look exactly the same for similar large distrbution enterprises like Subway. How about Social Datasets; poor people, minorities, Chevrolets. Be interesting to see if it held up for Sex Offenders, convicted politicians, ex-beauty queens, family farms, rat populations, you pick 'em.
September 25, 2009 at 12:22pm by David McInnis
It would be interesting to see a similar map for Dairy Queen. My guess is that it would be the exact inverse of this map.
September 25, 2009 at 1:22pm by Ryan Servatius
You have to love how McDonalds is run. Only missed one pay out in dividins in all of the years it has been a public company. McDonalds should be in the two books From Good To Great & Built To Last as a Visionary Company....
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September 25, 2009 at 4:06pm by Chris Marsden
hmmm...and nobody can figure out why we're having an obesity problem in America?
September 25, 2009 at 11:14pm by J. Gary Sutton
Is it any wonder why the obesity rate in the United States is so amazingly high? Fat and salt from coast to coast courtesy of McDonalds and others. And just because they provide a half million jobs with " opportunity and benefits " does not make it ok. That always seems to be a justification for anything in our capatalistic society/economy. Criminal activity of all types must then be good because it provides jobs in the law enforcement industry for so many others from lawyers, to policeman, the prison system,FBI, CIA , etc. etc. The abuse and addiction of the legal drugs of alcohol and nicotine by millions of citizens must be good because it brings in so much tax revenue to the state and federal government.
September 26, 2009 at 4:55am by Xaxa L
The representation is quite amazing but the truth behind that picture is quite alarming. It only shows how much we patronize fast food. Many believe it is the one of the main reason of the growing population of obese in our country. We just love the French fries and burger and soda. It will not do any harm eating in fast foods however, it is better to limit it and eat more at home. We cannot just watch over what we eat but also we can save more overnight loans.