If you’ve even had the feeling that you can’t go anywhere without a nearby McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD), we’ve got some good news for you: The farthest away you can get from a Mickey D’s just got a little bit farther.
While the isolated South Dakota plains previously held the title at 107 miles of distance between yourself and a McDonald’s restaurant in the contiguous United States, the closing of a store in northeastern California has opened up a vast swath of land in the northwestern region of the country.
The Lower 48’s so-called “McFarthest Spot,” as Datapointed puts it, is in a mostly barren region of northwestern Nevada, some 115 miles away from the nearest Golden Arches. This is according to information compiled by Aggdata. And within this 150×200-mile region of California, Oregon, and Nevada lie absolutely no McDonald’s restaurants.
So if you’re a McNugget-addict on a cross-country road trip, just a word of advice: You may want to take the Interstate a bit to the south.
With 13,000 fast-food restaurants in the U.S. along (there are some 31,000 worldwide), some epicureans may say this may not still be far enough away. But it’s worth noting the ubiquitous strength of Ronald and his McBrand. As the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, McDonald’s serves more than 58 million customers daily. The fast-food chain, in 1940 was opened by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, Calif., is now emblematic of sprawl and globalization.
In the U.S., restaurant locations follow population density, and closely follows highways and the interstate system for road trip snacking. The east coast has the highest densities of the chains, with the only relatively large gaps you’ll find in the Adirondacks, inland Maine, the Everglades, and rural West Virginia. Everywhere else is basically covered. But in the west there are still areas to escape its McDominance. Southeastern Oregon, South Dakota and Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains are all strong contenders for areas of McEmptiness.
Of course, at any of those locations, chances are you’ll see at least one Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) there.
As of this writing, Burke Speaker did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.