the homogenization of the US by these chain companies is disgusting. they show up like parasites to any town once they reach some arbitrary population density and suck up business that should be going to locally owned operations. completely destroys the culture. 90% of american towns are just a strip of gas stations and the same fast food chains
hyper local chains are still kinda cool though. shit that only exists around cities and their burbs. still has local flavor and culture, so they get a pass thus the 100 mile radius limit.
I perpose an exemption, the 100 mile limit doesn’t apply to chains that have less than 50ish locations.
Most of the time when it comes to local restaurants (at least in rural southern ohio), a lot of them either sucks, more expensive on average compared to chains (always a given regardless of quality), or have other issues (they do wage theft). Infact there was a local place that closed down recently, and I was told that they supposedly had the issue of not paying their employees at times.
Also more often than not the local places out here are either pizza places, bar and grills, “diners”, or mexican (tex-mex) restaurants.
I’m not romanticizing small business owners, I’m lamenting how boring this country is