It’s Friday + you’re driving home from work. You’re hungry. Do you try that new Japanese place in Broad Ripple, or is it just too easy to make a quick turn into the McDonald’s drive-thru?
You may be wondering — is Indy too chainy?
An interactive map created by a lab in Georgia Tech’s Center for Spatial Analysis and Visualization shows how many restaurants are considered chains in Indy. As you can see in the screenshot below, out of all the restaurants in the area — 2,211 — the chaininess score is 1,510.
The chaininess in this map is based on the number of restaurants that have more than one location. The more locations per restaurant, the darker the dot. The yellow dots signify restaurants that are one-of-a-kind — like Bluebeard or Working Man’s Friend.
Columbus, OH — which has a similar population size —scored a 1,323 out of 3,249. This is still in the same ballpark, but when you look at cities like Chicago, you’ll start seeing a huge difference — 858 out of 9,779.
So what is the most prevalent chain in Indy? After looking at the number of locations for restaurants like McDonald’s, Starbucks + Subway it looks like Subway takes the cake with more than 60 locations — many of which are inside businesses like Walmart and various gas stations.
With that kind of convenience, it’s no surprise that chains occupy the majority of Indy’s restaurant real estate.
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