Fast food is big, big business. Americans spent $320 BILLION in 2022. That’s sooooo many french fries to get lost between your driver seat and center console! (A treat for later?) I started thinking about the country’s obsession with fast food and wondering if Massachusetts lines up with the country as a whole when it comes to the abundance of certain fast food restaurants.
Stacker did the counting and provided the national data (updated in 2022). So what’s your guess nationally? Does McDonalds hold the key to the fast food kingdom with the most national locations? How about in Massachusetts – does Massachusetts really run mostly on Dunkin’ or did another chain edge them out for the #1 spot?
We’re basing these countdowns on one thing: number of locations. These aren’t necessarily the most popular fast food chains in the country and in Massachusetts, they just have the most locations. However, one could assume that the reason there are more locations is due to higher demand. Higher demand usually comes from higher popularity.
The first fast food restaurant in America is widely considered to be White Castle. It was founded in 1921 by Walter Anderson and Billy Ingram in Wichita, Kansas. White Castle is known for pioneering the assembly line production of hamburgers and for introducing the fast-food concept to the United States. While we don’t have any White Castle locations here in Massachusetts, they do sell their micro hamburgers at area grocery stores so if you have a hankering for the OG fast food, it’s a minute away in your microwave oven.
So let’s do this. To get the full comparison, I’ll first give you the 8 fast food restaurants with the most locations in the United States, then I’ll give you the 8 fast food chains with the most locations in Massachusetts. Get your fiery sauce ready and let’s go!
