I’ll define “nation-wide” as being a chain that has at least one restaurant in all fifty states. But I’d be willing to accept an argument for those that come very close.
I’m guessing Burger King, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and the Yum! group (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell). Probably Arbys, Dairy Queen, and Subway. Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks if they count as restaurants. Getting out of fast food there’s Applebees, Chilis, Dennys, Olive Garden, Ponderosa, Red Lobster. I’ve probably guessed wrong on some of these so feel free to tell me if you’re saying “Arbys? What the heck is an Arbys? We don’t have that around here.” And let me know if there’s any I’m missing.
As far as I know there’s no Red Lobster in Maine. There was one years ago but it closed down. Jay Leno says that’s because Mainers know what seafood is supposed to taste like, and I can’t disagree.
There is no Denny’s in Wyoming but it is in 49 other states.
Applebees site says that it too is in 49 states I can’t figure which one is missing but if that 49 states still is close enough to meet your requirement, IHOP is in every state but Vermont (you can get your International Passport at several sites close to its borders though). IHOP took over Applebees recently.
If Denny’s, Applebees, and IHOP are only in 49 each, then I’ll bet that quite a few others will also fail the all-50 test. It will be quite interesting to see how few actually make it. I’ll be watching this thread with an interested eye. Carry on, folks…
So I’m gonna bet that there are a lot of “nationwide” chains that stop at 48.
Certainly there are a lot of reasons for a chain to stop with even fewer states covered. For example you only need 25 states to cover 80% of the population. It only takes 10 states to cover 50% of the population. But the marginal difficulty per marginal target market takes a BIG jump when you try to spread your empire into AK or HI.
That’s where I got started. The problem is that most of these articles don’t contain the information about what states the chains are in. The official websites are the same way - they usually have a “locate the nearest restaurant” feature but rarely a nation-wide listing. The work in researching each individual restaurant chain one state at a time would be a bit much.
So I figured I’d post it here and let the collective knowledge of the board work on it. People here are spread out all of the country and know what chains they have locally.
So let’s work on it systematically. Here’s a list of candidates:
Applebees: Close, but missing one unidentified state
Arbys
Burger King
Chilis
Dairy Queen
Dennys: Close, but not in Wyoming
Dunkin Donuts: No, only in 34 states
International House of Pancakes: Close, but not in Vermont
KFC
McDonald’s
Olive Garden
Pizza Hut
Ponderosa
Red Lobster: Close, but not in Maine
Starbucks
Subway
Taco Bell
Wendy’s
Add in any information about missing states or new chains that should be considered. We’d espeically like information from people in Alaska, Hawaii, or other low population states about what chains they have.
Using Google, I’ve confirmed that Alaska does have Applebees, Arbys, Burger King, Chilis, Dairy Queen, KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Subway, Taco Bell, and Wendys. And Hawaii has Arbys, Burger King, Chilis, Dairy Queen, KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Subway, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s. (It appears Hawaii may be the state that doesn’t have an Applebee’s.)
You might also want to consider situations like Carl’s Jr. / Hardee’s which are essentially the same chain with different names in different areas. That said, that one is still a “close, but no cigar” - they don’t have locations in New England, according to the CKE website.
According to Wikipedia Hawaii ranks 42nd in population, and even Alaska is at #47.; Wyoming, Vermont, and North Dakota have populations even smaller than Alaska.
According to the restaurant locator at the McDonalds website, they are at Riverton and Thermopolis in Wyoming. And at least 4 places in Vermont, and 3 in North Dakota. Nine in Anchorage alone, not counting the rest of Alaska.
Using the store locator on the Ponderosa website, there are no restaurants in many states, including Wyoming, Washington, Utah and Texas. So it’s definitely not nationwide.
Same with RI. There used to be a Red Lobster here too, but it was closed a few years ago. The closest one is in out near Hartford, Connecticut I think. Also not certain, but I don’t think there are any in Massachusetts anymore either.