10 Cities Spending The Most On Fast Food: Bundle.com

Few topics provoke such fierce debate in America as fast food. But like it or not, the drive-thru has become more popular than ever with the economy going nowhere fast.

According to personal finance and business site bundle.com, some cities are particularly dependent on fast food as a source of quick, cheap calories. Looking at fast food sales in one hundred of the country's biggest cities, bundle.com found geographic trends in the popularity of McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC, Taco Bell, Subway, Pizza Hut, Arby's and Burger King. As it turns out, most of the more than $110 billion Americans annually spend on fast food is in cities in the South and the Midwest, not coastal cities, as shown by bundle's infographic.

In fact, nearly all of the fast food capitals are located in landlocked states -- Raleigh, North Carolina and Baton Rouge, Louisiana being the only exceptions. And for the ten cities where fast food is least popular, only Detroit isn't located near a coast.

Fast food sales would seem to have little with the density of fast food locations. Although Orlando, Florida is ranked 24th in bundle.com's list, it appears to be the uncontested king of certain fast food joints. The city boasts the most Burger Kings, KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells per 100,000 people of any city in the country.

With the recession still hurting American families across the country, low-income households can afford less healthy options. Indeed, a recent poll by Gallup finds that 4.5 million Americans ate less healthy this past May than they did a year before.

Here are the top ten cities that spend the most on fast food according to bundle.com.

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Cities That Spend The Most On Fast Food

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See the full resolution infographic by Valerie Willis here.

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Comments

[DannyDiamond]

08:29 PM on 08/08/2011

Not surprised the list is East coast and The Southern states. I'm from Tennessee and moved to California 15 years ago. While I have maintained my same size since high school my friends who still live in the South are sick, balding, and most all are overweight with bad skin and tons of wrinkles. These are the same people that I used to think were better looking than myself now I can barely recognize many of them. My last visit I was on a detox diet and had the worst trouble trying to find ANYTHING healthy to eat that wasn't either fried, buttered or sugared out to the max. The food is killing the people in the South and it's obvious. The mentality there is They're "prooooud uvvv iiit! And everyone wears their state universities, team logo on EVERYTHING! Sad... :(

[MrPragmatic]

11:17 PM on 08/22/2011

Sounds horrible. Good thing you escaped.

[hohonu maluhia]

12:52 PM on 08/05/2011

I'm not even sure why I read this article but the comments to it have me baffled. This article isn't about obesity, politics, or intelligence. It's not judgmental, its reporting its findings. I think it's great that it gives people something to think about, but what's going on with all the comments arguing about politics, intelligence, south vs north.... It's like any other report, everyone will find something to construe from it, but please stop bickering over things that the article didn't even come close to (i.e. democrats vs republicans, intelligence (or lack of) etc. I think they call what's going on with many of these comments "making a mountain out of a molehill." Make your political statements on a political blog, make your sweeping generalizations about peoples' intellect somewhere else (preferably nowhere). Let an easy read be an easy read. Whew!

[Highball]

09:45 PM on 07/30/2011

Just as I thought: Most are in the South. No surprise there.

[TheSarge]

04:01 PM on 07/29/2011

I don't know what McD's put on the fries but I am powerless to resist them.

[Counterglow]

09:41 PM on 07/27/2011

Wait a sec. I just googled the 10 cities with the most obese populations. What am I doing here? Oh...never mind.

[Kevin R Breen]

01:49 PM on 07/27/2011

"And for the ten cities where fast food is least popular, only Detroit isn't located near a coast." Ummm... look at Detroit on a map.

[lezahgg]

12:44 PM on 07/27/2011

I think that some of the reason for this has to do with density of the cities, real estate costs, presence of college students, and how walkable the city is and some "snob factors". Notice that New York City ranks one of the lowest in consumption of fast food, That is because the city is full of relatively inexpensive little restaurants and lots of deli's where people can pick up prepared foods to bring home. I used to live in a very upscale suburb of Chicago that has repeatedly denied McDonald's permission to build and they have been trying for years. Subway is the only fast food restaurant in town. Now I live an area inside the city which is a very dense and walkable area and has very few fast food restaurants. I can pick up inexpensive dinners at a salad bar, a Middle Eastern Restaurant, a pasta place, numerous Asian restaurants and sushi places, an empanada restaurant, and even a Hawaiian cafe. Fast food restaurants usually need parking lots and the real estate is too expensive. The cities on this list seem mainly like they are spread out cities where people need to drive most places.

[Nelson Montana]

09:05 AM on 07/27/2011

Everybody is picking on the south. The south has some of the best food you'll ever eat. A southern breakfast is the best in the world -- and I've been all over the world.

The reason for fast food joints in Florida is that the state is spread out so private restaurants are a bigger risk, people are older and it gets too hot to cook. But it's still impossible to get a decent slice of pizza there.

[ArtsyJane]

09:48 AM on 07/27/2011

I don't count Florida in "the South", at least not as far as Southern food and Southern breakfast go.

[Counterglow]

09:44 PM on 07/27/2011

Sounds like you never got a proper English breakfast. Everything nicely fried in bacon fat. Eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms and potatoes. Toast, of course. Best hangover cure anywhere.

[WeirdBadUgly]

08:52 AM on 07/27/2011

whats going on in florida?

[Sandworm Wrangler]

08:21 AM on 07/27/2011

Very Interesting! The towns with the reputation for the best cuisines generally have the lowest fast food chain consumption rates. I fear for the citizens of towns like Miami, who's health and good tastes are compromised by eating food named after underground mass transit.

[theubermensch]

02:33 AM on 07/27/2011

That list was a shocker. ;)

[Dan Vasquez]

01:39 AM on 07/27/2011

No wonder why the Southern Conservatives are so angry, all they eat is crap. You folks should cook every now and then, it's fun and healthy not only for you body but for you spirit as well.

[ArtsyJane]

09:49 AM on 07/27/2011

Actually, if you read the list, you would discover that most of the cities are in the Midwest, the only Southern city in the list is Raleigh, NC.

[ReaganNation]

10:44 AM on 07/27/2011

Idiotic post. Most of the cities on the list are full of democrats, particularly Kansas City, Akron, and Madison.

[SimonBao]

12:07 PM on 07/27/2011

Um, the only locations studied were cities. American cities tend to be majority-Democratic.

No one studied fast food consumption in rich white suburbs or gated communities.

[Dan Vasquez]

01:58 PM on 07/27/2011

3 out of 10, good logic but then again it's what I expect from a Reagan lover. But here's something for you to chew on. Reagan didn't go to church and was cryogenically frozen after he died, sounds like a Christian Conservative to me, after all they know where they are going when they die so why not freeze yourself to get one up on the Big Guy upstairs.

[RedSox61]

07:11 PM on 07/26/2011

What a surprise - the red south leads the country in fast food hefty meter while the blue north east leads the country in responsible eating.....

[theubermensch]

02:34 AM on 07/27/2011

The north is also trying to avoid corporations through farmers market and local programs. Even breweries are a part of the movement. The south was always the problem and far behind. One day they will see the rich people they fight for do not have their interests at heart.

[ArtsyJane]

09:50 AM on 07/27/2011

Again, most of the cities in this list are in the Midwest- Ohio, Wisconsin, Nebraska, etc.

[stevchipmunk]

06:47 PM on 07/26/2011

You would think with the recession, Americans--especially lower income ones--would be less able to afford eating out at fast food restaurants. They should be eating at home, or brown bagging their lunch/dinner--which certainly should be much healthier!

If these people are eating at Fast Food restaurants even during the Recession, then--Hey! This is a Free Country. They can eat whereever they want. And you can keep your cotton-pickin' nose out of their business!

[interlude]

01:34 AM on 07/27/2011

Fast food restaurants have lowered prices significantly the last three years. There are many special deals.

[Sixtracks]

02:24 PM on 07/26/2011

College towns really ought to be excluded from this list.

[interlude]

01:34 AM on 07/27/2011

And Disney World.