VS.     

We see them everywhere!

Starbucks and McDonald’s are among the most recognizable brands in the world. Although it may seem McDonald’s strictly specializes in burgers and Starbucks in coffee, both are top competitors for that on-the-go consumer who crave a fast and cheap pick-me-up. When I find myself off to a late start, I enjoy a venti Pike Roast coffee with a toasted egg, ham, and cheese sandwich to keep me til the afternoon. Starbucks always seems to conveniently be there, no matter the city. I wanted to test this assumption and compare the spatial distributions of these chain industries and see if they fit a certain spatial demographic that reflect attributes of the city’s demographics.

This project is an inductive spatial analysis of the distributions of Starbucks and McDonald’s locations within the cities of Vancouver and Toronto. I examine a range of independent variables that may account for how and why these chains are spatially distributed the way they are. These independent variables include  population density, unemployment rate, and median household income.