Locating Fast Food Restaurants with the Analytic Hierarchy Process

Fast food restaurants are typically thought of having originated in the early years of the twentieth century in the United States. However, archaeologists have discovered that fast food was already known (and probably appreciated) in Ancient Italy, more specifically in Pompeii (see, e.g., Cascone, An ancient fast food restaurant in Pompeii that served honey-roasted rodents is now open to the public. Artnet News, 2021; BBC News, Pompeii: ancient ‘fast food’ counter to open to the public, 2020; NPR, What’s on the menu in ancient Pompeii? Duck, goat, snail, researchers say, 2020). In modern times, we may follow Cyprus (What was the first fast-food restaurant? Delighted Cooking, 2022), the “White Castle” in Wichita, Kansas, was the first fast food restaurant to open its doors in 1921. Other sources such as Oldest.org (Oldest fast food chains in the world, 2020) credit Roy W. Allen and Frank Wright with the honor. These two entrepreneurs started with a lemonade stand in Lodi, California in what morphed to the A & W chain we know today. Based on the number of store locations, Subway, McDonalds, and Starbucks are leading this sector (in that order, where the ranks of Subway and Starbucks are reversed if revenue is used as criterion of size; see, e.g., BizVibe, Top 10 largest fast food chains in the world 2020, undated). As a matter of fact, fast food is, while not a unique U.S. American phenomenon, overwhelmingly used in the United States. This is demonstrated vividly by the fact that, again according to the number of locations, 67 of the 100 largest chains are U.S. American (Statistics & Data, Biggest fast food chains in the world, 2022). The continuing popularity of fast-food outlets can be seen by long takeout lines, see, e.g., Recipes-Online (A drone’s eye view of LA’s longest drive-thru lines, 2020).