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Comment by privateSFacct | Hacker News Reader

Interesting some decades ago I think McDonald's did a study that led to something called the 4 minute McDonald's universe which was a distance they found people would go for spur of the moment purchasing. Obviously impractical, but this idea of optimizing for total revenue has been around for a bit I think.

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And it's not limited to mcdonalds. Starbucks is getting notorious for this. Here is an area by me with three starbii: https://goo.gl/maps/qR2XLLVYmqiyrHtLA

One in the vons, directly across the street from one in the ralphs, and if you head north on vermont in this street view you will hit a burger king. Today that is a freestanding starbucks. Three starbucks locations in less than a square mile.

There's a spot in SF where two Starbucks are about a 30 second walk apart, depending on your luck with the walk sign. https://www.google.com/maps/search/starbucks/@37.7843267,-12...

They're so close that I've switched locations depending on the length of the line. Sometimes both are packed though.

Sounds familiar except for the walking part; as a rule we don't walk much in Houston because the city is not designed for it and it's also sauna levels of hot and humid much of the year.

https://www.chron.com/business/article/One-on-corner-there-a...

Even 20 years ago, there was at least one intersection in both Seattle and Vancouver that had two Starbucks (opposite corners).

Starbii should be Starbuckii, no?

Haha! Is starbii plural for Starbucks?

Pretty sure this episode was from the 90's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRz3vfRFfs4

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