A
adma
Guest
Fast food chains are actually on the defensive in my area (koreatown / bloor west) McDonalds closed and KFC is either rennovating their tacky box corporate aesthetic or preparing to leave.
I'd say it's more the nature of the existing outlets that's being abandoned. In KFC's case, the 60s-style "suburban box" is obviously anachronistic. W/McDonalds, it's more that these snazzy supersized urban outlets are relics of the 70s/80s when it was more of a sitdown "family" choice than now. Today, an urban McDonalds/KFC is more likely to be a hit'n'run standup/storefront operation. (Archetypal/prototypal case in Toronto: the classic 80s-urban-good-manners 2-story McDonalds on Yonge S of Adelaide where Grand & Toy is now--replaced by a "storefront" in the retail strip N of Adelaide...)
Interesting question: what 70s-style "urban McDonalds" remain? I can think of Yonge N of College and Bloor across from the Libeskind Crystal...