Wal-Mart and McDonald's are the modern equivalent of the diner and malt shop that middle-class white people may be more familiar with (it seems this article was

Wal-Mart and McDonald's are the modern equivalent of the diner and malt shop that middle-class white people may be more familiar with (it seems this article was written with a specific readership in mind). Go to any small town or poor rural area, and these are the places people congregate. It has almost nothing to do with food, and more to do with a social space designed for people to gather comfortably. In Italy it's the piazza. In the UK & Ireland it's the pub. In more enclosed neighborhoods in the US it may simply be your neighbor's stoop, or a certain street or alley. Access to a social space facilitates human interaction & culture.