I look at it in terms of competitive advantage. (And I'm not authoritative on any of the following, so don't take me as gospel) Imho, McD and the first wave of

I look at it in terms of competitive advantage. (And I'm not authoritative on any of the following, so don't take me as gospel) Imho, McD and the first wave of franchisee stores leveraged price and consistency as their advantage. Their logistic chains were more efficient, and they could standardize their operation (benefit to efficiency and customer). The market did decide that their prices (which were nationally set afaik) and consistency won over the qualities independent chains brought to the picture. However, I think in the intervening years there have been a few developments. Firstly, Sysco and the national food suppliers as intermediaries. So aside from volume discounts, everyone's sitting on the same logistics backing now. Secondly, consistency as a commodity. Whereas before this was a competitive advantage (because it distinguished them from Local Dairy Freeze 283), now it's the market average. I see it as, as you noted, McD's and the like put everyone else out of business... but we're now in the future past that where they have become the model that's ripe for disruption. Maybe that looks like Chipotle and Five Guys (limited menu, better product, slightly higher price), or maybe it looks like a return to local service, now backed by automation and turnkey logistics chains. I can't see a future with McD's where it isn't a fully-automated, human-less burger factory though. Unless they basically toss out their existing business model.