<p>When i lived in the southern area, I would see SONIC one block away from each other. In a city i lived in (it wasnt that big) i saw 4 sonics… (Sonic btw is a drivein fastfood place) There was 2 mcdonalds and one tacobell in the area so…</p>
<p>I moved to cali and I’m starting to miss them… i miss my strawberry smoothies (cough) etc. (Wait i do think they have one around here… only 24 miles away. =_= gas is going to cost more.)</p>
<p>Also Braums, which is a chain business only pretty much in Oklahoma and Texas (and some other southern states) had awesome icecream/dairy stuff/burgers/ etc… it’s also not in california of course. sniff.</p>
<p>Also I think Target is more common here than WalMart. (correct me if i’m wrong) </p>
<p>So for anybody who moved to different states… What chain businesses are you missing? (fastfood, clothes, supermarkets, etc)</p>
<p>None, you see one generic chain store you’ve seen’em all. I don’t even miss the independent mom and pop type operations either to be honest. The only thing I miss is my barber who I had been going to for nine years. Old Italian man, always had a Sports Illustrated ready for me to read, knew how to cut my hair just right and when I started growing facial hair gave me the closest shaves ever. It’s hard to find a good barber after establishing such a close relationship with this one.</p>
<p>I’ve been missing Sheetz, Wawa, and Turkey Hill (local to Lancaster County, Pa) ever since I moved away 6 years ago. At least I had a Sheetz fairly close to me the past few years, but now I’m probably 500+ miles away from one. :(</p>
<p>I’m going out-of-state…by 2 and 1/2 hours (from East Texas to Northern Louisiana).</p>
<p>But I’m going to sorely miss Taco Bueno (I love Taco Bell, but it has nothing on Taco Bueno) and I really wish Louisiana had Freebirds (started in College Station and only in Texas so far…to my knowledge). I’ll also miss Fazoli’s (a really good fast-food Italian place) and Olive Garden.</p>
<p>Ruston has a Raising Caine’s and a couple really good Cajun places, but the only thing even remotely resembling Tex-Mex is Taco Bell. Their sit-down Mexican restaurants are absolute trash (everything is sweet tasting)…La Finca in my little town of 5,000 is gourmet in comparison…seriously. Even their Monjunis (a little Italian sit-down restaurant) isn’t very good. Their marinara is sweet like the bad Mexican food. Ugh.</p>
<p>You wouldn’t think 2 and 1/2 hours would make THAT much of a difference, but it really does in my case.</p>
<p>PA Mom, I like where your head’s at! I was thinking the same thing.</p>
<p>Actually moving to Nebraska had the opposite effect for me, as there are several regional chains that almost exclusively in Nebraska:</p>
<p>Like have you ever had a Runza? <a href=“http://www.runza.com%5B/url%5D”>www.runza.com</a>
Or been to Valentino’s “Grand Italian Buffet”? <a href=“http://www.valentinos.com%5B/url%5D”>www.valentinos.com</a>
Both are Nebraska originals, and many Nebraska Alumni Association meetings across the country actually have food from these restaurants shipped to them so that alumni can enjoy a taste of “home”.</p>
<p>The one thing that I really did miss though is Kansas City Barbeque. But that’s a pretty common lament…and while some regions have fairly decent BBQ (Texas, the Carolinas, Memphis) it’s just not as good as Kansas City. I couldn’t believe how many people raved about Famous Dave’s BBQ up here…which is entirely subpar in my opinion.</p>
<p>Dave’s BBQ is nothing to brag about…neither is Bodacious BBQ. </p>
<p>The best BBQ places in Texas are the little backwoodsy ones you only hear about through word of mouth…and the one outside of Dallas that the Food Network has featured a couple times.</p>
<p>When my sister went to school in Seattle she said she missed Caribou Coffee. I dont think Caribou has penetrated the Starbucks-Seattle’s Best-Tully’s stronghold on the city.</p>
<p>When I go out of state I will dearly miss the Princess Diner and next door Double Scoop icecream parlor :(. Many a night my friends and I have gone out for icecream and then a midnight dinner, even though I got pancakes 'cause they serve breakfast all day.</p>
<p>So many good times. Aw, I’m getting sad just thinking about it!</p>
<p>Haha. I’d say InNOut too, but the closest one to USC is in Hollywood, far far away. Or Westwood, which is even further. </p>
<p>But you’ll have Original Tommy’s down the street (if you’re daring enough to leave campus- I wouldn’t blame you if you weren’t)! Not as good as InNOut, but still very good. And WAY, WAY better than Sonic. Really. I promise.</p>
<p>Ok seriously there are chain businesses that i didn’t know weren’t all over the country… like Fazolis. =_= i thought that was everywhere… and olive garden too.</p>
<p>I think most of us don’t realize what we are missing exactly yet… this makes me sad</p>