I have heard anecdotally for years that Springfield, Missouri, is the nation’s most competitive restaurant market. It is a test market particularly for national chains; if McDonald’s or KFC wants to forecast consumer response to a new menu item Springfield is where the item is first tested.
Does anyone know more on the subject? There doesn’t seem to be much literature that I could find through Google and I imagine most of the literature on the subject is proprietary. But I’m interested, if anyone knows where I might find information on the subject.
Ducks and Economics 