Carter Pewterschmidt: Unsung_Hero: It's actually kind of a shame.  If they have a market for a fast food restaurant, it'd be nice to see a local effort.  French fries and burgers are not exactly difficult to make.

But you're just not going to beat the economy of scale the McDonald's franchise delivers to the local restaurant owner.

There are plenty of independent places. Lots of people just go to the big chain because advertising.
In my small town we have a Dominos pizza place and fifty yards away is an independent pizza/kebab place. Their pizzas are easily as good, made fresh as you watch, and literally half the price.
Dominos charge £15 or £16 for a large pizza. The kebab place charges £12 for two large pizzas. Yet people still go to Dominos.

Chains exist because of many factors...

- They offer a consistent, if subpar, experience which appeals to many people from out of town.

- Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM. This is an important point for people whose partners or boss will blame them if they choose a new, independent place and anything doesn't work out as expected. Whereas, if they chose the chain, they're completely off the hook even if everything goes badly.

- They tend to appeal to children (see above).  Chain places often make food that is sweeter, more salty or more colorful so that it appeals to the tastes of children and people who don't know what food is actually supposed to taste like. The end result is a subpar, more expensive product preferred by the masses compared to a superior, less expensive product which is objectively preferable.