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Sometimes the WTTN section takes a break from the serious and tackles the mundane or silly issues. Today is one of those days!

Can anyone justify to me why, in a little town that takes less than a few minutes to drive all the way through, we need three McDonalds Restaurants?

Los Banos California is a fairly small town. Even on a busy Friday night it takes less than 10 minutes to drive through the entire city when coming down highway 152 from WalMart to Food 4 Less. It takes even less time to get through Los Banos on highway 156 from Pioneer Road the radio towers... Why then in a town where everything is so close to everything else do we need multiple copies of the same old fast food joints?

As you could probably tell from the size of my stomach and from reading the the dining section here on the OurLosBanos,com website I LOVE to eat out. While the dining section concerns itself more with the Mom and Pop type restaurants here in town, I do frequent the fast food establishments in Los Banos on a very regular basis. I enjoy the dollar menus and predictable food they offer just as much as anyone else and I really love the convenience of not having to do dishes from time to time.

Having said that however I want to say that I am pleasantly surprised that this little town supports as many fast food places as it does. This is a good thing. Fast food places give many if not most of the kids in town their first jobs, the drive throughs are really convenient, and as noted above - fast food is predictable and inexpensive....

But WHY oh WHY must Los Banos bury itself so many so many eateries of the same brand and type?

Within our little town we have 2 Subway Sandwich shops, 2 Taco Bell restaurants, 2 Me-N-Eds, and get this - THREE McDonalds restaurants Why?

I'd like to make a pitch for anyone thinking of franchising a new fast food joint in Los Banos to please oh please think about giving us some more variety! We really do not need another KFC, Jack In The Box, A&W, Fosters Freeze, Burger King, Dairy Queen, Quiznos, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Little Caesar's, Dominoes, Mountain Mikes, Carl's Jr. or Dennys... we've already got those! Further we REALLY do NOT need a third Subway Sandwich shop, a third Taco Bell, a third Me-N-Eds, or a FOURTH McDonalds!!!

Cloning is nice if you need mice for scientific research, but cloning is BORING when it takes the form of places to eat!

Perhaps, instead, any new fast food places coming to Los Banos could add some extra variety to the mix. It's nice to be able to select from a whole host of places to go eat rather than simply driving to the closest of three of the same thing. Perhaps new franchisees could consider a new Rally's, In-N-Out Burger, Wendy's, Sonic, Togos, Long John Silvers, Arbys, or even a Yoshinoya as a good way to go?

Better yet, how about opening up your own one of a kind place. We have found that many of the Mom and Pop restaurants are quite superior to anything that has a national brand attached to it. As always our classic example of this is the Cutia Taco Shop on Pacheco Blvd. We enjoy the new discoveries a lot more and as a mom and pop joint you have a far better chance of being reviewed in the Our Los Banos dining section! See - not only would you have your own place without the corporate rules and strings but fame beyond measure if you get reviewed on this site too! :-) Well okay... perhaps OurLosBanos.com "fame" is not a good reason or even remotely close to reality, but we like the atmosphere of the mom and pop places better and many times they really ARE better in the taste and service departments.

So in short, we wonder why in the world Los Banos has so much duplication in the fast food department. We would like to see more places open as the town continues to grow, but please oh please NOT another McDonalds!

Share your opinions about fast food in Los Banos with the Los Banos Community on the Los Banos Forums Bulletin Board!