Freid Chicken and Spatial Location Theory

Looking for some fast, fried chicken in Charlottesville?  A quick trip down Route 29 will both fill your desire and also provide you with an economics lesson on spatial location theory as KFC, Popeye’s, and Cane’s are all located right next to each other.  All three restaurants are providing essentially the same product, fried chicken, and similar to the Sarah and Julia hotdog selling example we used in class, they have all ended up in the same location in order to try and capture the greatest number of customers.  As cited in this news article, back in 2013 Popeye’s moved into this location, despite there surely being many other places for it to build in Charlottesville.  The fact that Popeye’s moved in right next to KFC and Cane’s, and that now all three restaurants are in the same location, is a perfect example of spatial location theory.  Although all three restaurants being located in the same place is not allocatively efficient for the consumer, this is the choice each of the restaurants makes as they all move to “the midpoint” in order to try and capture the greatest number of customers.