Fast Food Moves South, and the Interior Counts What It Replaces

The Local Italy reported this week that some of the world's largest fast food chains are expanding across Italy at a pace not seen since they first entered the country, and that the new growth is increasingly directed at the south. The outlet published maps showing the spread, and framed the shift as a departure from the chains' long concentration in the wealthy north and in the major tourist cities.

The direction of travel is the story. For decades the south was treated by international chains as a thin market: lower incomes, thinner car ownership in the historic centres, a food culture that did not need them. The Local's maps suggest that calculation has changed, and that the chains now read the south as under-served rather than unsuitable.