
Mitch Hedberg and GIS - rtpg
http://njgeo.org/2014/01/30/mitch-hedberg-and-gis/
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rahimnathwani
It's deliberate:

"Between February and June of 1969 ... no more full-service properties were
planned ... difficult to control quality with in-house restaurants ... All
inns built after La Quinta #505 were built ... at locations with area
available to build a restaurant ... which would be leased to a major
restaurant chain for management."

"June, 1969 ... La Quinta #507 ... Restaurant on the premises was leased to
Denny's."

[http://www.business.txstate.edu/users/jb15/MGT4350/how_la_qu...](http://www.business.txstate.edu/users/jb15/MGT4350/how_la_quinta_began.htm)

~~~
brianpan
I noticed the same thing with Noah's Bagels and Jamba Juice. Apparently there
is also a connection between the two:
[http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/2012/06/noahs-new-
yo...](http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/2012/06/noahs-new-york-
bagelspeets-coffee.html)

~~~
kyllo
A rap duo from Brooklyn noticed the same thing with Pizza Hut and Taco Bell...
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ8ViYIeH04](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ8ViYIeH04)

~~~
sdfx
The reason for this would be that both, Pizza Hut & Taco Bell (as well as KFC)
are owned by the same company: Yum Brands.

~~~
lelandbatey
Correct. It is even possible to find restraints that are dual or triple
restaurants, serving food for all three.

~~~
LaikaF
Which is what the song is about.

------
JacobAldridge
Reminds me of this classic article on a business strategy of opening a coffee
shop across the road from a Starbucks -
[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/hey_wait_a_m...](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/hey_wait_a_minute/2007/12/dont_fear_starbucks.html#page_start)

~~~
SixSigma
Even Starbucks are doing it

[http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/01/06/i.spy.ste...](http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/01/06/i.spy.stealth.starbucks/)

~~~
ben1040
I always thought it was funny that for a while Starbucks operated two shops on
opposite corners of the same intersection at Robson & Thurlow in Vancouver.

[https://www.google.com/maps/@49.284602,-123.12482,3a,75y,229...](https://www.google.com/maps/@49.284602,-123.12482,3a,75y,229.43h,88.21t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1swLc1XkJNahMG2XeLfYQWZg!2e0)

One of them has been closed since this Street View image was taken in 2012,
but they were both there for some time (I had worked in the area in 2008 and
they both were definitely there then).

~~~
Jtsummers
I would think that's somewhat similar to two gas stations on opposite corners.
You can get in and out of one of them fairly easily from any direction and
going back out in your desired direction.

You're not invested (usually) in going to a particular Starbucks when you're
getting your coffee on the go. This lets them increase the throughput for the
area, while also capturing traffic (foot traffic in the case of this setup it
seems) from more directions. You want coffee, but it's on the opposite corner
then you have to cross two roads two times each? That's inconvenient. You have
to cross, in the worst case, one road twice to get coffee in this setup.
(Note: I don't think people analyze their behavior to that depth, but ease of
access is at least an unconcious factor in determining whether to visit a
place.)

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spinchange
"So, only 3.4% of the La Quintas out there live up to Mitch Hedberg’s
expectations...Update:...This yields 49 pairs (or 5.8% of all La Quintas)"

Brings to mind:

"Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and
the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind" \- E.B.
White

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baudehlo
One thing missed here is this sort of thing is a lot easier (to read and code)
using the built-in earthdistance module.

The query doesn't need the added "shape" column unless you want it for
indexes, and becomes simply:

    
    
        SELECT d.city, d.state, earth_distance(
                        ll_to_earth(d.latitude, d.longitude),
                        ll_to_earth(l.latitude, l.longitude)) as distance
        FROM dennys d, laquinta l 
        WHERE distance <= 150
        ORDER BY 3
    

No more magic numbers or confusing function names.

Note I don't mean this as a slight on the article - I purely mean it to
educate postgres users that they can do this sort of thing easily without
downloading/installing PostGIS.

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kelvin0
Almost no comments about the amazing comedy of Mitch? I hadn't known about him
until today ... The kinds of observation he makes are hilarious. Any fans?

~~~
idealform01
Mitch Hedberg is amazing

"Dogs are forever in the pushup position" ~ Mitch

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Mz
It looks like this comedian died in 2005. So I am wondering what the
percentage was when he was alive and making this observation.

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daurnimator
> contains the locations of the chain’s hotels in JSON. Using a regular
> expression, I converted the hotel data into CSV.

wat.

~~~
psykovsky
And here is the reason I will never post code I write.

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driverdan
Why? If other people do something differently it's a great way to learn
something new. Don't take it personally.

~~~
stusmall
I think its more that the "wat." comment wasn't a chance to learn anything
new. It was just snark.

