There is a rule inside this company that sounds made up.
No store more than about 300 miles from the dairy.
That is it. That is the expansion policy of a chain with hundreds of locations.
Not a market analysis. Not a franchise strategy. A radius drawn around one processing plant in a small town in Oklahoma.
Which means if you live in Ohio, you will probably never eat there. Not because they cannot afford to open one. Because the milk would have to travel too far.
That sounds like a limitation dressed up as a principle.
It is actually the most disciplined business decision in American fast food, and once you understand why, every other chain starts looking a little sloppy.
Here is how a company that owns its own cows ended up with a rule about distance.