In our modern day, 40% of all restaurants nationwide are a part of some sort of larger chain. As these establishments have an expansive customer base and plentiful resources, they are capable of bringing down their prices to undercut their competitors, many of which are small locally-owned businesses.

The MMN decided to figure out how small establishments were faring in these trying times as many of these entrepreneurs don’t have a platform to share their views and stories, especially since most can’t afford to run any sort of marketing campaign during the time of Covid. One interesting thing that I learned throughout the course of my research and interview process was that Fruition, a company which had been open for only 3 weeks at the time of my interview and which had had no prior advertisement campaigns, was seeing massive amounts of business.

One of the most frustrating and persistent problems I encountered throughout my research process was that most restaurants didn’t have any interest in being interviewed. I emailed about 15 restaurants in LA, 5 across the country, and went in person to 5 local restaurants. In the end, though, only 2 ever reached out to me or excepted my invitation to be interviewed. While the research process was tedious to say the least, the interviews themselves turned out to be rich with compelling information and unique insights into the seemingly everlasting battle between chain and local establishments.

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