[maxerickson]

Pasta costs $1 a pound (if you price watch just a little).

Potatoes often cost less than $0.50 a pound.

I think those are very valid comparisons, potatoes are even more nutritious than anything McDonald's sells.

Sure, you have to cook them both for 10 or 15 minutes, which means you have to have a working stove top, but McDonald's is not more affordable than the grocery store, especially if you are buying things that are only comparably nutritious (rather than for flavor or better nutrition or whatever).

[steveax]

Assuming of course that you have a grocery store in your neighborhood.

[maxerickson]

It would be an interesting map, to see how many people lived substantially closer to a McDonald's than to a place that sold pasta for reasonable prices. I guess you might have to toss in Subway.

Here, the decent groceries are a bit over a mile away, two are a bit closer than the McDonald's, one is a bit further. 2 Subways beat them all.

I guess such a map would have uninteresting regions where it was more of a choice (rural residential lots).