I guarantee that’s better for their business in almost every way. The thing about them, especially depending on whether the town receives a lot of through traffic, is that almost all of their customers are locals. The smaller the town, the older that clientele is likely to be. So, the food needs to be cheap for a couple reasons. Older folks and those living in small towns generally have lower incomes and are less prone to spend it on finer dining. To ensure the restaurant is regularly filling up, they need those locals to be coming several days a week. If the food costs much more than it costs to eat at home, the locals will just eat at home. Really, they’re making the same exact food their customers would make at home and just charging a bit extra to save them the hassle of cooking for themselves. Additionally, someone that’s going to eat at the same place multiple days a week is going to want absolute consistency. That’s much easier to do with cheap, processed food than it is with farm to table. Point being, while small town folks may want better options locally, they won’t actually support them enough for those places to survive. Nobody is driving from Austin to Liberty Hill for a good meal that they could get here for a few more dollars.
Even in the places with a lot of through traffic, it’s harder for the more expensive places. Let’s say I’m driving through some random town and want to stop for a bite. I see two options, one where the parking lot is nearly full and one where there’s only a few cars. I’m more likely to pick the busy one on the assumption that it’s better. But it might not be. It might just be the cheaper one that everybody goes to several days a week rather than the good restaurant they only splurge at once a month.
Wow. What a weird rant I just went on.