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June 28, 2005
The Pride of Vinita, Oklahoma
On the freeway between Joplin (where I live) and Tulsa, Oklahoma (the nearest airport) there is a McDonald’s restaurant that spans all lanes of traffic. There are several roadside signs boasting it as the “World’s Largest” and “Still the World’s Largest.” The first few times we drove under this McDonald’s I didn’t think about it one way or another. Then, largely because there is not much else to do or think about on the looong drive between Tulsa and Joplin, I began to question the veracity of the claims. I have, after all, been to the McDonald’s in Moscow—which is pretty big.
A Google search for “World’s Largest McDonald’s” does indeed show top listing for the restaurant located in Vinita, Oklahoma. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it’s the world’s largest, just that websites mentioning it are more popular than websites mentioning other McDonald’s as being the largest.
After a lot of looking I came up with four additional contenders for the title of World’s Largest McDonald’s:
1. Orlando, Florida: 15,000 sq ft seats 300.
2. Chicago, Illinois: 24,000 sq ft, seats 300.
3. Moscow, Russia: 28,000+ sq ft, seats 700.
4. Beijing, China: 28,000+ sq ft. According to this bizarre McDonald’s site, I-am-asian.com, the world’s largest is in Beijing. I can’t find any pictures or additional information on it. I guess we can just assume McDonald’s corporate keeps track of these things.
According to this site the McDonald’s in Vinita is 29,135 square feet and seats about 300 people. The site also sites Orlando as hosting the biggest McDonald’s—even though it’s only 15,000 sq ft.
In any case it doesn’t really matter because I don’t like McDonald’s and don’t plan on visiting any of the aforementioned locations. I prefer my fries without beef flavoring and prefer to frequent companies that don’t apply abhorrent business practices. Here are some good sites that sum it up much better than I could here:
Rotten.com offers a highly readble history of McDonald’s and all of the company’s shady dealings. The timeline is very detailed.
McSpotlight.org is a watchdog organization committed to informing the public of McDonald’s business practices. This site isn’t as concise as Rotten.com, but it is more current and in-depth.
Posted by April at June 28, 2005 12:44 PM
Comments
This is America, hippie. There is no "World" outside the great 50. And what is so abhorrent about McDonald's buisness practices? If they were so evil why are they so popular? And potatoes without meat is simply unnatural. Fucking hippies... did you write this before burning a flag?
Posted by: flores at May 31, 2006 06:24 PM
I live in Vinita, Oklahoma, and I was just surfing the internet and found this article. I would just like it known that having the world's largest McDonald's is not "The Pride of Vinita, Oklahoma"....spare me. We hardly take pride in such a meaningless thing, first of all, and secondly, most people in Vinita don't even use that McDonald's; we have one downtown. I agree with April.... you are just one of those gay-ass activists that have everything against big corporations. I don't understand how anyone could be so ungrateful. You live in America, the greatest country in the world, and still you find something to bitch about. Hippie....
Posted by: Tyler at June 6, 2006 01:30 PM
I live in Vinita also and I find that saying this McDonald's is the "Pride of Vinita" insulting. Seriously people, yeah it helps out explaining to people who don't know where Vinita is, but C'mon...everyone knows our pride lies in the fact that we host the World's Largest Calf Fry.
Posted by: Vinitian at June 11, 2006 09:14 PM
Just to clarify, to say that the world's largest McD's is in Vinita is in no way true. The world's largest is near the Vinita exit off I-44 between Tulsa and Joplin, but you can't see the McDonalds from Vinita, nor can you see Vinita from the McDonalds.
If you Vinitians think you have the world's largest calf fry, you need to do some more research. Besides, what kind of pride comes from the habit of cutting the testicles out of bulls, then slicing and cooking them, to ultimately eat a mouthfull of fried semen?.
Do you felch cows for dessert? How about some sheep snoodling as an apertif? Don't know about Felching and Snoodling? Look them up, or I'll hold you down and let my steer give you a Dirty Sanchez.
Posted by: OJ at July 10, 2006 11:41 PM
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/OK-Quirky.html#Largest%20McDonalds%20In%20the%20World
that is the website that will tell you the square footage of the mcdonalds in my beloved state of oklahoma...it is the largest mcdonalds by square footage as compared to the rest of the mcdonalds claiming to be the worlds largest
Posted by: Larry at February 25, 2007 11:46 PM
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