With about 17,000 locations, Starbucks's ubiquity no doubt works in its favor, but the list also shows that smaller players can upset industry titans. Case in point: Buffalo Wild Wings, which has around 700 outlets, was higher on the list than McDonald's and its 32,000 or so global locations.
The list in full:
1. Starbucks
2. Buffalo Wild Wings
3. Chili’s
4. Applebee’s
5. McDonald’s
6. IHOP
7. Denny’s
8. Olive Garden
9. T.G.I. Friday’s
10. The Cheesecake Factory
Facebook stats show that when people check in, they let an average of 130 of their friends know, in a tacit recommendation. Facebook introduced Places almost exactly a year ago. The feature, a rival to checkin services like Foursquare, has been used as a popularity gauge before, but this is the first time Facebook has supplied the data directly. Facebook declined to say how many checkins each establishment received.