Playground →
Jack in the Box's nearest ten neighbors span five distinct subcategories — QSR, Footwear, Department Stores, Gas Stations, and Discount Stores — with no single type dominating the cluster. That mixed composition, compressed into a narrow similarity band from 0.89 down to 0.85, is the defining structural feature here.
The shape is flat: the top neighbor, Del Taco at 0.89, sits only four points above the tenth, Wienerschnitzel at 0.85. Five of the ten neighbors are fellow QSR brands — Del Taco (0.89), El Pollo Loco (0.87), Pollo Campero (0.86), Wingstop (0.85), and Wienerschnitzel (0.85, subcategory: Casual Dining) — making same-category restaurants the plurality. But the remaining five pull in markedly different directions: Ross Stores (0.88, Department Stores), ARCO (0.87, Gas Stations), dd's DISCOUNTS (0.86, Discount Stores), Skechers (0.86, Footwear), and WSS (0.85, Footwear). The presence of two footwear retailers and a discount department store at near-parity with direct restaurant competitors signals that the audience shape here is not defined by food alone.
The flat distribution across value retail, fuel convenience, and QSR suggests an audience whose behavioral footprint is broad and price-conscious rather than category-specific.
