Poll: New restaurants needed most in town

Last week, InMaricopa asked readers to weigh in on the types of businesses needed in the city.

“What types of stores, restaurants are needed most in Maricopa?” the poll asked.

Readers had the opportunity to vote for multiple categories – chain sit-down restaurants, independent sit-down restaurants (mom-and-pops), fast food restaurants, department stores, home improvement stores and supermarkets – and many of you did.

More than 2,550 individual votes were received.

(Some readers received an error message when voting. We’re continuing to investigate and, no, we do not use Dominion polling software, but you made us laugh.)

As a group, restaurants received the most attention, with 37% of votes. The breakdown: chain sit-down restaurants (21.2%), independent sit-down restaurants (12.9%) and fast food restaurants (2.9%). The latter, perhaps, not surprising as that category dominates the dining-out landscape in Maricopa.

In other categories, readers voted for home improvement stores (29%), department stores (23.4%) and supermarkets (10.7%).

In addition, the corresponding post on Facebook drew more than 270 comments, many alerting us to the problems with voting and others naming dozens of specific restaurants and stores.

In the coming weeks, InMaricopa will ask readers to vote for the specific restaurants and stores they would like to see come to town. We’ll be unable to include all options but will list what seems to be the most popular ones and let you have your say. And then we’ll tag restaurants and stores on Facebook to make sure they know how you feel.

As always, thanks for voting.