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Research Question: Consider how the prominence of “Pizza Hut” and “Chipotle” has changed over time and what this might suggest about their impact on American culture.  You may alternatively compare other restaurants or stores. 

Data Collection:

• Perform separate searches for “Pizza Hut” and “Chipotle.”
• Record their frequency of mention by decade (1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s).

-Pizza Hut: 90s=2.21ppm 00s=1.15ppm 10s=.79ppm

-Chipotle: 90s=.76ppm 00s=3.56ppm 10s=3.88ppm

• Note any significant trends or patterns, especially in relation to each other.

-Pizza Hut search decreased over time; whereas, Chipotle searches increase over time with a large spike in the 2000s.

Analysis:

• Analyze the data to identify trends in the usage of “Pizza Hut” vs. “Chipotle.
• Consider factors like changes in dining habits, brand expansion, or cultural shifts.

-Popularity may be going down for Pizza Hut or advertising may be going up for Chipotle. 

-Chipotle may have opened more locations whereas Pizza Hut may have limited their expansion. 

-It could be a cultural shift to “healthier” fast food. 

-Chipotle has both an option for dining in and take out. 

-Chipotle may have offered the ability to order through their website earlier than Pizza Hut. 

Report:

Write a concise paragraph (and post) that includes.

• Introduction of your research question.
• Summary of your methodology and data collection process.  In other words, how did you search.
• Presentation of your findings with supporting data. Provide some specific numbers and/or visuals.
• Discussion of the implications of your findings.
• Conclusion reflecting on the cultural significance of these trends.

-In this study, the prominence of “Pizza Hut” and “Chipotle” in search engines was investigated to compare and contrast their frequency of search. To do this, COCA Corpus was used to create a chart defining the frequency per million of searches of “Pizza Hut” and “Chipotle” during the decades of 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. It was found that Pizza Hut had a steady decrease of searches by decade; whereas, Chipotle had an increase of searches with a large spike in the 2000s. Pizza Hut decreased from 2.21ppm to .79ppm from 1990-2019 (see graph below). Chipotle increased from .76ppm to 3.88ppm from 1990-2019 (see graph below). This could imply a few possibilities. It could mean that as time progressed, Pizza Hut decreased advertising while Chipotle increased advertisement. Similarly, Chipotle could have opened more locations and online ordering sooner than Pizza Hut, therefore increasing searches. Comparatively, this could be due to a cultural shift towards “healthier” fast food. In conclusion, Chipotle’s online searches increasing while Pizza Hut’s online searching decreases could be due to carious advertising, expansional, and cultural shifts. 

Presentation:

Prepare and include at least one graphic (bar chart, line graph) the illustrates your findings.  Think of ways AI can help you do this.  ChatGPT (without plugins) can’t do this directly, but probably could give you ideas.  Google Sheets/Excel are obvious jumping off points.