If any one of these 11 stores set up shop in the Utica-Rome area, our wallets would be much thinner after each paycheck. In most instances, our waists would be much wider too.

Quite a few of these stores may make you question because they are actually in Central New York, but that isn't the point here. Spoiler, Chick-Fil-A is on this list. They are in the Syracuse area, which is considered CNY, but wouldn't you rather not have to travel an hour for a fast-food chicken sandwich?

So think about some places maybe you've had out of state. Places that you think really should make their way into the CNY or even just to this part of the state. The thought here is, these businesses in theory could fill a lot of the old vacant buildings in the Utica-Rome area too. Wouldn't that make our city look so much nicer?

  • Chick-Fil-A
  • White Castle
  • Sonic
  • Wegmans
  • Costco
  • IKEA
  • Krispy Kreme
  • DiBellas
  • JReck Subs
  • Ben & Jerrys
  • Ritas Italian Ice

As noted above, there are a lot of these establishments that are within driving distance. Syracuse has some and so does the Capital Region, but who really wants to drive for it? Especially in the situation of Wegmans. I have driven to Fayetteville for some things at Wegmans. But I would rather drive to New Hartford if that was an option.

The ones on this that seem super possible would be Sonic and maybe DiBella's subs as they have been expanding in recent years around New York. What businesses that aren't listed do you think we should have in the Utica-Rome area?

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