I grew up in New England, and there really aren't that many buffet-styled restaurants around there. And if there are, I never found them.
Between college, and now 2 years following that, I've lived in Pennsylvania for about 6 years, and buffet-styled restaurants are everywhere. Golden Corral, Ponderosa, Old Country Buffet, etc. As to whether or not people PREFER to eat there, I don't know.
I've also traveled up and down the east coast, from Maine to Florida, and a whole bunch of places in between, and I've never run across any of these restaurants that I've seen in PA.
Maybe it's a middle-of-the-country kind of thing
