![mcdonalds times sq](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Mcdonalds_times_sq.png)
A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves
fast-food
Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredient ...
cuisine and has minimal
table service
The foodservice (US English) or catering (British English) industry includes the businesses, institutions, and companies which prepare meals outside the home. It includes restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, catering operations, and many ...
. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "
meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for
take away
A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...
, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a
restaurant chain
A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...
or
franchise
Franchise may refer to:
Business and law
* Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees
* Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...
operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by
Merriam–Webster in 1951.
Arguably, the first fast-food restaurants originated in the United States with
White Castle in 1921. Today, American-founded fast-food chains such as
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
(est. 1940) and
KFC (est. 1952) are
multinational corporations
A multinational company (MNC), also referred to as a multinational enterprise (MNE), a transnational enterprise (TNE), a transnational corporation (TNC), an international corporation or a stateless corporation with subtle but contrasting senses, i ...
with outlets across the globe.
Variations on the fast-food restaurant concept include
fast-casual restaurants and
catering trucks. Fast-casual restaurants have higher sit-in ratios, offering a hybrid between counter-service typical at fast-food restaurants and a traditional table service restaurant. Catering trucks (also called food trucks) often park just outside worksites and are popular with factory workers.
History
In 1896, the first self-service restaurant (the "Stollwerck-Automatenrestaurant") opened in Berlin's
Leipziger Straße
Leipziger Straße is a major thoroughfare in the central Mitte (locality), Mitte district of Berlin, capital of Germany. It runs from Leipziger Platz, an octagonal square adjacent to Potsdamer Platz in the west, to Spittelmarkt (Berlin U-Bahn), S ...
.
United States
![Burger king whopper](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Burger_king_whopper.jpg)
Some trace the modern history of fast food in the United States to 7 July 1912, with the opening of a fast-food restaurant called the
Automat
An automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drinks are served by vending machines. The world's first automat, Quisisana, opened in Berlin, Germany in 1895.
By country Germany
The first automat in the world was the Quisisana ...
in New York. The Automat was a cafeteria with its prepared foods behind small glass windows and coin-operated slots. Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart had already opened the first
Horn & Hardart
Horn & Hardart was a food services company in the United States noted for operating the first food service automats in Philadelphia, New York City, and Baltimore.
Philadelphia's Joseph Horn (1861–1941) and German-born, New Orleans-raised Fran ...
Automat in Philadelphia in 1902, but their "Automat" at Broadway and 13th Street, in New York City, created a sensation. Numerous Automat restaurants were built around the country to deal with the demand.
Automat
An automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drinks are served by vending machines. The world's first automat, Quisisana, opened in Berlin, Germany in 1895.
By country Germany
The first automat in the world was the Quisisana ...
s remained extremely popular throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The company also popularized the notion of "take-out" food, with their slogan "Less work for Mother".
Most historians agree that the American company White Castle was the first fast-food outlet, starting in
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...
in 1916 with food stands and founding in 1921, selling hamburgers for five cents apiece from its inception and spawning numerous competitors and emulators. What is certain, however, is that White Castle made the first significant effort to standardize the food production in, look of, and operation of fast-food hamburger restaurants. William Ingram's and Walter Anderson's White Castle System created the first fast-food supply chain to provide meat, buns, paper goods, and other supplies to their restaurants, pioneered the concept of the multi-state hamburger restaurant chain, standardized the look and construction of the restaurants themselves, and even developed a construction division that manufactured and built the chain's prefabricated restaurant buildings. The McDonald's Speedee Service System and, much later,
Ray Kroc
Raymond Albert Kroc (October 5, 1902 – January 14, 1984) was an American businessman. He purchased the fast food company McDonald's in 1961 and was its CEO from 1967 to 1973. Kroc is credited with the global expansion of McDonald's, turnin ...
's McDonald's outlets and Hamburger University all built on principles, systems and practices that White Castle had already established between 1923 and 1932.
The
hamburger
A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, ...
restaurant most associated by the public with the term "fast food" was created by two brothers originally from
Nashua, New Hampshire.
Richard and Maurice McDonald
Richard McDonald (February 1909 – July 14, 1998) and Maurice McDonald (1902 – December 11, 1971), together known as the McDonald Brothers, were American entrepreneurs who founded the fast food company McDonald's. They opened the original Mc ...
opened a
barbecue drive-in
A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or movie theater) where one can drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk or rollerskat ...
in 1940 in the city of
San Bernardino, California
San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 ce ...
. After discovering that most of their profits came from hamburgers, the brothers closed their restaurant for three months and reopened it in 1948 as a walk-up stand offering a simple menu of hamburgers,
french fries,
shakes, coffee, and
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...
, served in disposable paper wrapping. As a result, they could produce hamburgers and fries constantly, without waiting for customer orders, and could serve them immediately; hamburgers cost 15 cents, about half the price at a typical
diner. Their streamlined production method, which they named the "Speedee Service System" was influenced by the
production line
A production line is a set of sequential operations established in a factory where components are assembled to make a finished article or where materials are put through a refining process to produce an end-product that is suitable for onward c ...
innovations of
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...
.
By 1954, The McDonald brothers' stand was restaurant equipment manufacturer Prince Castle's biggest purchaser of milkshake blending machines. Prince Castle salesman Ray Kroc traveled to California to discover why the company had purchased almost a dozen of the units as opposed to the normal one or two found in most restaurants of the time. Enticed by the success of the McDonald's concept, Kroc signed a franchise agreement with the brothers and began opening McDonald's restaurants in Illinois. By 1961, Kroc had bought out the brothers and created what is now the modern McDonald's Corporation. One of the major parts of his business plan was to promote cleanliness of his restaurants to growing groups of Americans that had become aware of food safety issues. As part of his commitment to cleanliness, Kroc often took part in cleaning his own
Des Plaines, Illinois
Des Plaines is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 60,675. The city is a suburb of Chicago and is located just north of O'Hare International Airport. It is situated on and is named after the ...
outlet by hosing down the garbage cans and scraping gum off the cement. Another concept Kroc added was great swaths of glass which enabled the customer to view the food preparation, a practice still found in chains such as
Krispy Kreme
Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain.
Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans c ...
. A clean atmosphere was only part of Kroc's grander plan which separated McDonald's from the rest of the competition and attributes to their great success. Kroc envisioned making his restaurants appeal to suburban families.
At roughly the same time as Kroc was conceiving what eventually became McDonald's Corporation, two Miami, Florida businessmen, James McLamore and David Edgerton, opened a franchise of the predecessor to what is now the international fast-food restaurant chain
Burger King. McLamore had visited the original McDonald's hamburger stand belonging to the McDonald brothers; sensing potential in their innovative
assembly line
An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in se ...
-based production system, he decided he wanted to open a similar operation of his own.
The two partners eventually decided to invest their money in
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
-based Insta-Burger King. Originally opened in 1953, the founders and owners of the chain, Kieth G. Kramer and his wife's uncle Matthew Burns, opened their first stores around a piece of equipment known as the Insta-Broiler. The Insta-Broiler oven proved so successful at cooking burgers, they required all of their franchises to carry the device.
By 1959 McLamore and Edgarton were operating several locations within the
Miami-Dade
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...
area and were growing at a fast clip. Despite the success of their operation, the partners discovered that the design of the insta-broiler made the unit's heating elements prone to degradation from the drippings of the beef patties. The pair eventually created a mechanized gas grill that avoided the problems by changing the way the meat patties were cooked in the unit. After the original company began to falter in 1959, it was purchased by McLamore and Edgerton who renamed the company Burger King.
While fast-food restaurants usually have a seating area in which customers can eat the food on the premises, orders are designed to be taken away, and traditional table service is rare. Orders are generally taken and paid for at a wide counter, with the customer waiting by the counter for a tray or container for their food. A "
drive-through" service can allow customers to order and pick up food from their cars.
Nearly from its inception, fast food has been designed to be eaten "on the go" and often does not require traditional
cutlery and is eaten as a finger food. Common menu items at fast-food outlets include
fish and chips,
sandwich
A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...
es,
pitas,
hamburger
A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, ...
s,
fried chicken,
french fries,
chicken nugget
A chicken nugget is a food product consisting of a small piece of deboned chicken meat that is breaded or battered, then deep-fried or baked. Invented in the 1950s, chicken nuggets have become a very popular fast food restaurant item, as ...
s,
taco
A taco (, , ) is a traditional Mexican food consisting of a small hand-sized corn- or wheat-based tortilla topped with a filling. The tortilla is then folded around the filling and eaten by hand. A taco can be made with a variety of fillin ...
s,
pizza, and
ice cream
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...
, although many fast-food restaurants offer "slower" foods like
chili,
mashed potato
Mashed potato or mashed potatoes (American and Canadian English), colloquially known as mash (British English), is a dish made by mashing boiled or steamed potatoes, usually with added milk, butter, salt and pepper. It is generally served as a ...
es, and
salad
A salad is a dish consisting of mixed, mostly natural ingredients with at least one raw ingredient. They are typically served at room temperature or chilled, though some can be served warm. Condiments and salad dressings, which exist in a va ...
s.
Cuisine
Modern commercial fast food is highly processed and prepared on a large scale from bulk ingredients using standardized cooking and production methods and equipment. It is usually rapidly served in cartons, bags, or in a plastic wrapping, in a fashion which reduces operating costs by allowing rapid product identification and counting, promoting longer holding time, avoiding transfer of bacteria, and facilitating order fulfillment. In most fast-food operations, menu items are generally made from processed ingredients prepared at central supply facilities and then shipped to individual outlets where they are cooked (usually by grill, microwave, or deep-frying) or assembled in a short amount of time either in anticipation of upcoming orders (i.e., "to stock") or in response to actual orders (i.e., "to order"). Following standard operating procedures, pre-cooked products are monitored for freshness and disposed of if holding times become excessive. This process ensures a consistent level of product quality, and is key to delivering the order quickly to the customer and avoiding labor and equipment costs in the individual stores.
Because of commercial emphasis on taste, speed, product safety, uniformity, and low cost, fast-food products are made with ingredients formulated to achieve an identifiable flavor, aroma, texture, and "mouth feel" and to preserve freshness and control handling costs during preparation and order fulfillment. This requires a high degree of
food engineering. The use of
additives
Additive may refer to:
Mathematics
* Additive function, a function in number theory
* Additive map, a function that preserves the addition operation
* Additive set-functionn see Sigma additivity
* Additive category, a preadditive category with fi ...
, including salt, sugar,
flavorings and
preservative
A preservative is a substance or a chemical that is added to products such as food products, beverages, pharmaceutical drugs, paints, biological samples, cosmetics, wood, and many other products to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by ...
s, and processing techniques may limit the nutritional value of the final product.
Value meals
A ''value meal'' is a group of menu items offered together at a lower price than they would cost individually. A hamburger, side of fries, and drink commonly constitute a value meal—or ''combo'' depending on the chain. Value meals at fast-food restaurants are common as a
merchandising tactic to facilitate
bundling,
up-selling
Upselling is a sales technique where a seller invites the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons to generate more revenue. While it usually involves marketing more profitable services or products, it can be simply ex ...
, and
price discrimination
Price discrimination is a microeconomic pricing strategy where identical or largely similar goods or services are sold at different prices by the same provider in different markets. Price discrimination is distinguished from product differe ...
. Most of the time they can be upgraded to a larger side and drink for a small fee. The perceived creation of a "discount" on individual menu items in exchange for the purchase of a "meal" is also consistent with the
loyalty marketing
Loyalty marketing is an approach to marketing, based on strategic management, in which a company focuses on growing and retaining existing customers through incentives. Branding, product marketing, and loyalty marketing all form part of the c ...
school of thought
A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement.
...
.
Technology
To make quick service possible and to ensure accuracy and security, many fast-food restaurants have incorporated
hospitality point of sale systems. This makes it possible for kitchen crew people to view orders placed at the front counter or drive through in real time. Wireless systems allow orders placed at drive through speakers to be taken by cashiers and cooks. Drive through and walk through configurations will allow orders to be taken at one register and paid at another. Modern point of sale systems can operate on computer networks using a variety of software programs. Sales records can be generated and remote access to computer reports can be given to corporate offices, managers, troubleshooters, and other authorized personnel.
Food service chains partner with food equipment manufacturers to design highly specialized restaurant equipment, often incorporating heat
sensors, timers, and other electronic controls into the design.
Collaborative design techniques, such as rapid visualization and
computer-aided design of restaurant kitchens are now being used to establish equipment specifications that are consistent with restaurant operating and merchandising requirements.
Business
Consumer spending
In the United States, consumers spent about $110 billion on fast food in 2000 (which increased from $6 billion in 1970).
The
National Restaurant Association
The National Restaurant Association is a restaurant industry business association in the United States, representing more than 380,000 restaurant locations. It also operates the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. The associa ...
forecasts that fast-food restaurants in the US will reach $142 billion in sales in 2006, a 5% increase over 2005. In comparison, the full-service restaurant segment of the
food industry is expected to generate $173 billion in sales. Fast food has been losing
market share to so-called fast-casual restaurants, which offer more robust and expensive cuisines.
Major international brands
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
, a fast-food supplier, opened its first franchised restaurant in the US in 1955 (1974 in the UK). It has become a phenomenally successful enterprise in terms of financial growth, brand-name recognition, and worldwide expansion. Ray Kroc, who bought the franchising license from the McDonald brothers, pioneered concepts which emphasized standardization. He introduced uniform products, identical in all respects at each outlet, to increase sales. Kroc also insisted on cutting food costs as much as possible, eventually using the McDonald's Corporation's size to force suppliers to conform to this ethos.
Other prominent international fast-food companies include Burger King, the number two hamburger chain in the world, known for promoting its customized menu offerings (''Have it Your Way''). Another international fast-food chain is KFC, which sells chicken-related products and is the number 1 fast-food company in the People's Republic of China.
Franchising
A fast-food chain restaurant is generally owned either by the
parent company of the fast-food chain or a
franchisee
Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busine ...
– an independent party given the right to use the company's trademark and trade name. In the latter case, a contract is made between the franchisee and the parent company, typically requiring the franchisee to pay an initial, fixed fee in addition to a continual percentage of monthly sales. Upon opening for business, the franchisee oversees the day-to-day operations of the restaurant and acts as a manager of the store. Once the contract expires, the parent company may choose to "renew the contract, sell the franchise to another franchisee, or operate the restaurant itself." In most fast-food chains, the number of franchised locations exceeds the number of company owned locations.
Fast-food chains rely on consistency and uniformity, in internal operations and brand image, across all of their restaurant locations in order to convey a sense of reliability to their customers. This sense of reliability coupled with a positive customer experience brings customers to place trust in the company. This sense of trust leads to increased customer loyalty which gives the company a source of recurring business. When a person is presented with a choice of different restaurants to eat at, it is much easier for them to stick with what they know, rather than to take a gamble and dive into the unknown.
Due to the importance of consistency, most companies set standards unifying their various restaurant locations with a set of common rules and regulations. Parent companies often rely on field representatives to ensure that the practices of franchised locations are consistent with the company's standards. However, the more locations a fast-food chain has, the harder it is for the parent company to guarantee that these standards are being followed. Moreover, it is much more expensive to discharge a franchisee for noncompliance with company standards, than it is to discharge an employee for that same reason. As a consequence, parent companies tend to deal with franchisee violations in a more relaxed manner.
Many companies also adapt to their different local areas to support the needs of the customers.
Sometimes it is necessary for a franchisee to modify the way the restaurant/store runs to meet the needs of local customers.
As referenced in Bodey's "Localization and Customer Retention for Franchise Service Systems" article, J. L. Bradach claims that a franchise will either use the tactical or strategic local response.
Tactical applies to accounting for hiring of personnel and suppliers as well as financial decisions to adapt to the local customers.
Strategic applies to the specific characteristics of the franchise that will change from the basic format followed by all to fit in the local area.
For the most part, someone visiting a McDonald's in the United States will have the same experience as someone visiting a McDonald's in Japan. The interior design, the menu, the speed of service, and the taste of the food will all be very similar. However, some differences do exist to tailor to particular cultural differences. For example, in October 2005 during a midst of plummeting sales in Japan, McDonald's added a shrimp burger to the Japanese menu. The choice to introduce a shrimp burger was no coincidence, as a 1989 study stated that world consumption of shrimp was "led by Japan."
In March 2010, Taco Bell opened their first restaurant in India. Because non-consumption of beef is a cultural norm in light of India's
Dharmic
Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...
beliefs, Taco Bell had to tailor its menu to the dietary distinctions of Indian culture by replacing all of the beef with chicken. By the same token, completely meatless options were introduced to the menu due to the prevalence of vegetarianism throughout the country.
Countries
![Queue to Burger King in Helsinki, Finland](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Queue_to_Burger_King_in_Helsinki%2C_Finland.jpg)
Multinational corporations typically modify their menus to cater to local tastes, and most overseas outlets are owned by native franchisees. McDonald's in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, for example, uses chicken and
paneer
Paneer (), also known as ponir () is a fresh acid-set cheese common in the Indian subcontinent (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) made from full-fat buffalo milk or cow milk. It is a non-aged, non-melting sof ...
rather than beef and pork in their burgers because
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
traditionally forbids eating beef. In
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
some McDonald's restaurants are
kosher and respect the
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish
Shabbat; there is also a
kosher McDonald's in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. In
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
,
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
,
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
,
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
, and
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
, all menu items are
halal
''Halal'' (; ar, حلال, ) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word ''halal'' is contrasted with '' haram'' (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification k ...
.
North America
![AnimalFries](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/AnimalFries.JPG)
Many fast-food operations have more local and regional roots, such as White Castle in the Midwest United States, along with
Hardee's (owned by
CKE Restaurants
CKE Restaurants Holdings (an acronym from Carl Karcher Enterprises) is an American fast food corporation and is the parent organization for the Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Green Burrito, and Red Burrito brands. CKE Restaurants is a subsidiary of the pr ...
, which also owns
Carl's Jr.
Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC is an American fast food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc., with franchisees in North & South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa.
In 2016, ''Entrepreneur'' listed Carl's Jr. as No. 54 ...
, whose locations are primarily on the United States West Coast);
Krystal
Krystal may refer to:
People
* Krystal Ann Simpson (born 1982), American poet, fashion blogger, DJ, reality television personality, and musician
* Krystal Ball (born 1981), American political commentator
* Krystal Barter, Australian activ ...
,
Bojangles' Famous Chicken 'n Biscuits
Bojangles OpCo, LLC., doing business as Bojangles (known as Bojangles' Famous Chicken 'n Biscuits until 2020), is an American regional chain of fast food restaurants that specializes in cajun-seasoned fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits that ...
,
Cook Out, and
Zaxby's
Zaxby's is an American chain of fast casual restaurants offering chicken wings, chicken fingers, sandwiches, and salads. The chain operates primarily in the Southern United States and has more than 900 locations. Most Zaxby's restaurants are owne ...
restaurants in the American Southeast;
Raising Cane's
Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers is an American fast-food restaurant chain specializing in chicken fingers founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey in 1996.
History
Founders Todd Graves and Craig Silvey were both enrolled ...
in Louisiana and other mostly Southern states;
Hot 'n Now
Hot 'n Now is an American fast-food restaurant based in Holt, Michigan. Founded in 1984, the chain once grew to more than 150 locations throughout the United States at its peak. Subsequently, under the ownership of PepsiCo, the chain filed for ...
in Michigan and Wisconsin;
In-N-Out Burger
In-N-Out Burger is an American regional chain of fast food restaurants with locations primarily in California and the Southwest. It was founded in Baldwin Park, California, in 1948 by Harry (1913–1976) and Esther Snyder (1920–2006). The ...
(in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Texas, with a few locations in Oregon) and
Original Tommy's
Original Tommy's, previously known as Original Tommy's World Famous Hamburgers, is a fast food hamburger restaurant chain in Southern California, United States. It is known for its hamburgers and chili burgers.
History
The original locati ...
chains in Southern California;
Dick's Drive-In
Dick's Drive-In, or simply Dick's, is a fast-food restaurant chain located in the Seattle, Washington area. It was founded in 1954 by Dick Spady, H. Warren Ghormley, and Dr. B.O.A. Thomas. It currently operates eight locations in the Puget So ...
in Seattle, Washington and
Arctic Circle in
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
and other western states;
Halo Burger
Halo Burger, formerly known by its full name Bill Thomas' Halo Burger, is an American fast-food restaurant chain based in Genesee County, Michigan. Begun in 1923 as the original Kewpee location and separating from the Kewpee chain in 1967 with ...
around Flint, Michigan and
Burgerville
Burgerville (originally Burgerville USA) is a privately held American restaurant chain in Oregon and southwest Washington, owned by The Holland Inc. As the chain's name suggests, Burgerville's sandwich menu consists mostly of hamburgers. As of ...
in the Portland, Oregon area. Also,
Whataburger
Whataburger is an American regional fast food restaurant chain, headquartered and based in San Antonio, Texas, that specializes in hamburgers. The company, founded by Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton, opened its first restaurant in Corpus Chris ...
is a popular burger chain in the American South, and
Jack in the Box
Jack in the Box is an American fast-food restaurant chain founded February 21, 1951, by Robert O. Peterson (1916–1994) in San Diego, California, where it is headquartered. The chain has over 2,200 locations, primarily serving the West Coas ...
is located in the West and South. Canada pizza chains
Topper's Pizza and
Pizza Pizza
Pizza Pizza Ltd. is a franchised Canadian pizza quick-service restaurant with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario. Its restaurants are mainly in the province of Ontario while others are located in Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and west ...
are primarily located in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
. Coffee chain
Country Style
Country Style Food Services, Inc., formerly Country Style Donuts, is a fast/casual chain of coffee shops operating primarily in the Canadian province of Ontario (where it ranks second among coffee chains), which serves oatmeal, soup, sandwiches, ...
operates only in Ontario, and competes with the famous coffee and donut chain
Tim Hortons
Tim Hortons Inc., commonly nicknamed Tim's, or Timmie's is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain. Based in Toronto, Tim Hortons serves coffee, doughnuts, and other fast-food items. It is Canada's largest quick-service res ...
.
Maid-Rite restaurant is one of the oldest chain fast-food restaurants in the United States. Founded in 1926, their specialty is a loose meat hamburger. Maid-Rites can be found in the midwest - mainly Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and Missouri.
International brands dominant in North America include McDonald's, Burger King and
Wendy's
Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (1932–2002) on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of December 31, 2018, Wendy's was t ...
, the number three burger chain in the USA;
Dunkin' Donuts, a
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
-based chain; automobile oriented
Sonic Drive-In's from
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...
;
Starbucks, Seattle-born coffee-based fast-food beverage corporation; KFC and
Taco Bell
Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, includin ...
, which are both part of the largest restaurant conglomerate in the world,
Yum! Brands
Yum! Brands, Inc. (or Yum!), formerly Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., is an American fast food corporation listed on the Fortune 1000. Yum! operates the brands KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill, except in China, where the ...
; and
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc., trading as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor ...
, a
pizza chain known for popularizing home delivery of fast food.
Subway is known for their sub sandwiches and are the largest restaurant chain to serve such food items.
Quiznos
Quiz Holdings, LLC, doing business as Quiznos, is an American franchised fast-food restaurant based in Denver, Colorado, that specializes in offering toasted submarine sandwiches. It was founded in 1981 by Jimmy Lambatos and sold to Rick and R ...
a Denver-based sub shop is another fast-growing sub chain, yet with over 6,000 locations it is still far behind Subway's 34,000 locations. Other smaller sub shops include Blimpie, Jersey Mike's Subs, Mr. Goodcents, Jimmy John's, and Firehouse Subs, Firehouse.
A&W Restaurants was originally a United States and Canada fast-food brand, but it is currently an International fast-food corporation in several countries.
In Canada the majority of fast-food chains are American owned or were originally American owned but have since set up a Canadian management/headquarters locations such as Panera Bread, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Five Guys, and
Carl's Jr.
Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC is an American fast food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc., with franchisees in North & South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa.
In 2016, ''Entrepreneur'' listed Carl's Jr. as No. 54 ...
Although the case is usually American fast-food chains expanding into Canada, Canadian chains such as Tim Hortons have expanded into 22 states in the United States, but are more prominent in border states such as New York and Michigan. Tim Hortons has started to expand to other countries outside of North America. The Pita Pit franchise originated in Canada and has expanded to the United States and other Countries. The Canadian Extreme Pita franchise sells low fat and salt
pita sandwiches with stores in the larger Canadian cities. Other Canadian fast-food chains such as Manchu Wok serve North American style Asian cuisine, Asian foods; this company is located mainly in Canada and the US, with other outlets on US military bases on other continents. Harvey's is a Canadian-only burger restaurant chain, present in every province.
Oceania
Australia
Australia's fast-food market began in 1968, with the opening of several American franchises including McDonald's and KFC. Pizza Hut was introduced in April 1970, and
Burger King followed. However, the Burger King market found that this name was already a registered trademark to a takeaway food shop in Adelaide. Thus, the Burger King Australian market was forced to pick another name, selecting the Hungry Jack's brand name. Prior to this, the Australian fast-food market consisted primarily of privately owned take-away shops.
New Zealand
In New Zealand, the fast-food market began in the 1970s with KFC (opened 1971), Pizza Hut (1974), and McDonald's (1976), and all three remain popular today. Burger King and Domino's entered the market later in the 1990s. Australian pizza chains Eagle Boys and Pizza Haven (Australia), Pizza Haven also entered the market in the 1990s, but their New Zealand operations were later sold to Pizza Hut and Domino's.
A few fast-food chains have been founded in New Zealand, including Burger Fuel (founded 1995), Georgie Pie (founded 1977, but closed 1998 after falling into financial trouble and being bought out by McDonald's) and Hell Pizza (founded 1996).
Europe
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom's signature type of fast-food restaurant is a fish and chip shop, which specializes in
fish and chips and also other foods such as kebabs and burgers. Fish and chip shops are usually owned independently. Many other types of home based fast-food operations were closed in the 1970s and 1980s after McDonald's became the number one outlet in the market.
However, brands like Wimpy (brand), Wimpy still remain, although the majority of branches became Burger King in 1989.
Netherlands
![Amsterdam - Nieuwendijk - Febo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Amsterdam_-_Nieuwendijk_-_Febo.jpg)
In the Netherlands, walk-up fast-food restaurants with ''automatiek'', a typical Dutch vending machine, are found throughout the country, most notably in Amsterdam. In this automatic format, a counter is available for purchasing French fries, beverages, krokets, frikandellen, kaassoufflés and
hamburger
A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, ...
s and other snacks can be bought from the automats. FEBO is one of the largest of such types of fast-food restaurants with automats.
Ireland
In addition to home-grown chains such as Supermac's, numerous American chains such as McDonald's and Burger King have also established a presence in Ireland. In 2015, a study developed by Treated.com was published in the Irish Times, which named Swords, Dublin, Swords in County Dublin as Ireland's 'fast-food capital'.
Asia
Japan
American chains such as
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc., trading as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor ...
,
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
, Pizza Hut, and
KFC have a big presence in Japan, but local gyudon chains such as Sukiya (restaurant chain), Sukiya, Matsuya Foods Co., Matsuya and Yoshinoya also blanket the country. Japan has its own burger chains including MOS Burger, Lotteria and Freshness Burger.
Taiwan
Notable Taiwanese fast-food restaurants include 85C Bakery Cafe, TKK Fried Chicken, and Bafang Dumpling.
India
The major fast-food chains in India that serve American fast food are KFC, McDonald's, Starbucks, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut, and Dominos. Most of these have had to make a lot of changes to their standard menus to cater to Indian food habits and taste preferences. Some emerging Indian food chains include Wow! Momo, Haldiram's, Faaso's and Café Coffee Day.
Food habits vary widely across states within India. While typical idli and Dosa (food), dosa is fast food in Southern India, in Maharashtra it is Misal Pav, misal-pav, Pav bhaji, pav-bhaji, and Poha (rice), poha. Further north in Punjab and Haryana, Chole bhature, chole-bhature are very popular and in Bihar and Jharkhand Litti (cuisine), litti-chokha is their staple fast food.
Pakistan
Fast food In Pakistan varies. There are many international chains serving fast food, including Nandos, Burger King, KFC, McDonald's,
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc., trading as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor ...
, Fatburger, Dunkin' Donuts, Subway, Pizza Hut, Hardees, Telepizza, Steak Escape and Gloria Jean's Coffees. In addition to the international chains, in local cuisine people in Pakistan like to have biryani, bun kebabs, Nihari, kebab rolls etc. as fast food.
Philippines
![2pcs Chicken Joy Bohol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/2pcs_Chicken_Joy_Bohol.jpg)
In the Philippines, fast-food is the same as in the US. However, the only difference is that they serve Filipino dishes and a few American products being served Filipino-style. Jollibee is the leading fast-food chain in the country with 1,000 stores nationwide.
Russia
Most international fast-food chains like Subway, McDonald's, Burger King etc. are represented in major Russian cities. There are also local chains like Teremok specializing in Russian cuisine or having elements of it added into their menu.
Saudi Arabia
![Al Baik in Medina 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Al_Baik_in_Medina_1.jpg)
Saudi Arabia has many international fast-food chains including KFC, Burger King, McDonald's and many others. However, the most popular fast-food restaurant of Saudi Arabia is Albaik.
Saudis regard Albaik as better than KFC.
Hong Kong
![HK Admiralty Queensway Far East Finance Centre interior Cafe de Coral bar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/HK_Admiralty_Queensway_Far_East_Finance_Centre_interior_Cafe_de_Coral_bar.jpg)
In Hong Kong, although McDonald's and KFC are quite popular, three major local fast-food chains provide Hong Kong-style fast food, namely Café de Coral (Restaurant), Café de Coral, Fairwood (restaurant), Fairwood, and Maxim's Caterers Limited, Maxim MX. Café de Coral alone serves more than 300,000 customers daily. Unlike western fast-food chains, these restaurants offer four different menus at different times of the day, namely breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. ''Siu mei'' is offered throughout the day.
''Dai pai dong'' and traditional Hong Kong street food may be considered close relatives of the conventional fast-food outlet.
Israel
In
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, local burger chain Burger Ranch (Israel), Burger Ranch is popular as are McDonald's and Burger King. Domino's Pizza is also a popular fast-food restaurant. Chains like McDonald's offer kosher branches. Non-kosher foods such as cheeseburgers are rare in Israeli fast-food chains, even in non-kosher branches. There are many small local fast-food chains that serve
pizza,
hamburger
A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, ...
s, sushi and local foods such as hummus, falafel and shawarma.
Africa
Nigeria
In Nigeria, Mr. Bigg's, Chicken Republic, Tantalizers, and Tastee Fried Chicken are the predominant fast-food chains.
KFC and
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc., trading as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor ...
have recently entered the country.
South Africa
KFC is the most popular fast-food chain in South Africa according to a 2010 ''The Sunday Times (South Africa), Sunday Times'' survey. Chicken Licken (restaurant), Chicken Licken, Wimpy (restaurant)#South Africa branches, Wimpy and Ocean Basket along with Nando's and Steers are examples of homegrown franchises that are highly popular within the country. McDonald's, Subway and Pizza Hut have a significant presence within South Africa.
Trends
Health concerns
Some of the large fast-food chains are beginning to incorporate healthier alternatives in their menu, e.g., white meat, snack wraps, salads, and fresh fruit. However, some people see these moves as a tokenism, tokenistic and commercial measure, rather than an appropriate reaction to ethical concerns about the world ecology and people's health. McDonald's announced that in March 2006, the chain would include nutritional information on the packaging of all of its products.
In September and October 2000, during the Starlink corn recalls, up to $50 million worth of corn-based foods were recalled from restaurants as well as supermarkets. The products contained Starlink Genetically modified maize, genetically modified corn that was not approved for human consumption. It was the first-ever recall of a genetically modified food.
The environmental group Friends of the Earth that had first detected the contaminated shells was critical of the FDA for not doing its own job.
Fast food is commonly blamed for the obesity epidemic in the United States today.
60% of Americans today are either overweight or obese.
With obesity especially being seen among children, places like McDonald's and other fast-food restaurants take the majority of the blame.
34% of children and adolescents consume fast food on any given day, while 80% of children claim that McDonald's is their favorite place to eat at.
The number of children and adolescents as well as adults eating out every day is only seen to progress and rise.
Research concludes that children and adolescents ranging from twelve to nineteen years old consume twice as many calories from fast-food restaurants than children ranging from two to eleven years old.
The FDA found that trans fats raises the amount of cholesterol in blood, which raises the chance of developing heart disease which is known as one of the leading causes of death in the U.S.
In a recent study, it was found that 11 out of 25 restaurants failed after tests on the use of antibiotics as well.
Antibiotic-resistant infections affect at least 2 million Americans each year, which will leave at least 23,000 of those people to die.
Consumer appeal
Fast-food outlets have become popular with consumers for several reasons. One is that through economies of scale in purchasing and producing food, these companies can deliver food to consumers at a very low cost. In addition, although some people dislike fast food for its predictability, it can be reassuring to a hungry person in a hurry or far from home.
In the post-World War II period in the United States, fast-food chains like McDonald's rapidly gained a reputation for their cleanliness, fast service, and a child-friendly atmosphere where families on the road could grab a quick meal. Prior to the rise of the fast-food chain restaurant, people generally had a choice between
diners where the quality of the food was often questionable and service lacking, or high-end restaurants that were expensive and impractical for families with children. The modern, stream-lined convenience of the fast-food restaurant provided a new alternative and appealed to Americans' instinct for ideas and products associated with progress, technology, and innovation. Fast-food restaurants rapidly became the eatery "everyone could agree on", with many featuring child-size menu combos, play areas, and whimsical branding campaigns, like the iconic Ronald McDonald, designed to appeal to younger customers. Parents could have a few minutes of peace while children played or amused themselves with the toys included in their Happy Meal. There is a long history of fast-food advertising campaigns, many of which are directed at children.
Fast-food advertising, Fast-food marketing largely focuses on children and teenagers. Popular methods of advertising include television, product placement in toys, games, educational materials, songs, and movies, character licensing and celebrity endorsements, and websites.
Advertisements targeting children mainly focus on free toys, movie tie-ins and other giveaways.
Fast-food restaurants use kid's meals with toys, kid friendly mascots, vibrant colors, and play areas to draw children toward their products. . Children's power over their parents' purchases is estimated to total $300 to $500 billion every year.
Fast food has become a part of American culture as a reward for children. To deny a child "desirable things" such as the advertised fast-food restaurant can cause stigmatization of parents as the "mean parent" when it is common among other parents to comply with their child's desires.
The major focus on children by the fast-food industry has created controversy due to the rising issue of child obesity in America.
As a result of this focus, in 2008 a coalition was created and run by the Council of Better Business Bureaus called Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative(CFBAI), to stop ads aimed at children or to promote only what the council dubs "better-for- you" products in ads directed towards children.
However, it was not until 2011 that Congress requested guidelines be put in place by the CFBAI, FDA, Agriculture Department, and Centers for Disease Control. There are two basic requirements identified in the guidelines for foods that are advertised for children: (1) The food has to include healthful ingredients; (2) The food can't contain unhealthful amounts of sugar, Saturated fat, Trans fat, and salt. The guidelines are voluntary but companies experience heavy pressure to comply. Once a company complies they have 5–10 years to comply with the guidelines.
Many fast-food industries have started to comply with the guidelines. Although many companies have ways to go. In 2012 the fast-food industry spent $4.6 billion to advertise unhealthy products to children and teens according to a report by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity.
There are points of progress that include healthier sides and beverages in most fast-food restaurant kids' meals.
The guidelines are interested in a healthier lifestyle for children and the growing problem of American obesity.
While it may not be so obvious today, fast food is on its way to healthier foods and menus.
Some businesses have taken off and had success in this market with healthy foods and due to many health concerns and fast-food stereotypes, it is emerging as an expected thing.
According to Jason Daley, healthful fast-food takeoff is explained by the fact that it has "ceased to be a thing-now, it's simply expected."
In other parts of the world, American and American-style fast-food outlets have been popular for their quality, customer service, and novelty, even though they are often the targets of popular anger towards American foreign policy or globalization more generally. Many consumers nonetheless see them as symbols of the wealth, progress, and well-ordered openness of Western society and they therefore become trendy attractions in many cities around the world, particularly among younger people with more varied tastes.
Impact of fast-food restaurant availability
Over time, fast-food restaurants have been growing rapidly, especially in urban neighborhoods. According to US research, low-income and predominantly African-American neighborhoods have greater exposure to fast-food outlets than higher income and predominantly white areas. This has put into question whether urbanized neighborhoods were targeted, which causes a more unhealthy group of people compared to people from a higher socioeconomic status. It has also been shown that there is a lower chance of finding a fast-food restaurant in a suburban neighborhood. In a study of selected US locations, Morland et al. (2002) found the number of fast-food restaurants and bars was inversely proportional to the wealth of the neighborhood, and that predominantly African-American residential areas were four times less likely to have a supermarket near them than predominantly white areas.
Innovations timeline
* 1872: Walter Scott of Providence, RI outfitted a horse-drawn lunch wagon with a simple kitchen, bringing hot dinners to workers
[
]
* 1916: Walter Anderson built the first
White Castle in Wichita, KS in 1916, introducing the limited menu, high volume, low cost, high speed hamburger restaurant
* 1919: A&W Root Beer took its product out of the soda fountain and into a roadside stand
* 1921: A&W Root Beer began franchising its syrup
* 1930s: Howard Johnson's pioneered the concept of franchising restaurants, formally standardizing menus, signage, and advertising
* 1967:
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
opens its first restaurants outside the US.
Halal
The introduction of the
halal
''Halal'' (; ar, حلال, ) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word ''halal'' is contrasted with '' haram'' (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification k ...
option by some fast-food companies saw the expansion of fast-food chains into Muslim majority countries has resulted in a rise of restaurant options in non-western nations and has also increased revenue for some western restaurant chains. Some outlets offering Halal options include KFC, Nando's, Pizza Express, and Subway. McDonald's carried out a trial but decided that the cost of operations would be too high. There have also been court cases involving start-up businesses during attempts to alter the halal-certified method by machine killing, which is against the beliefs of some Muslims. However, the trend towards halal has been unpopular in some communities which have at times resulted in internet petitions.
Criticisms
The fast-food industry is a popular target for critics, from anti-globalization activists like José Bové to vegetarian activist groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA as well as the workers themselves. A number of fast-food worker strikes occurred in the United States in the 2010s.
In his best-selling 2001 book ''Fast Food Nation'', investigative journalist Eric Schlosser leveled a broad, socioeconomics, socioeconomic critique against the fast-food industry, documenting how fast food rose from small, family-run businesses (like the McDonald brothers' burger joint) into large, multinational corporate juggernauts whose economy of scale, economies of scale radically transformed agriculture, meat processing, and labor markets in the late twentieth century. Schlosser argues that while the innovations of the fast-food industry gave Americans more and cheaper dining options, it has come at the price of destroying the environment, economy, and small-town communities of rural America while shielding consumers from the real costs of their convenient meal, both in terms of health and the broader impact of large-scale food production and processing on workers, animals, and land.
The fast-food industry is popular in the United States, the source of most of its innovation, and many major international chains are based there. Seen as symbols of US dominance and perceived cultural imperialism, American fast-food franchises have often been the target of Anti-globalization protests and demonstrations against the US government. In 2005, for example, rioters in Karachi,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
, who were initially angered because of the bombing of a Shia Islam, Shiite mosque, destroyed a KFC restaurant.
Legal issues
In August 2002, a group of overweight children in New York City filed a class-action lawsuit against McDonald's Corporation seeking compensation for obesity-related health problems, improved nutritional labeling of McDonald's products, and funding for a program to educate consumers about the dangers of fast food. This provoked an intense, mostly negative response in the media with columnists calling this case a "cartoon of a lawsuit".
This kind of litigation raises the important question of who, if anyone, ought to be held accountable for the economic and public health consequences of obesity.
In 2003, McDonald's was sued in a New York court by a family who claimed that the restaurant chain was responsible for their teenage Childhood obesity, daughter's obesity and attendant health problems. By manipulating food's taste, sugar and fat content, and directing their advertising to children, the suit argued that the company purposely misleads the public about the nutritional value of its product. A judge dismissed the case, but the fast-food industry disliked the publicity of its practices, particularly the way it targets children in its advertising. Although further lawsuits have not materialized, the issue is kept alive in the media and political circles by those promoting the need for tort reform.
In response to this, the "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act, Cheeseburger Bill" was passed by the US House of Representatives in 2004; it later stalled in the US Senate. The law was reintroduced in 2005, only to meet the same fate. This law was claimed to "[ban] frivolous lawsuits against producers and sellers of food and non-alcoholic drinks arising from obesity claims."
The bill arose because of an increase in lawsuits against fast-food chains by people who claimed that eating their products ''made'' them obese, disassociating themselves from any of the blame.
See also
* Fast food advertising
* Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, HACCP
* List of fast food restaurant chains
* List of hamburger restaurants
* List of the largest fast food restaurant chains
* Roadhouse (facility)
* Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures
References
Further reading
* Hogan, David. ''Selling 'em by the Sack: White Castle and the Creation of American Food''. New York: New York University Press, 1997.
* Kroc, Ray and Anderson, Robert ''Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's''. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1977.
* Levinstein, Harvey. Paradox of Plenty: a Social History of Eating in Modern America. Berkeley: University of California P, 2003. 228–229.
* Luxenberg, Stan. ''Roadside Empires: How the Chains Franchised America''. New York: Viking, 1985.
* Mcginley, Lou Ellen with Stephanie Spurr. "Honk for Service: A Man, A Tray and the Glory Days of the Drive-In Restaurant". Tray Days Publishing, 2004
* Schlosser, Eric. "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal" HarperCollins Publishers, 2005
* Schultz, Howard and Yang, Dori Jones. "Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time". Hyperion, 1999.
{{Authority control
Fast-food restaurants,
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