Fast-food restaurant
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, though seating may be provided.
[8] 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 in New York.
Most historians agree that the American company White Castle was the first fast-food outlet, starting in Wichita, Kansas in 1916 with food stands and founding in 1921, selling hamburgers for five cents apiece from its inception and spawning numerous competitors and emulators.
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.
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.
[10] 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.
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.
[13] 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.
Modern commercial fast food is highly processed and prepared on a large scale from bulk ingredients using standardized cooking and production methods and equipment.
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.
[citation needed] 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).
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.
International brands dominant in North America include McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's, the number three burger chain in the USA; Dunkin' Donuts, a New England–based chain; automobile oriented Sonic Drive-In's from Oklahoma City; Starbucks, Seattle-born coffee-based fast-food beverage corporation; KFC and Taco Bell, which are both part of the largest restaurant conglomerate in the world, Yum!
Other Canadian fast-food chains such as Manchu Wok serve North American style Asian foods; this company is located mainly in Canada and the US, with other outlets on US military bases on other continents.
Australia's fast-food market began in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the opening of several American franchises including KFC (1967),Pizza Hut (1970), and McDonald's (1971),[24][25] followed by Burger King.
[31] The major fast-food chains in India that serve American fast food are KFC, McDonald's, Starbucks, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut, and Dominos.
Dai pai dong and traditional Hong Kong street food may be considered close relatives of the conventional fast-food outlet.
[34] Chicken Licken, Wimpy and Ocean Basket along with Nando's, Steers and Hungry Lion are examples of homegrown franchises that are highly popular within the country.
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.
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.
[citation needed] 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.
[citation needed] 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.
Popular methods of advertising include television, product placement in toys, games, educational materials, songs, and movies, character licensing and celebrity endorsements, and websites.
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.
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.
In his best-selling 2001 book Fast Food Nation, investigative journalist Eric Schlosser leveled a broad, 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 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.
[57] 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 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.
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.
