Fast food
Fast food refers to inexpensive, high-calorie meals typically served by chain restaurants, known for their quick service at main counters or drive-thru windows. This industry has grown significantly, generating over $978.4 billion globally in 2023, with nearly a third of those revenues coming from the United States. The fast food model emerged prominently in the U.S. during the rise of automobile culture, which necessitated convenient eating options for travelers, leading to a focus on limited menus and rapid meal preparation. Notable pioneers include White Castle, recognized for introducing assembly line methods to food production, and McDonald's, which transformed into a global powerhouse starting from a small burger stand in 1948. The increase in fast food consumption has been linked to rising obesity rates and related health issues, prompting ongoing discussions about its nutritional value. Furthermore, societal changes, such as more women entering the workforce and the rise of single-parent households, have shifted meal preparation habits, making fast food a preferred option for many. Today, fast food outlets are ubiquitous, found in a variety of locations including schools and shopping centers, and account for a significant portion of consumer spending in the U.S.
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Fast food
Fast food is inexpensive food, mostly high in calories and low in nutritional value, usually served by chain restaurants. Customers order at a main counter or at a drive-thru window, receive their food quickly, and can eat their meal on the premises or take it to go. According to industry statistics, fast food outlets worldwide generated total revenues of more than $978.4 billion in 2023, with sales in the United States alone accounting for almost a third of that amount. Some researchers have noted a correlation between increased consumption of fast food and significant increases in obesity and obesity-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
Overview
Fast food in some form has existed since the days of coaching inns and taverns, but it was the transformation of the United States into an automobile nation that gave the industry the push it needed to become a major market sector. As eating establishments opened to serve Americans on the road, competition encouraged owners to keep prices low. The most efficient way to do this was to limit the menu to foods that could be served easily and cheaply. This simplicity also meant less time devoted to employee training and an increase in speed of delivering meals to the consumer. Faster service meant more rapid turnover of customers, which in turn meant eating areas could be smaller. All of these changes were good for the profit margin, and fast food restaurants proliferated.
White Castle, a chain founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921, which has the distinction of introducing assembly line production to the food industry and changing public perception of the hamburger, is generally recognized as the first fast food chain. But the market leader is McDonald’s, which began in 1948 in San Bernardino, California, as a burger stand owned by Dick and Mac McDonald. It was Ray Kroc, a milkshake-mixer salesman, who envisioned opening McDonald’s restaurants all over the country. He founded the McDonald’s Corporation in 1955. Three years later McDonald’s sold its 100 millionth hamburger, and by the end of the 1960s, there were more than one thousand McDonald’s franchises in the United States. By the twenty-first century, McDonald’s had expanded into more than one hundred countries on six continents. Other leading fast food chains in the United States were founded between 1950 and 1969: Subway, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, Dunkin’ Donuts, Pizza Hut, Sonic, and Arby’s. Starbucks was founded in 1971.
Fast food industry revenue reached more than $387.5 billion in the United States in 2023. The extraordinary growth of the industry since the 1950s has been fueled by changes in the American family. In 1960, 70 percent of US households included a stay-at-home mother. By comparison, in 2023, 74 percent of women with children under eighteen were in the workforce, and the number of households headed by a single woman with minor children had tripled since 1960. Meals that used to be prepared at home are now purchased at restaurants, largely at fast food establishments. Fast food is now available at schools, stadiums, airports, shopping malls, movie theaters, and retail stores. Fast food takes a bigger chunk out of Americans’ wallets than computers, cars, movies, music, and reading materials—combined.
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