Fast Food Industry

The first name that's likely to come to your mind when you hear the term fast food is likely to be McDonald's. With around 31,000 outlets spread across 126 countries, McDonald's is undoubtedly one of the bigwigs of world fast food industry. However, McDonald's and other such franchisees featuring in the top 10 fast food restaurants list just constitute a small portion of this billion dollar industry - which is much bigger than you and I can imagine.

Fast Food Industry: An Overview

As its name suggests, fast food is any food that can be prepared and served within a short span of time. That being said, the concept encompasses all those restaurants and stores which sell or serve preheated or precooked food items to its customers. In times wherein people don't have time to do proper breakfast - which is considered to be the most important meal of the day, fast food outlets surely come as a blessing in disguise. Other than this, its popularity can also be attributed to the fact that capital investment necessary to build a fast food outlet (a non-franchisee outlet) is relatively low.

Growth in America

The history of fast food concept can be traced back to Ancient Rome - wherein bread and wine were sold in street-side stalls. In the United States though, its history is closely associated with the introduction of drive-in restaurants sometime in early 20th century. Since then, the US fast food industry has come a long way to become the largest in the world. One of the major names when it comes to the American fast food sector - the White Castle which was founded in Kansas, in 1921, is one of the pioneers of this field. In 1930s, the American industry achieved yet another milestone - when Howard Johnson's introduced the concept of franchising restaurants in the United States.

Analysis

The global fast food industry has witnessed a tremendous growth over the last few decades. In 1970, the Americans spent a total of $6 billion on fast food - the same amount increased to $110 billion by 2000. If the estimated figures for the last 10 years are added, the future of this industry becomes even more promising. According to the statistics, this industry experienced an overall growth of 4.8 percent in 2006 alone. During the same year, the India fast food segment recorded an amazing growth of 41 percent with some of the major International players in the field entering the Indian market. Other than the McDonald's, the major international players in the industry as of today are Burger King, Yum! Brand, Wendy's, KFC, Subway etc. Each of these fast food chains have numerous stores located in different parts of the world. Interestingly, a large number of these outlets trace their roots to the United States. The US fast food industry employs 2 million workers in the United States, and thus is considered to be an important pillar of the US economy.

Over the last couple of years though, the global fast food industry has had to bear the brunt of rising prices of food and energy. The fact that this industry has always provided services at reasonable prices is one of the driving factors when it comes to its popularity. Of late, however, the price rise has forced these fast food outlets to hike the price of their products. At the same time, this industry has also come under the scanner for some harmful effects of fast food. Add to it the fact that the number of dining restaurants has also been growing over the last decade or so, and you realize that the woes of this industry have just increased.