Pavel Prikhodko, Ph.D. Machine Learning
The first fast food restaurant, hamburger joint White Castle, was opened in Kansas in 1916. Before the opening, many people thought of hamburgers as a low-quality slaughterhouse food, but the founders of White Castle chain sought to change the public’s opinion. In their restaurants, visitors could see how the food was actually prepared. After World War II the McDonald brothers opened their restaurant, and now McDonald’s is the world’s largest food chain.
In 2013 the U.S. fast food industry generated approximately $191 billion in revenues, and the number is forecasted to exceed $210 billion by 2018. The fast food industry is composed of restaurants where the customers pay before eating. McDonald’s Corporation was the undisputed leading brand in the country with over 21 percent of the market share in 2013, according to Statista.com. Yum! Brands Inc. held 8.1 percent of the market share in 2013, while Doctor’s Associates Inc. held about 6.7 percent. Famous fast food restaurants Wendy’s and Burger King covered approximately 5.5 percent and 4.1 percent of the U.S. fast food industry respectively. The total market share of other companies amounted to nearly 54 percent.
If we talk about products and service segmentation in general, on-premises limited-service restaurants made up more than 42 percent of the American fast food industry. The market share of drive-through limited-service restaurants amounted to almost 35 percent in 2013. The off-premises limited-service (take out) restaurants segment made up about 18 percent of the total industry market share, while the market share of cafeterias and buffets approximated to 4.5 percent in 2013.
Last year about 3,712,415 employees served the needs of the fast food industry. Just to compare, in 2014 there were about 3,686,048 fast food restaurants employees in the country. According to the forecast, the fast food industry will employ 3,729,653 people by the end of 2016. This rate in the United States is expected to continue to grow in 2017 and 2018 to 3,748,365 and 3,777,535 employees respectively.
In 2014, American fast food companies paid $47.63 billion in wages to their employees, compared to $48.29 billion in 2015. By the end of 2016, the total cost of wages in the fast food industry is expected to rise to $49.09 billion.
About Pavel Prikhodko
Pavel Prikhodko, Ph.D. Machine Learning
Pavel has worked for many years as a researcher and developer on a wide range of applications (varying from mechanics and manufacturing to social data, finance and advertising), building predictive systems and trying to find stories that data can tell.
In his free time, he enjoys being with his family.
Other posts by Pavel Prikhodko:
One reason why “the fast food industry is an enduring…”is because of the cheap labor it uses and expoits. To ignore this fact is to write a non-article. These corporations enjoy staggering profits while their employees live in dire poverty and must use government programs like food stamps-which we all pay for. While a job is better than no job, what of the people who have only known shit jobs like these all their lives? Can one blame them for taking early retirement, go on disability for some bogus reason? These fast food giants could and SHOULD pay their hard working employees better. But they won’t because they don’t have to.
Bob Meler – I’m not sure whetgher you understand this or not so I’ll fill you in: In the United States one is free to take a job or not. He is not forced to take a job. He voluntarily takes, or refuses to take, the pay and benefits offered. When her skills are at the level of burger flipper, she is not in high demand and can not demand a high salary for her work. If it were to learn a skill that was in higher demand than the burger flipper job (robots will be taking these jobs soon, by the way) it can demand higher wages. It is up to the individual to accept low pay or not.