FAST FOOD
MAR 20, 2022
10 Hamburger Facts : The Story Of The Burger Industry
Some facts to better understand the fast-food industry.
1. Hamburger is the king of fast food
The invention of hamburger took place between 1885 to 1904, but it is clearly the product of the early 20th century as it is known today. Multiple invention claims arise for this food but during the following 100 years, one thing for sure, the hamburger spread throughout the world as a result of the merging concept of fast food restaurant and a new business model : the franchise system.
The name “hamburger” itself comes from the seaport town of Hamburg, Germany according to the Food Lovers Companion.
2. The Burger Wars
The Burger Wars are a series of advertising campaigns between hamburger fast food chains : McDonald’s, Burger King and others in the United States during the late 1970’s to mid 1980’s. The constant spending of advertising campaigns began to affect the major players in the late 80’s, Burger King and Wendy’s suffered the most from the war.
3. The Big Mac is the most sold burger in the world
The twistedfood.co.uk website writes that with over 550 million sold each year in the US alone, the Big Mac is the best selling burger on Earth. It is one of the most universal menu items and McDonald’s serves nearly 70 million people every day in over 120 countries.
4. Burger King tastes better than McDonald’s
In term of taste, Business Insider gave the win to Burger King’s Whopper over the McDonald’s Big Mac. They wrote that burgers from Burger King have “more balanced burger”. And not just Business Insider, Buzzfeed also tended to agree the statement.
5. United States eats the most fast food in the world.
Fifty percent of total fast food consumes in the US is burger. This makes the sandwich the most popular food in the form of fast food.
6. Give peace a chance
Burger King once sent an open letter to McDonald’s proposing a joint promotion for Peace Day called the “McWhopper” on August 26, 2015. It was a combination of the two restaurant’s signature burgers but it was rejected by McDonald’s.
Later in September 2015, Burger King announced the “Peace Day Burger”, a project that would feature burgers with ingredients from all five restaurants : Burger King, Denny’s, Wayback Burgers, Krystal and Giraffas.
7. The superstars of fast-food burgers
Here are the most popular burgers currently : Burger King Whopper Jr., McDonald’s Big Mac, Red Robin Whiskey River BBQ burger, White Castle sliders, Red Robin Bacon cheeseburger, Fuddruckers the original Fudds, Shake Shack ShackBurger, McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with cheese.
8. Teach me burger, Master !
If we talk about the largest fast-food, than the name McDonald’s will be the first in the list. With more than 39.000 locations in about 100 countries, the company is the world’s largest fast-food restaurant chain in the world and one of the best-known brand names.
The decades long success of McDonald’s that makes them stand out is based from these three characteristics : consistency, innovation and resiliency. In 2019, this burger warrior also ranked no 1 as the biggest revenue fast food chains with $40.41 billion sales.
9. Watch your step bro !
In a few recent years, Burger King is struggling and had fallen behind some of their biggest competitors. CNN took a look at this and part of the reason was that they were focusing on the wrong thing.
The wrong steps have had an undesired outcome of unproductive campaigns and general corrosion of the brand as reported by passionateinmarketing.com. The general lack of consistency in communication and coordination between franchised and corporate locations was also a big factor for the downward of Burger King.
10. And don’t forget to save to buy a… burger
The Economic Times writes in their website for the world’s most expensive burger. The meal is recently created by Chef Robbert Jan de Veen of De Daltons diner in Voorthuizen, Netherlands. The price for the burger is 5.000 Euro and it’s called The Golden Boy.
What makes this burger so pricey is the ingredients inside it such as Beluga caviar, king crab, Spanish Paleta Iberico, Kopi Luwak and Dom Perignon champagne dough with a gold leaf. The burger was then eaten by Robert Willemse, chairman of the Royal Dutch Food and Beverage Association. The money collected from the sale was donated to an NGO by Veen.
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