Fast Food and Restaurant Industry

History

According to Anderson (2004, p. 104) the fast food and restaurant Industry are those industries that provided meals and refreshments in sit-down dining facilities and through take-out establishments. Restaurant originated from France where they were ultimately known as public dining room, and since then the French people have continued to make major contributions to the restaurant's development. The first restaurant owner is believed to have been one A. Boulanger, a soup dealer, who opened his firm in Paris in 1765. On the other hand a man named Carl Karcher is believed to be the great founder of the fast food industry. He was a farm boy who grew up in Ohio, aged 24. In 1939, Carl went into business. He purchased a hot dog cart and began selling hot dogs on the street to customers as they drove up in their cars since people didn't want to get out of their cars to eat. Due to this Carl's business did well. Within five months he was able to buy a second cart and continued the dream and in a few months, he opened a drive-in restaurant called "Carl's Drive-In Barbeque". This new way of eating in ones car was cool and fashionable hence it became the biggest thing ever.

It was during this time that two brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald left their home in New Hampshire in search for jobs in southern California. They caught on to the new trend of eating at drive-in restaurants and opened one in 1939, in Pasadena, California, naming it "McDonald's Famous Hamburgers" (2003, p. 20). The McDonald brothers later grew tired of hiring new waitresses and short-order cooks all the time, so at the end of the 1940's, they fired everyone. They then adopted a system where food was made with a "Speedee Service System" which finally revolutionized the restaurant business. Due to this system that they created, entrepreneurs from all over the country went to the new McDonald's in California to see how the restaurant functioned. Everyone went back and built their own impression restaurants, for example, Burger King, Taco Bell, Dunkin' Donuts, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and much more. The number of new restaurants was numerous (2004, pp. 13-34).