TOP 5 FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS

Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers, now found around the world, is a fast food chain founded by Dave Thomas on 15 November 1969 in Columbus, Ohio. The company headquarters were moved to Dublin, Ohio on 29 January 2006. By March 2010 Wendy’s was the world’s third largest hamburger fast food chain, with approximately 6,650 locations after McDonald’s 31,000+ sites and Burger King’s 12,000+.

Approximately 77 % of Wendy’s restaurants are franchise operations and most are situated in North America. For the most part, the Wendy’s menu features hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, French fries, and beverages. The company does not have a “signature” burger, like McDonald’s (the Big Mac) or Burger King (the Whopper). Instead, the square hamburger patties Wendy’s uses in its sandwiches are themselves the signature item. The company also advertises that its burgers are made using fresh ground beef, not frozen patties.

Subway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells sandwiches in oblong buns – known in the USA as submarines, or “subs” –, salads, and personal (individual-size) pizzas. It is owned and operated by Doctor’s Associates, Inc (DAI). Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world, with some 33,556 restaurants in 92 countries or territories on October 1, 2010. Worldwide, it is the largest single-brand restaurant chain and the second largest restaurant operator after Yum! Brands (with 35,000 locations).

Subway’s main operations office is in Milford, Connecticut, and five regional centers support Subway’s growing international operations.

In 1965, when Fred De Luca was only 17 years old, he borrowed US$1,000 from family friends Haydee Piñero and Peter Buck and started up his first sandwich shop. De Luca was trying to raise money for college. The location he picked for his first shop was mediocre, on the corner of East Main Street and Boston Avenue in Bridgeport, Connecticut; but on opening day, customers were pouring in by noon. In the commercial that aired over the radio the name of the shop, Pete’s Submarines, sounded like “Pizza Marines,” so De Luca changed the name to “Pete’s Subs.” Eventually the “Subway” name was adopted and the premises were decorated – as all Subway outlets have been ever since – with maps of the New York City subway system.

In addition to conventional restaurant locations, Subway operates on many un­conventional sites. For instance, there are over 900 Subways inside Wal-Mart stores and 200 on military bases, including several in Afghanistan and Iraq, besides three located inside the Pentagon, as well as an increasing number on college and university campuses.

McDonald’s Corp is the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving over 58 million customers daily.

The business began in 1940, with a restaurant opened by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California. Their introduction of the “Speedee Service System” in 1948 established the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant. The original McDonald’s mascot was “Speedee,” a man with a chef’s hat perched on top of his hamburger-shaped head. Speedee was eventually replaced by Ronald McDonald in 1967, when the company first filed a US trademark on a man in a clown costume with puffy pants legs.

McDonald’s first filed for a US trademark on the name McDonald’s on 4 May 1961 with the description “Drive-In Restaurant Services,” which is still renewed regularly. On 13 September in the same year, the company filed a logo trademark on an overlapping, double-arched “M” symbol. When that logo was temporarily out of favor, a trademark was filed on 6 September 1962 for a single arch, which soared over many of the early McDonald’s restaurants in the early years. The modern double-arched “M” logo still in use at McDonald’s restaurants today did not appear until November 18, 1968, when the company filed a US trademark on the now-famous symbol.

The first McDonald’s restaurants appeared, in order of opening, in the USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, France, El Salvador, and Sweden.

A McDonald’s restaurant is operated by a franchisee, an affiliate, or the corporation itself. The corporation’s revenues come from the rent, royalties, and fees paid by the franchisees, as well as from sales in company-operated restaurants.

For the most part McDonald’s sells hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken products, French fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, shakes, and desserts. In response to rising obesity in Western nations and in the face of criticism over the wholesomeness of its products, the company has amended its menu to incorporate alternatives that are considered healthier, such as salads, wraps, and fruit.

Burger King is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants with its headquarters in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Burger King Holdings is the parent company of Burger King; in the USA it operates under the Burger King Brands title while operating internationally under Burger King Corp. The company began as a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain in 1953 originally called Insta-Burger King. After the company encountered financial difficulties in 1955, its two Miami-based franchisees, David Edgerton and James McLamore, purchased the chain and renamed it Burger King. Over the next half-century, the company would trade hands four times, with its third set of owners, a partnership of TPG Capital, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, taking the company public in 2002. The current ownership group, 3G Capital of Brazil, acquired a majority stake in the company in a deal valued at US$3.26 billion in late 2010.

At the end of the 2010 fiscal year, Burger King reported it had over 12,200 outlets in 73 countries; 66 % were in the USA, and 90 % were privately owned and operated. The company numbered over 38,800 employees, serving approximately 11.4 million customers daily. 

The Burger King menu has evolved from a straightforward choice of hamburgers, fries, sodas, and milkshakes in 1954 to a broader, more diverse selection that has added several variations on chicken, fish, and salads, as well as breakfast. The first meaningful addition to the menu was the Whopper, a burger developed by McLamore in 1957; it has since become Burger King’s signature product.