It is a fact that most Americans and other people around the world especially in the developed countries are now turning to fast food restaurants for food instead of the traditional hotels. This can be seen in the number of fast food restaurants that are joining this industry and the amount of income spend by consumers in these restaurants. It is estimated that the amount of income spend on fast food restaurants by consumers increased by approximately 2.1% from 1982 to 19902. Currently, majority of people in the United States have resorted to fast food restaurants especially college students who are of the view that these restaurant saves a lot of time. The first food restaurant of this kind was in 1916 when White Caste was established. However, the number has grown with the introduction of fast food restaurants such as McDonalds and Pizza Huts. This is intriguing and leads to the question; what makes these kinds of restaurants so popular especially in the recent times? The popularity of these restaurants can be attributed to the following advantages it offers its users.
Affordability of the food: The food offered in these restaurants are pocket friendly thus pulling a large number of people especially the students towards these restaurants. A number of students interviewed have revealed that fast food restaurant offers tasty meal at cheap prices thus making them have extra money for other activities such as watching movies. Further still, the recent economic meltdown has pushed many people towards utilization of these restaurants due to their affordability hence increasing their popularity.
Time saving: Most people who prefer these kinds of restaurants are of the view that it saves times. That is, it does not take a long time to get food from these restaurants when one is in hurry. Considering the long process of preparing a meal which may involve going for long distances in such of recipes or waiting long hours in a restaurant for food to be made, most people opt for fast food restaurants which have less waiting to do. Further still, given the increasing numbers of hours individuals have to stay in their work place, the fast food restaurant provides the perfect solution to preparing meals at home thus increasing there popularity in most growing nations.
Accessibility: It is worthwhile noting that these restaurants are easily accessible by any one without too much complication such as security check as is the case for most hotels. Therefore, it provides opportunity to any person who wishes to enjoy meals from them to comfortable do so without many security checks. In addition, these restaurants opens till very late at night hence provides convenience to users who may want to utilize them at this time of the night. A good example is Macdonald fast food restaurant that works till late at night (Hitti, www.webmd.com).
Choice: Many people have argued that these restaurants provide individuals with a variety of choice to choose from especially when it comes to mixing different kinds of food together. Therefore, an individual can enjoy variety in the same plate. For example, one can mix salad with burger or sundae with apple pie among other different varieties of food. This has greatly contributed to the popularity of these restaurants.
Tasty food: A recent poll carried out on why people prefer fast food restaurant indicates that 53.2% of people feel that these restaurants prepare very tasty meals. Therefore, most people enjoy the tasty nature of these foods thus contributing to its popularity (Hitti, www.webmd.com).
Means of socializing: Some people have agued that these restaurants act as a means of getting to each other. Though the percentage supporting this claim is low, it has contributed to the growing popularity of these restaurants especially among the teenagers who are dating.
Peer group influence: The teenagers are easily influenced with the activities of their peer and the advertisement on the media. As a result of the growing popularity of fast food restaurants in the recent past especially among the teenagers, they have influenced each other thereby increasing its popularity further (Hitti, www.webmd.com).
Source of income: The fast food restaurants acts as a source of quick revenue to many businessmen considering the amount of income generated from this business on a daily basis. Setting up a fast food restaurant is easy since it requires minimal assets and the registration process is less tedious. In the 2000, an estimated 110 billion was spent by various consumers on fast food restaurants. Given the high amount of money that changes hand in these restaurants on a daily basis, many investors have opted to put their money on this business thus increasing its popularity (Hitti, www.webmd.com).
In conclusion, it can be asserted that the fast food restaurant have become the solution to cooking for many individuals in the modern American society and other developed countries’ society. However, it should be noted that this kinds of restaurants are only popular in the developed countries unlike the developed countries where most people still rely on their own cooking especially in Africa. It is due the reasons mentioned above that has made fast food restaurant very popular in the recent times.
Work Cited
Hitti, Miranda. Frequent Fast-Food Eaters Dish on Why They Dig In. WEBMD. 2009. Web.