Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald - he was fired for being too fat.
You can thank the rise of fast food in America to Richard and Maurice McDonald, the two brothers who created the first McDonald's restaurant in 1948 in San Bernardino, California. They wanted their restaurant to be more efficient and cost-effective, so they designed a simple menu in a small building without any tables. They encouraged people to carry-out the food. By 1953, the brothers had begun to franchise their idea, and two franchises opened in Downey, California and Phoenix, Arizona. The rest is fast food history.
McDonald's is the largest purchaser of beef, pork, and potatoes and the second largest purchaser of chicken in the world. Its annual orders for French fries constitute 7.5% of America’s entire potato crop
There are more than 300,000 fast food restaurants in the U.S. alone
McDonald's is Brazil’s largest employer
French fries are the single most popular fast food in America. In 1970, French fries surpassed regular potato sales in the United States. In 2004, Americans ate 7.5 billion pounds of frozen French fries
The popularization of the drive-thru led car manufacturers in the 1990s to install cup holders in the dashboards. As fast food drinks became larger, so did the cup holders.
Advertising Age selected the McDonald’s slogan “You Deserve a Break Today” as the best advertising campaign of the twentieth century. Other notable slogans were Burger King’s “Burger King, Home of the Whopper” and Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?”
Coca-Cola was invented in Atlanta, Georgia by Dr. John S. Pemberton in 1886.
Pepsi-Cola was invented by Caleb Bradham in 1890 as “Brad’s Drink” as a digestive aid and energy booster. In was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898.
More than 50,000,000 people in U.S. depend on fast food. Americans alone spend over 110 billion dollars for different types of fast food.
Fast food chains run advertisements on Channel
One, the commercial television network whose programming is shown in
classrooms in almost every school, to eight million US middle,
junior and high school students. These chains promote their products
by selling school lunches, accepting a lower profit margin in order
to create brand loyalty.
At least twenty school districts in the US have their own Subway
franchises; an additional fifteen hundred districts have Subway
contracts; and nine operate Subway sandwich carts.
Taco Bell sells products in about 4,500 school cafeterias.
Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza and McDonald's are now selling food in US
schools. The American School Food Service estimates that about 30%
of the public high schools in the US offer branded fast food.
The White Castle hamburger chain actually started fast food in America. J. Walter Anderson opened the first White Castle in 1916 in Wichita, Kansas, and people liked the cheap hamburgers, fries, and colas he offered. Fast food didn't become common in America until after World War II, when Americans first began to fall in love with their cars, and had leisure time and more money to spend on eating out. However, it was McDonalds that really set the industry ablaze.
China uses 45 billion chopsticks per year. 25 million trees are chopped down to make all those sticks.
Chocolate is the number one foodstuff flavor in the world, beating vanilla and banana by 3-to-1.