The Fast Food Industry in 2019
No matter how much social media, society, and everyone everywhere seems to be pushing healthy eating down our throats (literally!), the fast food industry is still alive and well…. and making A TON of money off the unhealthy eating habits of the American people.
Would you be surprised if I told you that the fast food industry makes $200 billion in revenue just in the United States alone? Globally their revenue is around $570 billion, that’s huge! Not to mention the fact that the U.S. makes up over one third of that revenue.
Take a look at the infographic below to get a better picture of how much Americans are spending on fast food, and which chains are the top dogs when it comes to making the most in sales.
It’s no surprise to see that McDonald’s is at the top of the list in terms of total sales. It is surprising to see just how much more they made in revenue than Starbucks in the number two spot. Their $37 billion in annual sales nearly triples that of Starbucks’ $13 billion. Although they are one of the oldest fast food chains in the nation and have been around since 1940, that’s 80 years of perfecting your product! Even though McDonald’s was the first to use the assembly-line system in their restaurants, White Castle is considered to be the very first fast food chain in the country seeing as they opened in 1921. And now? Now White Castle doesn’t even make the top 30 list!
Another interesting thing to note on this infographic is that the number of franchises doesn’t seem to affect the chains that are at the top. For example McDonald’s has 14,000 franchises, a little less than half that of Subway’s whopping 26,000 franchises and yet they made almost four times as much in sales.
Below is a breakdown of the top 10 fast food chains for total U.S. sales.
- McDonald’s: $37 billion in system-wide U.S. sales
- Starbucks: $13 billion in system-wide U.S. sales
- Subway: $10.8 billion in system-wide U.S. sales
- Burger King: $10 billion in system-wide U.S. sales
- Taco Bell: $9.8 billion in system-wide U.S. sales
- Wendy’s: $9.3 billion in system-wide U.S. sales
- Dunkin’ Donuts: $9.2 billion in system-wide U.S. sales
- Chick-fil-A: $9 billion in system-wide U.S. sales
- Domino’s: $5.9 billion in system-wide U.S. sales
- Pizza Hut: $5.5 billion in system-wide U.S. sales
Which of the fast food chains where you surprised to see, or not see, on this list?