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When was the last time you went to a fast food restaurant? What did you eat? What was the service like? How would you rate the experience on a scale of 1 to 1O? Why do you think fast food restaurants are so successful? What's the key to their success? BUSI NESS NEWS WHY IS THE FAST FOOD INDUSTRY SO SUCCESSFUL? he fast food industry generated over $190 billion in the US in 20130 By 2018, this figure is expected to exceed $210 billion. In 2 0 13, there were more than 230,000 fast food restaurants, employing over three and a half million people. So, who are the major players in the industry? With over 30,000 restaurants in over IOO countries, McDonald's is the leading fast food chain, generating revenue of over $28 billion in 20130 Other top-selling chains Answers on page 44 11 Pre-readin Why do you think fast Ood restaurants are so popular? Make notes. n Reading I Read or listen to the article once and compare your ideas from the Pre-reading activity. n Reading 11 Read the article again. Then, answer the questions. Write one ofthe words from below next to each statement 1. You can get your food in a question of minutes. 2. You can And the same food in fast food chains around the world. 3. They're often located in busy shopping areas. 4. They offer economicallypriced food in a clean environment. 5. They often have easilyrecognisable logos. 6. They have standardised traini ng programmes. a turnover of around $23 billion and more than 18,500 outlets in over I05 countries, and Subway with sales of about $19 billion and more than 42,000 locations in over 100 countries. So, why are they so successful? For a start, fast food chains offer consistency. In Pizza Hut you can find a buffet lunch option every weekday that includes the same pizzas, pastas and salads in every restaurant around the world. And it doesn't matter whether you're visiting a McDonald's in America, Australia or Japan - you'll still be able to buy the same burgers and fries. Fast food restaurants also offer value for money. You can get economically-priced, tasty food served quickly and efficiently in a clean environment. Chains often create menu deals where they offer various items together for a fixed, cheap price. For example, Burger King's "King of the Day" meal deal includes a burger, fries and a drink for around £4. The sales process is fast and efficient, too. You choose from the menu, servers place your food on a tray and you pay for the food, ail in a question of minutes. This fits in well with today's faster pace of life. Many fast services, so you can order the food from your car. In order to maximise profits, many fast food restaurants have smooth business processes. So, the cooking and cleaning processes are systemised, and there are standarclised training processes for new employees, which is important given the high staff turnover. And as fast food restaurants are low-margin, high-volume businesses, they need to be very careful about their costs, so food waste is kept down to a minimum. Fast food restaurants are also highly visible and easy to find. With their large signs, instantly-recognisable logos and enormous billboard ads, it's hard to miss them. They're also often located in busy areas such as shopping mails, high streets and city centres. So, what does the future hold for fast food restaurants? The industry has come under a lot of pressure recently to reduce the high levels of sugar, salt and fat in their food. And they've also been criticised for targeting children, especially through movie tie-ins. But whatever happens, the formula of low-cost food served in a clean environment seems to work very well! 0 e TRACK 14: ENGLISHMEN • Learn over 500 useful business words and expressions! • Over 30 articles on up.to-date business topics I • Over 100 useful business idioms & phrasal verbs! • Business videos and audio files to improve your listening! For more information, visit:.. www.learnhotenglish.com/shop VIDEO You. Watch a video on fast food options from around the world. Search Yo uTube for "What Fast Food Is like Around The World" If something exceeds Cl particular number, it's greater or larger tha n that number a major player an important company in a particular industry leading the "leading" company (for example) is the biggest or most important one revenue the money Cl company receives from sales. etc. turnover the money a company receives from sales, etc. an outlet t a shop that sells goods location fl a particular place a buffet lunch a long table in a restaurant with lots of food on it. You can eat as much as yo u like for a set price fries n long, thin pieces offried potato. "Chips" in British English tasty (11 food that's "tasty" is nice, tastes delicious and has a good flavour a tray a rectangular piece of plastic or metal for putting plates on so you can carry them a drive·t hru service a restaurant where you can ord~r the food from your car to ax is~ ~ if you "maximise" profits, you mak~ th~ most profit possi l~ to systemise if a process is "systemised", everything is automatic and happens according to a car~fuUy pr~par~d syst~ m statrturnover this expression refers to the number of employees who leave a company over a p~riod of time. It's often expressed as a percentage of the total number of employees low-margin 1 a "Iow-margin" business makes very little profit from each product sold high-volume d, a "high-volume" business seUs a large number of products a billboard ad a very large advert in the street on a Aat, thin rectangular piece of wood or plastic a movie tie-in a product (a fast food restaurant meal in this case) that has images from a film on the packaging. It's a way of promoting a film, and also increasing sales by appeali ng to people who like the film / www.learnhotenglish.com / Improve your spoken English with our fantastic Skype/Telephone classes. E-mail [email protected] 19

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