A lot has changed for all quick service restaurants over the years. This has a lot to do with technology evolving, as well as many people now wanting to know exactly what is in the food that they are eating.
A brief history of QSR
Quick service restaurants are believed to have all started in 1867 when a man named Charles Feltman opened up the first hot dog stand in New York. The word ‘diner’ is known to have first been used in the early 1870’s when a man named Walter Scott fitted a simple kitchen in to the back of a horse drawn wagon so that he could bring hot food to workers. After world war one finished and cars became both popular penis and affordable drive-in restaurants were introduced. Although the term ‘Fast Food’ didn’t come in to play until 1951 the first ever ‘high volume, low cost, high speed’ burger restaurant was built in 1916 and was called White Castle. Mcginley, L. (2004) Honk for service. Tray Days Publishing: 2004
Technology within QSR
A lot of fast food restaurants are now investing in new ways for customers to order food instead of just simply going in to restaurant and ordering what you want. A prime example of this is Dominos who, in 1999 started home deliveries, as well as online ordering. Since then many more quick service restaurants have started both home deliveries and online orderings. In 2011 Dominos, having realised that 46% of people now own a smart phone, decided to create their own app so that people could order their pizzas on their smart phones. [Online] www.dominos.uk.com/pdf/information_pack.pdf (Accessed19th Oct 2012)
At the moment Dominos is the only quick service restaurant that has converted to the smart phone but others will most likely follow in due course. Although McDonalds does not yet offer either a takeaway menu or a mobile phone app but they do have a web-based marketing at ronald.com which could be for children as young as 2 years old.
Bibliography: * [Online] www.askville.amazon.com/fast-food-restaurants-start-putting-nutrition-foods/answerviewer.do?requestId=68133140 (Accessed October 19th 2012) * Lewis, M * Roberts, M. (2011) Calories busted by cafe culture [Online] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14786547 (Accessed 29th October) * [Online] www.dominos.uk.com/pdf/information_pack.pdf (Accessed19th Oct 2012) * Wilson, T. How fast food works [Online] http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/fast-food.htm (Accessed 10th November 2012) * https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/dominos-pizza/id426415753?mt=8 (Accessed 20th October 2012) * www.ronald.com (Accessed 28th October 2012)