Fast Food!
Food is an amazing multi-sensory experience.
Taste is the obvious payoff, but we also talk about it with our friends and
watch food shows on TV. Even listening to food (imagine the sound of bacon
frying) can make your mouth water!
Fast food plays on these effects. They make
their burger sound perfect on that radio ad, and before you know it, you're in
the car and on the way for your favorite burger/taco/pizza etc. Fast food in
the United States really began as a concept when the popularity of automobiles
took off in the 1920s. With the highway infrastructure expanding, more
Americans took to the roads, and restaurant chains realized they basically had
captive (and hungry) audiences motoring along these long ribbons of concrete.
Have you wondered about the names of some of
your favorite fast food restaurants? Some are rather perfunctory, (Taco Bell,
McDonald's) while others are head scratchers.
Wendy's [wen-dee]
The Columbus, Ohio-based burger chain started in
1969, and founder Dave Thomas named it after his daughter.
Domino's [dom-uh-noh]
In 1960, brothers Tom and James Monaghan decided
to spend $900 to buy a small Ypsilanti, Mich. pizzeria called DomiNick's.
Soon after, James decided to trade Tom his half of the business for...a used
VW. Even though hindsight is 20/20, this would have to be considered a bad
deal. In 1965, Tom changed the name to Domino's Pizza. Tom later
sold most of the business for about $1 billion, so that was a tidy profit, and
a business case study for university students. In 2012, the name was shortened to simply Domino's.
Arby's
The fast food chain's name comes from the enunciation
of the name of its founders, the Raffel Brothers, or "RB."
"Roast Beef" would be a good guess (and/or a lucky coincidence).
Sonic [son-ik]
The drive-in chain started out as a humble root
beer stand that had an attached log house. A fellow named Troy Smith bought it
in 1953, and changed the log house to a steak restaurant called the Top
Hat. Upon deciding to franchise a few years later, they learned that name
was trademarked, so they came up with Sonic in 1959.
Taco Bell
Glen Bell founded the chain, so he just slapped
his name on it. It's an added bonus that his name also happens to be a noun
that could be used for easy imagery. And it sounds better than, say, "Taco
Edwards" or "Taco Smith.
Big Boy Restaurants
Legend has it that the inspiration for Big
Boy's name, as well as the model for its mascot, was one Richard
Woodruff of Glendale, California. When he was six years old, Woodruff walked
into the Bob's Pantry diner as (founder) Bob Wian was attempting to name his
new hamburger. Wian said, "Hello, big boy" to Woodruff, and the name
stuck.
Blimpie
The subway sandwich chain was founded in 1964 by
three New Jersey high school pals. One of the guys came across the word blimp in
the dictionary and thought that sounded like a sandwich, after they passed on
the words sub and hoagie.
McDonald's [muhk-don-ld]
The true icon of the American fast food
landscape was founded back in 1940 by the McDonald brothers
Dick and Mac, so it didn't take long to come up with the name. Ray Kroc bought
the company in 1955, which is the subject of a new movie starring Michael
Keaton called "The Founder."
Burger King
A Jacksonville, Florida chain got into the
burger biz in 1953, calling itself Insta-Burger King. New owners
subsequently shortened the name.
Carl's Jr.
Founder Carl Karcher opened his
namesake restaurant in 1941 as a hot dog cart in Los Angeles. Business must
have been good, as they moved to nearby Anaheim and debuted Carl's Drive-In
Barbeque four years later.
Popeyes
The founder of the Popeyes chicken
chain is Alvin Copeland. According to their website, he opened the chain in
1972 and renamed it Popeyes after the character Popeye Doyle of The French
Connection movie, not the cartoon character, though the chain would license use
of the cartoon eventually. Wikipedia says "Copeland would claim
facetiously that he was 'too poor" to afford an apostrophe.'"
Starbucks
Their website says the name came from Moby Dick,
and "evoked the romance of the high seas and the seafaring tradition of
the early coffee traders."
Subway [suhb-wey]
In 1965, a young man named Fred DeLuca wanted to
become a doctor, and a family friend thought opening a sandwich shop would be a
good way to pay for his education. He borrowed some money from the friend named
Peter Buck (who happened to be a doctor), and Pete's Super Submarines shop was
born. The name was changed to Subway in 1968. Extra trivia:
Their holding company is called Doctors Associates, named after Deluca's desire
to be a doctor, and the fact Peter Buck had a doctorate in physics.
TCBY
The yogurt chain TCBY name
originally meant "This Can't Be Yogurt." A lawsuit from a
similarly-named competitor forced a change to "The Country's Best
Yogurt."
