Word: fasts
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...fast-food business is changing, trying to overcome its traditional junk-food image. It is vying for a place in the dining mainstream. Menus are expanding and restaurants are sprucing up to attract a more upscale crowd. "A few years ago, fast-food places looked like a mess hall with booths all lined up in a row," says Jeff Campbell, chairman of Burger King, the nation's second largest chain. "People want more these days...
Changing life-styles have contributed to the eating-out boom. There are more one-parent households, more working mothers, more fast-tracking singles who have little time or inclination for an evening over a hot stove. "People eat out more because they are out of the house more," says Carl DeBiase, a partner in the research firm Restaurant Trends. For city dwellers, many of whom live alone in cramped apartments, restaurants have become a place to escape and socialize. "As rents skyrocket and the amount of space per person dwindles, the American kitchen has lost priority in urban centers," says...
...Fast-food restaurants specializing in ethnic and regional fare--like the California-based New Meiji chain of Oriental food--are adding to the diversity. "The earlier cycle of fast foods was primarily concerned with supplying sustenance in a cheap, quick manner," says Lamar Berry, a spokesman for Popeyes, a growing chain specializing in spicy, Cajun-style fried chicken. "Now you can get convenience everywhere. People want to get the ethnic experience and titillate their taste buds...
McDonald's has also staked out the newest fast-food battleground: breakfast. Since introducing its Egg McMuffin (a muffin sandwich containing eggs, Canadian bacon and cheese) in 1976, the chain has seen its breakfast business grow to 19.5% of total sales. Last March Burger King introduced a competitor, the Croissan'wich, and promoted it with a saturation TV ad campaign. Most other chains have now added at least some breakfast items, from French-toast sticks at Arby's to an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet at some generous Roy Rogers outlets...
...Fast-food executives see breakfast as a lucrative area for expansion. Mornings are a time when Americans are usually in a rush. "I hate cooking in the morning," says John McKinley, a San Francisco security guard who eats breakfast at a nearby Jack-in-the-Box. "This place is right on my way to work." The half-hour saved, he says, "is well spent sleeping...