25 fascinating facts about your favorite burger chains

McDonald’s has 37,000 locations in 120 countries and territories that serve about 68 million people per day. That’s almost one percent of the entire Earth’s population, and is more than the total number of people living in countries like Great Britain, France, Italy, and Canada.

To give you an idea of exactly how much food McDonald’s moves, they serve about 75 hamburgers every second. Putting that in perspective, in the six seconds it took for you to read that first sentence, McDonald’s sold about 450 hamburgers. 

It is estimated that McDonald’s employs about 700,000 U.S. workers at any given time, with a 150-percent turnover rate. That means in any given year, McDonald’s hires a million Americans. In all, one in every eight working Americans has been employed by the company, including pre-fame celebrities such as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rachel McAdams, Jay Leno, and Sharon Stone, and even Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

According to the 2001 book “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal,” marketing firm Sponsorship Research International polled 7,000 people in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia, India, and Japan regarding different widely recognized symbols. 88 percent of those surveyed correctly identified the golden arches as belonging to McDonald’s, while only 54 percent could identify the Christian cross. 

Thanks to its tens of thousands of restaurants and relentless brand loyalty, McDonald’s is currently the single largest supplier of Coca-Cola products in the world. Many customers argue that McDonald’s is also the best supplier, as their Coke actually tastes better because it’s shipped in stainless steel containers (as opposed to bags) and is consumed through extra-wide straws.

In other staggering figures, 20 percent of McDonald’s orders are Happy Meals, meaning they distribute about 1.5 billion toys annually (enough to give one to every child in the world) and are the largest toy manufacturer in existence...even bigger than Wal-Mart!

For all this talk about McDonald’s being the biggest game in town, Subway actually operates more restaurants. As we previously stated, McDonald’s has about 37,000 locations worldwide. Subway has 45,000, and has been the leader since 2011. However, McDonald’s still does much more business and is worth a staggering $40.3 billion, compared to Subway’s $7.1 billion.

When Mattoon, Ill. residents Gene and Betty Hoots bought the building next to their Frigid Queen ice cream shop, turned it into a hamburger stand, and named it “Burger King” in 1959, they were the first restaurant with that name in the entire state and were able to obtain a trademark without issue. However, the fast food chain restaurant Burger King moved to the state in 1961 and expanded to 50 restaurants by 1957, which eventually led to a legal dispute. In the end, the larger Burger King was allowed to continue using the name within state lines, but not within 20 miles of the Mattoon joint. Although Burger King now operates more than 320 stores in Illinois, the closest one to Mattoon is still 25 miles away.

When Burger King first expanded into Australia in 1971, they found that the Burger King name had already been trademarked by a takeout restaurant in the city of Adelaide. The company and Australian franchisee Jack Cowin instead elected to call the fast food joints “Hungry Jack’s,” which is the name still used by all of Burger King’s 390 Down Under locations.

Anyone can order a BK Crown Card, which is basically just a gift card, but celebrities are gifted exclusive “Gold Cards” that allow them free burgers for life. This includes famous names like Hugh Laurie, Jennifer Hudson, George Lucas, Robert Downey Jr., and Jay Leno - even though the former talk show host used to work at McDonald’s. Leno recounted using the card in a 2008 interview with AdAge: “So I order my food, and the guy says, ‘That's $11.’ So I say: ‘Fine, here you go,’ and hand him the card. His reaction was amazing: ‘Whoa... where'd you get this?’ He was not impressed that I was on ‘The Tonight Show’ or even that I was driving a Porsche Carrera GT. He was more impressed with this piece of plastic.”

In 2015, news outlets and social media users quickly spread word that a man named Joel Burger and a woman named Ashley King were set to wed in Illinois. When Burger King heard, they offered to help with the Burger-King nuptials, and ended up paying for the entire event, providing company swag and decorations, and even gave each guest a $10 gift card as a wedding favor. Although there were plenty of logos and paper crowns, the ceremony and reception ended up being surprisingly classy.

A young Dave Thomas worked at and managed numerous restaurants in the 1950s, and he was so successful that he was recruited by Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders to open new KFC franchises and help boost sales numbers. Among other contributions, Thomas suggested to the Colonel that he scale down the menu, choose a signature item, and serve the chicken in buckets, and he also encouraged Sanders to personally appear in commercials. Thomas improved sales so much in his four restaurants that he sold his shares back to Sanders in 1968 for $1.5 million and used the money to open the first Wendy’s in Columbus, Ohio, the following year.

Dave Thomas named Wendy’s after his red-haired, pigtailed daughter Melinda Lou, who had trouble pronouncing her own name as a child, and instead called herself “Wenda.” This turned into “Wendy’s,” and company used her actual likeness when crafting their logo.

To draw attention to the fact that their burger patties are larger than those of McDonald’s and Burger King, Wendy’s released their “Where’s the beef?” campaign in 1984. This centered around a commercial that featured 81-year-old actress Clara Peller opening a comically large bun to reveal a comically small patty and uttering the now-famous catchphrase. It was an enormous hit that spawned several sequel ads and even a song, and the phrase eventually became a common expression used when people question the substance of an idea, event, or product. To capitalize on this success, Prego hired Peller in 1985 to appear in an ad for their tomato sauce in which the actress claimed to have “finally found the beef.” Wendy’s of course didn’t take too kindly to seeing this obvious slight, and immediately fired the 82-year-old actress.

In-N-Out Burger was founded by Harry and Esther Snyder in 1948. The couple had two sons, but both died unexpectedly as adults and were outlived by Esther. When she passed away in 2006, Esther’s majority share of the company went to her granddaughter, Lynsi, who was only 24 years old at the time. After another young entrepreneur lost all her money in 2016, 34-year-old Lynsi became the youngest female billionaire in the United States. She is currently the sole owner with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion.

America’s first fast food drive-thru opened in 1947 at a joint called Red’s Giant Hamburg in Springfield, Mo. The very next year, In-N-Out opened one of their own. When Red’s closed in 1984, In-N-Out officially became the record-holder.

If you’ve been to numerous In-N-Out Burger locations, you may have noticed that almost every one has a pair of crossed palm trees out front. This began in 1972 and was the idea of co-founder Harry Snyder, who made the landscaping decision as a reference to the 1963 film “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” In case you’re unfamiliar with the movie, its premise revolves around the hunt for stolen loot hidden beneath a giant “W,” which turns out to be a group of four crisscrossed palm trees.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries was founded by husband and wife Janie and Jerry Murrell and their four sons Jim, Matt, Chad, and Ben in 1986. Two years later, a fifth son was born, so now the name refers strictly to the brothers. Initially, the money used to start the company was set aside for the sons’ college funds, but the two oldest brothers wanted to go into the workforce instead, so they all invested their money into a family restaurant instead.

When we say Shaquille O’Neal owns a lot of Five Guys Burgers and Fries franchises, we mean it. Shaq owns a Shaq-sized amount, or about 155 locations based on the latest totals. To put this number in perspective, that’s more than 10 percent of all Five Guys locations. (Although wouldn’t it make more sense if Shaq owned some Shake Shaqs Shacks?) Additionally, the former NBA player and current businessman owns all or part of 150 car washes, 40 24-Hour Fitness Centers, 17 Auntie Annie’s Pretzel shops, numerous Las Vegas nightclubs, a Miami residential high-rise, and a movie theater.

Smashburger has 370 locations and has only been open for 10 years, but co-founder Tom Ryan is no newbie to the food industry. In fact, we think you’ll be shocked at how many fast food creations he is at least partially responsible for. Ryan was behind Pizza Hut’s Lover’s Line (i.e. Meat Lover’s, Pepperoni Lover’s, and Cheese Lover’s), its short-lived Bigfoot monstrosity, and even its famous Stuffed Crust Pizza. He also conceptualized and developed McDonald’s McGriddle and introduced the Fruit ‘N Yogurt Parfait. And this was all before he and Rich Shaeden developed the menu, the cooking process, and the entire Smashburger company.

The first White Castle was opened in Wichita, Kansas in 1921 by Walt A. Anderson and Billy Ingram, making it the very first fast food burger chain in the United States. At the time, Americans were still hesitant to eat ground beef because of the horrible sanitation standards exposed by Upton Sinclair in his 1906 novel “The Jungle.” Because of this, White Castle’s founders insisted the interior of their restaurants be small, completely covered in stainless steel, and staffed by workers wearing impeccably spotless uniforms.

For the record, the first McDonald’s wouldn’t open until a full 19 years later.

Lovebirds who love White Castle can make Valentine’s Day reservations at locations across the country, where they’ll be treated to romantic decorations, hostess seating, tableside service, and a special menu that includes sliders, shrimp nibblers, strawberry and cream waffles, and more. Last year, some 35,000 romantics scheduled dates at White Castle, and a few even got married at their local joint!

We love the burgers at Sonic Drive-Ins, but most people still go there for the drinks - especially since Sonic employees encourage customers to create their own beverage combinations by mixing whatever ingredients are available. This includes varieties like the “Blue Hawaiian” (Sprite with blue coconut flavoring and real pineapple) and the “Strawberry Shortcake” (Sprite with vanilla flavoring, sweet cream, and real strawberries). Sonic has previously claimed to offer a total of 168,894 combinations, but the Wall Street Journal decided to calculate the number for themselves. According to the news outlet, the number is actually at least 688,133 - and with new ingredients being added all the time, it may actually be more than a million!

In between the breakup of the Mamas & the Papas in 1968 and her heart-failure-induced death in 1974 at the age of 32, singer “Mama” Cass Elliot recorded a jingle that was used in a Hardee’s commerical. The song urged potential customers to “head on down to Hardee’s, where the burgers are charco-broiled.”

Most people are aware that one of Elvis Presley’s favorite meals was a peanut butter and banana (and sometimes bacon) sandwich, but the King of Rock and Roll also loved his Krystal burgers - an obsession he shared with DJ “Daddy-O” Dewey Phillips, who first gave Presley airplay. Phillips’ wife recalled that her husband and Elvis would hang out at the studio late into the night and then invite a whole bunch of people over to the couple’s house afterward to hang out and chow down. And “maybe an hour later [the two men and] the crowd would arrive,” Mrs. Phillips once said. “They'd come walking in the front door, both of 'em carrying just sacks full of those durn things.”

Whataburger is based and has most of its locations in Texas, so it’s no surprise they’d have lax regulations regarding horses. Of course, the animals aren’t allowed inside, but customers have reported that Whataburger allows and sometimes encourages its patrons on horseback to hitch their four-legged friends to a post while they dine inside. Horses have even been photographed in the drive-thru line! According to MySanAntonio.com, Whataburger spokeswoman Jenny Gregorcyk responded to an inquiry by saying, “While there's no official policy on horses in the drive thru, we've seen similar pictures before and we're always proud to serve our horseback-riding friends.”