Burgers have been a top ordered item at U.S. restaurants for decades, but chicken sandwiches have come on strong over the last several years. There are more chicken sandwich restaurant concepts and chicken sandwiches are appearing on more menus. So, have burgers been knocked off their perch by chicken sandwiches? No---Burgers still rule the roost and are the top sandwich ordered overall.
By the numbers-the average number of times a person purchased a burger over the year was 15 times. Chicken sandwiches were purchase 9 times.
Although chicken sandwiches are #2 in the pecking order-they're gaining ground. Chicken sandwiches ordered over the year were up 4% to 4 billion sandwiches!! Burger orders, on the other hand...
There are few things that can light a fire beneath you more than an impending wedding date. Such was the case for Chef Bryan and his wife Margarita Tapia, founders of Black Market Meal Prep. Getting fit and preparing for what they wanted to be one of the best days of their lives, meant that eating healthy had to be a top priority. With the lack of exciting meal prep options available, Chef Bryan leveraged his 7 years of culinary training, creativity and passion for food to start prepping his own healthy meals. Little did Chef Bryan know that from this one seemingly simple decision, Black Market Meal Prep would be born. As they say, "necessity is the master of invention!"
Chef's Bryans healthy transformation didn't go unnoticed, ultimately losing 80 pounds, and soon he was being asked to prep the same healthy and delicious meals for other people too. Everyone who tried his food loved how great it tasted and the word spread! Chef Bryan was soon prepping 20-30 meals while working full time and planning his wedding. Having a true entrepreneurial spirit, he and wife Margarita didn't stop there and decided to create a logo, get on social media and setup a website for ordering. Just two and a half short years later they found themselves...
Growth in the national economy slowed during the first half of 2019.
Job growth averaged just 172,000 a month during the first six months of 2019, which was down from an average monthly gain of more than 223,000 jobs during 2018. In addition, consensus forecasts have U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) rising less than 2 percent during the second quarter, which would make the first half expansion the weakest two-quarter growth in more than a year.
To be sure, a slowing economy doesn't mean a contracting economy, and there are currently no indications that job losses are on the horizon. Indeed, the National Restaurant Association expects the economy to maintain its positive trajectory - adding nearly 1 million additional jobs during the second half of 2019. This translates to an annual increase of 1.6 percent for 2019, which is only slightly below last year's gain of 1.7 percent.
Continued job growth is certainly good news for restaurants, as total industry sales have never contracted without a corresponding decline in the labor market. Even amid the backdrop of a slowing economy this year, consumers...