Potato fries may have originated in Europe, but Americans have certainly embraced them as their own.
After all, nearly 8 billion servings of french fries were sold in U.S. restaurants during the 12 months that ended in June, according to statistics from NPD Group, a global market research firm. That represented 15.5 percent of all restaurant orders.
Despite those high numbers, servings of fries—a particularly profitable menu item—fell 2 percent from the same period a year earlier, a decline that began in 2006, before the ongoing economic malaise began. Some of the falloff is due to fewer combination meals being bought by adults and healthier products being added to kids’ meals. Read on.
