February 27, 2015
Last year was a banner year for burgers, according to research firm NPD Group. U.S. restaurants served up some 9 billion burgers in 2014, up by 3 percent from 2013, NPD says. And the burger’s gain is the sandwich’s loss — sandwich servings declined by 2 percent year on year in 2014, a loss of some 201 million servings. Grilled-chicken sandwiches, which tend to be burgers’ chief competitor, had a challenging year, with a servings decline of 9 percent, or a loss of 129 million servings. Although burgers are typically not a top item ordered at casual-dining restaurants — only 11 percent of casual-dining orders included a burger — burger servings increased by 4 percent between 2013 and 2014, says NPD.
