Best service at a fast food? Why?

Is there currently a shift taking place from the term 'fast food restaurant' to 'quick-service restaurant'?

• I'm hearing the term 'quick-service' (instead of 'fast food') being used more and more these days, primarily by people in the industry.  Has the term 'fast food' suddenly developed an undesirable connotation?  I can see the term 'junk food' having a negative image, but 'fast food' seems like an innocuous term. Thoughts?

• Answer:

  Thanks to for the A2A. I am definitely not an expert on this, and I don't know the answer, but I can venture a guess: I think you're hearing "fast food" less frequently lately because it is not very specific. I often hear "fast food" used as an umbrella term that includes fast casual (Panera, Five Guys), QSRs (McDonald's), and food trucks. People in the industry probably want to refer to those segments specifically – especially since they perform differently and have different markets – so it makes sense to use the term that is most precise. For further reading, you may want to check out the article below comparing the recent changes in QSRs' and fast casual's markets. It really demonstrates how the industry thinks about the differences between these segments: http://www.burgerbusiness.com/?p=16750