Is the U.S. fast-food industry maturing?****

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In order to answer this question, the instructor might compare industry growth rates to inflation, growth in GDP, and wages in the United States during the last five years. Using the Boston Consulting Group Matrix, an industry is often defined as a low growth industry if its growth rate is less than two times real GDP plus inflation. United States economic data for the last five years indicate that wages have grown slower than inflation over the last five years, and the U.S. food industry has been growing at a slower rate than GDP. This would appear to indicate that the U.S. food service industry as a whole has matured. However, the U.S. fast-food industry (or fast-food segment of the U.S. food service industry) has been growing slightly faster than GDP, though still slower than twice real GDP plus inflation. This might indicate that the fast-food segment of the industry may be approaching maturity, but is presently in the late growth stage of the product life cycle.