"Krainer crisis"

McDonalds and co. put pressure on sausage stands

Despite (slightly) increasing sales, sausage stands are gradually disappearing from the cityscape. Snack bars offering foreign food - such as kebabs, pizza or Asian food - have also seen better days. But it's not just the big fast food chains that are to blame ...

They are often the last resort for night owls, a must for tourists and, above all, a piece of Austrian culture. And yet the number of sausage stands has been falling steadily for years, according to a recent analysis by "Branchenradar.com".

Over the past ten years, the number of establishments has fallen by more than a third. A "Haße" (Burenwurst) or an "Eitrige" with "G'schissenen", "Buggl" and "Krokodü" (a cheese krainer with sweet mustard, "Brotscherzerl" and gherkin) is now only offered at 526 locations. The number of international snack stands also fell to 600 (minus 30 percent).

New eating habits, strong fast food chains
There are several reasons for this downward spiral: On the one hand, new eating habits (keyword: health), and on the other, a growing network of bakery branches, as well as "hot counters" in supermarkets, are becoming powerful competitors.

Added to this are the large American fast food chains such as McDonald's, Burger King, Subway and KFC. They already have a total of 325 outlets in Austria. The big difference: on average, the turnover of a fast food restaurant in the so-called system gastronomy sector is around ten times that of a sausage stand.

Turnover increases only slightly
Despite this, the domestic fast food market grew only moderately last year. Total sales rose by 2.5 percent to around 1.23 billion euros - the large chains raked in just under a billion, while sausage stands and other snack stalls only accounted for 224 million.