With the recent downturn in the economy, there has come a renewed focus on savings. More and more individuals and families are looking to cut their budgets. This mindset has had a direct impact on the amount of money spent on dining. In the midst of this renewed focus on saving, the segment of the restaurant industry known as fast casual has boomed, despite the fact that overall sales for the top 500 restaurant chains in the country in 2010 rose just slightly to $234 billion, after dropping $2 billion to a total of $230 billion in 2009.
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