White Castle, the Columbus, Ohio-headquartered fast food restaurant chain that helped popularize the hamburger on a bun as a popular American meal, recently reached a major milestone as all-time sales of its Original Slider, Cheese Slider and Jalapeno Cheese Slider transcended the 29 billion mark. The figure includes frozen Sliders sold in retail grocery stores throughout the United States as well at hot burgers served up in restaurants or purchased for take-out.
In 1921, White Castle introduced customers to its signature small-sized beef burger steam grilled on a bed of onions that would become known as the Original Slider. Forty years later, in 1961, it became the first fast food chain to have sold one billion burgers.
Today White Castle restaurants offer an array of Sliders, from beef and chicken to fish and plant-based protein versions. Original beef and chicken Sliders are sold in six-packs in the freezer aisles of supermarkets and other grocery stores across the USA.
“The thought of 29 billion can be difficult to grasp, but when you break it down, it all begins with one idea from a pioneer 102 years ago and one tasty little burger,” said Jamie Richardson, vice president at White Castle. “Our recipe for success is treating every burger sold like it is someone’s first time experiencing White Castle.
Providing some perspective on the achievement, Richardson listed the following “fun ways” to visualize 29 billion White Castle Sliders:
• Stacking them vertically on top of each other would reach a height of 7.5 billion feet, or more than 260,000 Mount Everests.
• Placing them end-to-end would stretch more than 1.4 million miles, or three round trips from Earth to the moon and back. They would also circle the Earth over 57 times.
• Laid flat, 29 billion Sliders would cover a land area equivalent to Washington, DC.
• In terms of volume, 29 billion sliders would fill nearly 8 Empire State Buildings.
