The Bottom Line

Jonathan Maze The Bottom Line

Restaurant Business Executive Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Maze is a longtime industry journalist who writes about restaurant finance, mergers and acquisitions and the economy, with a particular focus on quick-service restaurants. He writes daily about the factors influencing the operating environment, including labor and food costs and various industry trends such as technology and delivery.

Jonathan has been widely quoted in media publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post and has appeared on CNBC, Yahoo Finance and NPR. He writes a weekly finance-focused newsletter for Restaurant Business, The Bottom Line, and is the host of the weekly podcast “A Deeper Dive.”

Financing

Starbucks and the dangers of menu creep

The Bottom Line: The chain is struggling under the burden of its customizable beverages and growing food orders. It is hardly the first to suffer from an overcomplicated menu.

Financing

The robot revolution is apparently not imminent

The Bottom Line: Chili’s move to suspend its robot server expansion is the latest piece of evidence suggesting that automation may be further away than we think.

The Bottom Line: Inflation is no longer just a problem for lower-income households. Middle-class earners have lost spending power and are trading down.

The Bottom Line: Profitability concerns and fears of an economic downturn overshadowed strong overall sales.

The Bottom Line: The activist investor and owner of Steak n Shake has tried several times to get on the family-dining chain’s board, with no success. It’s not stopping him from trying again.

The Bottom Line: The company is undertaking a massive overhaul that seems at odds with its overall top-line performance.

The Bottom Line: More than 9% of restaurants in the 20 largest franchise restaurant brands changed hands last year. But operators may have missed their chance at historically high valuations.

The Bottom Line: Domino’s, Papa John’s and Krispy Kreme all said challenges across the pond caused weakness in their results. That could portend to slowing global growth.

The Bottom Line: Both companies appear to be getting traction in the suburbs. But they have a big foot in slow-to-recover urban areas.

The Bottom Line: Fast Acquisition will redeem all its shares later this month after a previous deal with Tilman Fertitta fell through, but not before a shareholder files a lawsuit.

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