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Financing

Staying open longer isn’t always the best idea

 By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 20, 2022

The Bottom Line: Chick-fil-A and First Watch, two different chains, have proven that concepts can be successful by limiting their hours. Here’s why.

Financing

Netflix and Grubhub show consumers are shifting back to normal

 By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 20, 2022

The Bottom Line: News that the streaming service lost subscribers last quarter, and the latest sale discussions involving the delivery firm, show consumers are leaving the house a lot more.

Financing

These are the chains and sectors that have done best since the pandemic

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 15, 2022

The Bottom Line: Jersey Mike’s, Tropical Smoothie, Dutch Bros and Raising Cane’s have enjoyed the strongest growth among the biggest chains. Some of the other winners might surprise you.

Operations

How IHOP came up with its virtual brands

By Joe Guszkowski on Apr. 15, 2022

Unlike sister concept Applebee's, the pancake chain looked outside the organization for help developing Thrilled Cheese and Super Mega Dilla.

Financing

How Pizza Ranch learned to live with the buffet, and then without it

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 15, 2022

The pizza and chicken buffet concept has recovered from the pandemic, but not just because it focused more on takeout and installed drive-thru windows. Some credit goes to video games.

Leadership

Sardar Biglari makes more changes to his incentive agreement

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 15, 2022

The Bottom Line: Biglari Holdings, the owner of Steak n Shake, defends a services agreement with its chairman’s investment fund and commits to making up prior investment losses.

Financing

Fast food menu price inflation appears to peak

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 14, 2022

The Bottom Line: Prices have slowed in recent months. Are operators getting religion on prices or is it a sign of a consumer pushback?

Financing

As drive-thru sales surge, so do conflicts with neighbors

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 08, 2022

A Chick-fil-A in Santa Barbara is in danger of being declared a public nuisance because of backups. But that is not the only such conflict. Here’s what restaurants are doing to ease these problems.

Financing

McDonald’s and Subway close units and increase sales

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 08, 2022

The Bottom Line: Two of the three biggest chains combined closed more than 1,400 restaurants last year. But their individual locations make more money.

Emerging Brands

Why a small sandwich concept is breaking out of the fast-casual box

By Heather Lalley on Apr. 07, 2022

Zunzi’s was doing well as a traditional fast casual, its CEO said, but then it added a bar and sales soared. Now, it’s changed its franchising plans.

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