The restaurant industry has witnessed a rash of restaurant bankruptcies in recent months, a marker of a difficult operating environment that began with Red Lobster’s Chapter 11 filing in May and has extended to include a number of smaller chains and franchisees, as well as several chains that appear poised to submit their own filings… read more

A pair of private-equity groups, Verlinvest and Mistral Equity Partners, bought the stake, which values the cookie chain at $350 million. Krispy Kreme is keeping a 34% share in the concept. Krispy Kreme has sold a majority stake in Insomnia Cookies to a pair of private-equity groups in a deal that values the chain at… read more

Starbucks, Burger King, KFC, Dunkin’ and other brands will work together on a citywide reusable cup initiative in Petaluma, California, starting August 5. A group of restaurant chains—many of which are direct competitors—are about to figure out if they can get an entire town to use reusable cups. Starbucks, KFC, Dunkin’, Peet’s Coffee, Coca-Cola and… read more

Cracker Barrel is launching a test of 20 menu items across select markets, from green chile cornbread to banana pudding Cracker Barrel is officially unveiling its largest menu test in the struggling family dining chain’s history. The menu overhaul, which will be tested for a limited time at select Texas restaurants, is part of Cracker… read more

Fast food is famous for two qualities: it’s fast, and it’s cheap. And while it’s as fast as ever (maybe even faster thanks to fast food’s increasing use of AI), it’s not quite so cheap these days. The price of a Big Mac meal with medium fries and a drink has hit nearly $14 in… read more

A new state law boosted the wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour. LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lawrence Cheng, whose family owns seven Wendy’s locations south of Los Angeles, took orders at the register on a recent day and emptied steaming hot baskets of French fries and chicken nuggets, salting them with a… read more

Quick-service operators are facing plenty of challenges with their economic models, and experts don’t see the headwinds ending anytime soon. Burger King, Popeyes, McDonald’s, Wendy’s—those are just some of the chains that saw multi-unit operators go belly up last year. And the trend has bled into 2024. Each case has its own unique set of… read more

New data from YouGov finds that nearly 9% of consumers visit QSRs 15-plus times a month and 57% of them are 25-to-44 years old. Consumer spending is clearly starting to soften at eating and drinking places, as evidenced by preliminary data from the U.S. Census Bureau showing that such sales in May were $93.6 billion,… read more

According to new data from Placer.ai, traffic patterns in California shifted to negative compared to the national average after the minimum wage increase went into place April 1. It’s probably still way too early to understand the full impact of California’s minimum wage increase to $20 an hour on April 1. But for now, we… read more

In-N-Out Burger has a devoted following of fans and customers — and a top 10 spot on Glassdoor’s inaugural Best-Led Companies list, next to computer chip makers and artificial intelligence businesses like Nvidia and Databricks. The new ranking doesn’t surprise LaShawn Davis, a leadership and workplace culture expert who founded and runs consulting firm The… read more