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Clay Johnson, chief digital and technology officer at Yum! Brands, was named by QSR Magazine as one of the restaurant industry's influential digital change-makers. He told QSR Magazine: “At Yum!, we are taking a comprehensive approach to digital transformation that considers all stakeholders, including how we can elevate the restaurant team member experience and improve operations and unit economics for our franchisees through digital.”
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QSR Magazine asked experts, including Clay Johnson, chief digital and technology officer at Yum! Brands, to give their insight into the next big restaurant trends. "As we identify the use cases that have the most transformative potential for our customers, team members and franchisees, we must be able to scale them quickly," Johnson said. “This requires our brands to have a shared digital and technology ecosystem, which is at the heart of our strategy.”
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Ad Age named the creation and documentation of the world's largest pizza by Pizza Hut and YouTuber Eric “Airrack” Decker as one of the top brand-creator partnerships of 2023. The partnership generated an earned media value of $6.9 million and nearly 129 million impressions for Pizza Hut, said Elyse Slayton, Pizza Hut’s director of advertising.
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Taco Bell was recently named Nation's Restaurant News' Brand Icon for 2023. On the latest edition of NRN's "First Bite" podcast, editorial director Sam Oches offers a peek behind the scenes at the Taco Bell Headquarters and breaks down everything that makes Taco Bell a Brand Icon.
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According to Placer.AI, Starbucks' annual Red Cup Day promotion saw a decrease in foot traffic compared to previous years. The day gave the chain a 31.7% foot traffic boost compared to last year's 81%. “The softer YoY comparison [between Red Cup Days] may be more indicative of last year’s holiday menu success rather than a weakened demand this year,” Placer.AI said in its report.
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Starbucks shares declined for the 11th consecutive session, dropping 1.6% on Monday. The slump has erased 9.4% of Starbucks’ market value, a decline of nearly $12 billion. JPMorgan Chase analyst John Ivanko said that third-party sales data signaled a “material slowing” at Starbucks in November. Ivanko lowered his first-quarter U.S. comparable sales estimate to reflect what may be a less successful Christmas.
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Photos circulated on social media of the potential menu for the first CosMc's restaurant, which will open outside of Chicago. The alleged menu features drinks like a Turmeric Spiced Latte and Sour Cherry Energy Burst, while food items included a Spicy Queso Sandwich and a Creamy Avocado Tomatillo Sandwich. McDonald's did not immediately respond to the request for comment from USA TODAY and the publication wrote that "it is unclear if all or any of the items on the board are intended to be served upon launch."
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Dominos will give out $500,000 in grants to help cities improve their snow plowing. The company will give out $25,000 each to 20 cities as part of its “Plowing for Pizza” campaign. The grants are “in the name of ensuring that hot pizzas are accessible for carryout customers this winter,” the company said. Customers can visit a website and submit their hometown for a grant. Communities will also be awarded hats, scarves, snow measuring sticks and other items, including $200 in Domino’s gift cards for plow drivers.
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The $10 Jack's Fan Favs Box has returned to Jack in the Box menus across the United States for a limited time. The latest edition of Jack's Fan Favs Box includes medium curly fries, onion rings, tiny tacos, mini churros and three dipping sauces.
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The Blueberry Lemon Cream Cheese Fried Pie returns to the Popeyes menus for a limited time. The turnover-style pie features a deep-fried pastry crust filled with blueberry, cream cheese and a hint of lemon flavor.
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As the interest in weight loss drugs like Ozempic grows, food companies are pitching their products as alternatives or developing companion products. Noodles & Co. is working with a culinary consultant to better understand the needs of customers, including weight loss. Last year, the chain released a wheat flour-based LEANguini pasta. Noodles CMO Stacey Pool said that it could promote the pasta’s higher fiber content in the future or create more noodles using high-fiber wheat flour. “We’re very early on in building awareness around this product,” Pool said.
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Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken CEO Ryan Weaver discussed the chain's new restaurant prototype, which features a dual drive-thru, online ordering pickup area and an updated back-of-house design. The new design elements can be retrofitted into existing restaurants. Weaver believes the modernization will better support Lee’s development goals – about 250 units open or signed within five years and over 750 units in the longer term.
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BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse CEO Greg Levin believes that customers still expect a pricing model from 2019. “They were used to going out and getting a value meal in QSR under $10 and now it’s in the teens, or getting XY and Z for a certain price and it’s now up. And I think they’re still adjusting to that,” he said. “And I think we’re going to have to see in the industry over the next couple of years more moderate pricing or less pricing per se. So the consumer catches up to where we are today,” he added.
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A Quartz analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that restaurant workers’ wages have risen about 66%, while prices for food consumed outside the home have increased by 48%. Quartz writes that "the talent pool for low-wage employers is shrinking, as workers move on to higher-paying jobs.”
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| Paytronix reported that consumers spent 7.3% more on restaurant gift cards during Thanksgiving weekend compared to the same period in 2022. QSR gift card sales were up 2% while FSR gift card sales were up 9.6%. Cyber Monday continued to outpace Black Friday as the highest sales period for both physical and digital restaurant gift card sales. |
Another wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against Panera over its Charged Lemonade drink. The lawsuit alleges that the drink caused the death of a 46-year-oid Florida man, who went into cardiac arrest after leaving a Panera restaurant. The lawsuit alleges the man had been drinking the lemonade for six days and was a member of Panera’s Unlimited Sip Club.
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McDonald’s has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether hiring restrictions between franchise operators under the same brand should be presumed subject to federal antitrust laws. McDonald’s appeal arises from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, which held in August that a 2018 lawsuit challenging a no-poach clause included in franchise agreements could proceed. The chain is also asking whether courts should ignore the “procompetitive impact” of such restrictions on other markets.
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Papa Johns has agreed to the terms of a settlement over a disability discrimination case brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The company will pay $175,000 and will train its employees on the Americans with Disabilities Act, review its employment policies and allow the EEOC to monitor its discrimination and retaliation complaints. The suit was filed by a worker with vision impairments whose request for a service dog to get to work was denied before he worked any shifts.
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Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's company City Storage Systems has been building its own restaurant automation and robotics business called Lab37. The company's first product is a bowl-making robot. The Spoon wrote that early trials with the Bowl Builder have gone very well and locations that have tried it out have seen substantial increases in revenue. Lab37 is headed up by Eric Meyhofer, a co-founder of Carnegie Robotics – a robotics development lab that helped to give birth to Uber’s self-driving car unit.
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