@McFranchisee Said another way, in 2025 CFA was 1.5% less than stunningly fantastically crazy busy. Gee wiz, I guess it's over for them. Still the busiest drive thrus around.
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Allan Hickok
1.5K posts
Chick-fil-A FDD came out:
2-year sales decline
🔻2024: -0.5%
🔻2025: -1.5%
I remember the CEO of Sonic came out about 10 years ago when McD had some rough sales times. I’ll echo the same sentiment. CFA is a powerhouse; there’s nothing wrong with their business model. Most restaurants would die to be in their spot (or even half their spot).
IMO, they are starting to cannibalize off each other. They have had major growth (278). Where you used to see one CFA in a 15-minute radius, now you see two, sometimes even three CFAs. They may even start to feel some competition from other chicken specialists like Cane’s but more so the former.
As for McD, you will never see $9M CFA volumes. As soon as we hit near $6M, Corp usually will build another one 3 miles away. In comparison to our development plan, our 3-year plan (2024-2027) is to build about 900 new McDonald’s in the US alone.
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@AlderLaneEggs What? You really think I forgot about that particular dynamic?
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@WildBillAlready Screw that, I was just thinking of you out of the Blue and you know your stuff except when we disagree then I am right
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Random thought .... @WildBillAlready is the BEST Restaurant analyst I have ever known. Just about everything he has ever told me restaurant wise has worked. Carry on with your evening
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Going to NYC to visit my kids over Presidents’ weekend. Suggestions?
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Tell me the last time @BurgerKing was good (or actually had a chance)?
It’s been steadier lately, but still primarily PE-owned. Unless you’re Inspire or JAB, that model rarely builds restaurant brands, it bleeds them.
From ’97 to 2014, they were flipped five times: IPO, mergers, PE deals. Every time, equity was stripped. The brand suffered. Had to start over. This is why BK has always been a few steps behind: it was operated as a piggy bank, not a long-term viable operation.
In the 90s, @BurgerKing was a big competitor. Our AUV was about $1.6M and BK’s was $1.2M. Fast forward to today: @McDonalds is at $4M and BK is only $1.6M over two decades later. They didn’t even keep up with inflation.
I used to want the Burger Kings next to me closed, but now I want them all open. If they close, a stronger competitor is more likely to move in.
Pat Buckley ⛫@EmpiresPod_
Interesting read on 3G Capital, the firm that acquired Burger King in 2010 for $4.1B. That investment has ~30x'd, and now returns ~80% of the acquisition price annually via a dividend. But while 3G has done well, the Burger King brand in the US has struggled: 1 year after the acquisition, Wendy's surpassed Burger King in terms of total US sales - • Wendy's did $8.5B. • Burger King did $8.4B. This gap has only widened, as Wendy's now does ~$1.5B more US sales than Burger King. BK has also closed nearly ~10% of their US locations over the past 6 years. And with an Avg Unit Volume of $1.6M, they're far behind: • Culver's: $3.7M • Wendy's: $2.1M • McDonald's: $4.02M • Whataburger: $4.02M (only included brands with over 1,000 units) They're still the 3rd biggest burger chain in America, but similar to KFC, global growth has made up for domestic struggles. Stateside, they continue to bleed marketshare to competitors every year. This is a brand that's had 4 separate owners and 19+ CEO's since the founders sold in 1967. Very different from Wendy's and McDonald's, who were founder led for decades each (yes, Kroc is the franchise founder, don't @ me). Patrick Doyle - former Domino's CEO - is executive chairman of Restaurant Brands International - the company that owns BK. If anyone can turn things around domestically, it's him. I'm also interviewing a 90+ unit Burger King operator later this month - will be fun to dive into what he's seeing!
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@TimRunsHisMouth Enforcing their checkpoints masked, asking for papers, like the Gestapo. Did I get that right?
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@JeffMacke Agree. My office was block away from HQ for years. DT is dead and unsafe. Most area workers are elsewhere if possible. Plenty of self inflicted wounds though.
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It's time for Target to leave Minnesota.
Only 4% of the TGT store base is in Minnesota. It's expensive to hire people to work in a dead downtown and the city shits on the company constantly.
The company is worth more based in any other state. Leave.
$TGT
CBS News@CBSNews
Protesters gathered in several Target locations across Minneapolis on Saturday, demanding the company publicly oppose ICE activity on its properties and ban agents from entering stores. “ICE has been staging operations at Target parking lots all across the city,” organizer Elan Axelbank said. Target declined to comment on the protest.
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@Miked1000rr @ImMeme0 Snow removal and trash pickup are basic city services
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@WildBillAlready @ImMeme0 Nope but it just goes to show you that people are too dependent on the government to fix everything
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New Yorkers took to social media to criticize the new mayor, Mamdani, and his team for their response after the snowstorm. Even though the storm was a few days ago, parents with strollers and people in wheelchairs still can’t use the sidewalks.
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🚨 NOW: Liberal white boomers are now out in FULL FORCE taking over Minnesota Target stores
Imagine being so worthless that you spend your Saturdays singing songs in support of child r*pists while harassing shoppers at Target 🤣
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When I lived in Germany, you were responsible for the sidewalk in front of your home. If you didnt clear the snow and someone got hurt, you were fined. Americans need to stop depending on the Government and start doing it themselves. Complaining about the Mayor isn't going to change the situation
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Benny Johnson exposes “Everything the media has told you about Alex Pretti is a lie”
- “He was actually a professional agitator who was hunting down ICE agents and actually had broken a rib in a confrontation with federal agents a week before. Yet he was right back out on the streets, this according to CNN”
- He brought a loaded Sig Sauer P320 to the Minneapolis ICE protest
- The media is showing “an AI generated fake person”
- He was known to federal agents for aggressive behavior
- He had a digital history of hunting ICE agents on the Signal app
“According to Alex Pretti's parents, he had quit his job. He joined some kind of group and his parents were worried about his safety. Alex Prety spent his time hunting down ICE agents.”
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A lot of restaurant companies own multiple brands and some (MTY) count their brands in the dozen. It's difficult to do, sure, but many of the chains they tend to buy were weak to begin with.
Fat Brands' biggest problem, by FAR, is debt.
Pat Buckley ⛫@EmpiresPod_
FAT Brands is bankrupt and there's many details about their financial mismanagement, but the red flag was always there: Founded in 2017 after acquiring Fatburger, but as of today they own SIXTEEN brands. That is insane. Running 1 franchise well is incredibly difficult. Running multiple? Good luck! Not even the big boys like Yum! Brands are able to do it well over long periods of time (look at what's happening to Pizza Hut & KFC in the US). There's a reason every brand McDonald's acquired over the years eventually got spun off. The opportunity cost to diverting resources and attention into a 2nd, 3rd, etc. brand is *massive*. Buying that many brands in such a short time was the ultimate tell of a distracted owner. Focus matters - find a winning model and don't deviate.
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Darnold's success is fanning the flames in Minnesota. (to the extent locals are involved)
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@morninggloria Is the fraud and vote purchase that instigated this nonsense fake? Sincerely, a MN raised opinion.
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So when are we going to acknowledge that the MAGA way is to lie about everything, all the time. Big things. Little things. It's all fake. Nothing that they say should be taken as true until somebody with credibility corroborates.
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@McFranchisee @snackolator @McDonalds Remind us again -- precisely what is the system cost to adding one second to the DT time? I know that you know the answer (hint: a big number)
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The @snackolator made another trip to the @McDonalds chicken test restaurants in Chicago.
New advertising shows hand-breaded strips. I’m hearing great things about the test product. It will be very interesting to watch, especially operationally. If you’ve ever heard the operational discussions when we roll something out, we literally count if something adds one second to service times, but this is how generalists compete with specialists.
McFranchisee@McFranchisee
There is an anachronistic @McDonalds in Chicago right now. 🤖 AOT in drive thru 🐔 Grilled Chicken Sandwiches 🍗 McSpicy Wings (Mighty Wing) 🥵 McSpicy Sandwich 🥤 Cosmc Drink lineup (incl Red Bull) In baseball, I think they call this a HR
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@ChefGruel Slacking off. Weak effort. Try harder. In NY they jumped the new Subway "jump proof" turnstiles in about 15 seconds.
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@PioneerPress Love PA. The P Press? Not so much. AWOL for fraud reporting.
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Paul Allen, radio voice of the Vikings, mocks Minnesota protestors pipr.es/hShzP8t
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@AnthonyVicino Agree (and thanks Jimmy Chin!). Matt W will likely reconsider after he watches Free Solo.
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This seems to be the prevailing sentiment amongst non-climbers...
But it's simply wrong.
Honnold's climb of Freerider on ElCap (which was captured on film by the legendary Jimmy Chin) is EASILY 10x more impressive than what Alex did on the skyscraper.
I don't think it's possible to fully appreciate the absurdity of Honnold's free solo of ElCap unless you yourself have been on that climb.
I have...
I've been up there...
I've done all the moves...
(and this was during a period of my life wher I was in the top 0.00001% of strongest climbers in the world)
And I got my ass handed to me.
The 13a crux 23 pitches off the ground is unbelievably technical and requires a level of precision that, to execute without a rope, is nearly unbelievable.
This is a hill I will gladly die on:
Honnold's free solo of ElCap is THE single most impressive athletic achievement in human history.
Nothing else comes even remotely close.
(and certainly not this skyscraper).
If you want to have your paradigm for what humans are capable of turned upside down...
Go watch Free Solo.
Matt Walsh@MattWalshBlog
This is pretty easily the most impressive athletic accomplishment ever caught on film. I’m not sure that there’s even a close second.
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