Hello!

I’m in Chicago today for the National Restaurant Association show. For those not in the ‘industry,’ the scale of this convention boggles the mind: over 2,200 exhibitors, anywhere from 40 to 60,000 people, and a show floor that’s larger than 11 football fields. I will not see everything I want to see, but it should be fun.

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3 Numbers

375,000

Number of American workers McDonald’s wants to hire this summer. The figure — McDonald’s largest hiring target ever — represents nearly half of the 800,000 workers McDonald’s currently employs. It plans to open 900 new domestic locations by 2027.

$120 million

Amount raised by Owner.com in its most recent funding round, giving the restaurant tech company a unicorn ($1 billion) valuation. The company primarily works with independent restaurants by selling a tech stack for website, loyalty, online ordering, and delivery operations.

400

Store remodels that Burger King plans to finish this year. The company says the new store design — intriguingly named “Sizzle” — comes with average sales lifts in the mid-teens.

What’s Happening

Last month, the National Restaurant Association announced that to-go orders — encompassing deliveries, pick-ups and drive-thrus — now make up 75% of all restaurant traffic.

Some context is helpful: the quick-service category (which includes giants like McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A) makes up the largest share of the restaurant industry. And these stores are increasingly geared towards pushing to-go traffic. Many McD’s dining rooms are lonely places now — dine-in orders make up just 10% of company sales.

But even within full-service chains, takeout orders dominate. They now account for a larger share of orders in 41% of full-service restaurants compared to 2019. The causation here is fairly clear: consumers got used to ordering everything to-go during Covid, and that behavior shift proved insanely sticky.

2020 forced 5-year technology adoption plans to be compressed into 3 months. Consumer-facing mobile ordering apps have rapidly improved since then. Both 1st-party apps and the big 3rd-party providers make ordering to-go significantly easier than the dark days of 2019, when — gasp — people still had to call in their to-go orders. 74% of millennials and 65% of Gen Z adults reported that they recently used a mobile ordering app.

I thought it was interesting to read this news in the context of two major recent moves made by the US’s largest delivery service providers, both of which swerved a bit and expanded their reach into in-store dining:

• DoorDash bought SevenRooms, a large reservations and automated marketing provider.

• UberEats and OpenTable announced a robust app integration, which will allow Uber customers to book reservations through the new “Dine Out” tab on the Uber app.

One way to interpret these moves is that — in the quest for growth — both DoorDash and UberEats are entering the last space they don’t currently touch: in-store dining.

Another is that the line between dine-in and to-go is blurring. Consumers are increasingly interacting with restaurants from their couch, either to order food to-go or to vet 20+ restaurants for the next date night.

Everything, then, that goes into a good restaurant visit — efficiency, quality, value — needs to be there regardless of the ordering channel. (That includes packaging: 90% of consumers “say they'd order a greater variety of items if the food maintained on-premises quality during delivery; over half would pay more for premium packaging that supported quality during transport.” We can help.)

One more fascinating note: the NRA survey also made it clear that some consumers are okay with things getting a little bit weird. Half of all Gen Z and millennials said they’d “consider ordering from an AI-generated video assistant.” The next frontier of service: should you train your chatbot to say “my pleasure”?

The Headlines

• Breaking: Cava is on a heater. The fast-casual chain posted 10.8% same-store-sales growth in Q1 — with an increase in foot traffic of 7.5%.

• Popeyes is looking to firm up its operations by acquiring more corporate stores.

• Sweetgreen reported positive comp sales in March, then a mid-single digit decline in April “coinciding with tariff announcements.”

• Wing — the Alphabet-owned drone delivery service — is now making DoorDash deliveries in Charlotte, NC.

• And finally, an astute reader pointed out last week that cheese-themed limited time offers are everywhere right now. This may be the Year of Cheese. In just the last week:

  • Wetzel’s Pretzels launched Mozzarella Sticks Stickz.

  • So did Jack in the Box, with its own version seasoned with Nashville Hot sweet and spicy flavors.

  • And finally Checkers and Rally’s unveiled Fried Strawberry Cheesecake Bites.

Name That Chain!

You’ve got three guesses to name this week’s mystery chain:

• In spite of its retro feel and red-and-black 50s-style branding, this chain was founded in the early 2000s.

• Its first store is located in Kansas, and it only expanded east of the Mississippi in 2010. It now has over 500 locations.

• The brand’s co-founder served in the Pacific during WWII — his name is a ‘concrete’ part of the restaurant’s identity.

Find the answer at the bottom of the email…

#Content Recs

• What happens if AI creates a perfectly addictive sandwich? Interesting read from the Spoon on a recent conference that discussed AI ethics in the food system.

• The complications of group dinners when half the party is on Ozempic.

• A glowing review of the restaurant review and discovery app, Beli. (It is good.)

• The rise of more ‘unconventional’ Mexican fast casual chains, like Velvet Taco and Torchy’s.

‘Member When?!

A few weeks ago, we covered the news that McDonald’s is getting back into the chicken tender game with its new McCrispy Strips.

The people are clamoring for Burger King to join in. It’s been 13 years since chicken tenders departed the BK menu — and other than a brief limited time offer in 2018, they haven’t been seen since. They are missed.

Thanks for reading! We’ll be back next week with more Industry Bites.

Andy

NAME THAT CHAIN ANSWER: Freddy’s