The QSR Pro editorial team covers the quick service restaurant industry with in-depth analysis, data-driven reporting, and operator-first perspective.
Primary Coverage
Showing 321–340 of 861 articles
White Castle's deployment of SoundHound's voice AI across its drive-thru lanes produced a 20% reduction in order errors and an average service time of 90 seconds per vehicle. The numbers give the industry the concrete proof point it has been waiting for.
Long John Silver's ended 2024 with just 485 locations, down from roughly 1,500 at its early-2000s peak. The chain's 57-year slide offers a case study in structural disadvantage, franchise economics gone wrong, and the limits of turnaround playbooks.
Papa Johns has become the first restaurant brand to deploy Google Cloud's Gemini-powered agentic ordering platform, capable of handling complex multi-person orders across voice, mobile, web, kiosks, and in-car systems. The move positions the chain at the forefront of AI adoption even as it simultaneously closes hundreds of locations in a broader turnaround effort.
The Supreme Court struck down IEEPA-based tariffs in February, then the White House pivoted to Section 122 authority within four days. For QSR procurement teams, the legal ground has never shifted faster.
The 2026 FABI Award winners signal a decisive turn in foodservice product innovation: protein is king, global flavors are moving mainstream, and plant-based has lost its grip on the industry's attention.
CEO Kevin Hochman is studying a profit-sharing ownership model for GMs modeled on Texas Roadhouse's managing partner structure. If it works, it could redefine unit-level leadership across company-operated chains.
After scaling back its troubled McDonald's partnership, Krispy Kreme is showing genuine progress on a capital-light refranchising strategy. Q4 2025 numbers suggest the model is beginning to work.
Olo CEO Noah Glass unveiled a consumer-facing ordering app that charges restaurants zero commission, threatening the commission model that DoorDash and Uber Eats have built their businesses on.
When McDonald's starts cutting prices aggressively, it is not a marketing move. It is a distress signal from the bottom half of the American economy. McValue 2.0 tells operators more about consumer health than any Fed report.
The FTC just secured a $17 million settlement against Xponential Fitness, the largest monetary recovery in a franchise case in FTC history. The violations have nothing to do with fitness and everything to do with how franchisors sell franchises. QSR brands should read the complaint carefully.
Chicago-based Chowbus closed an $81 million funding round to build an AI-powered operating platform for independent and culturally rooted restaurants. The company has grown annual recurring revenue 9x in four years to more than $120 million, processing $4 billion in annualized transaction volume across all 50 states and Canada. The raise signals a broader bet that the 60% of the restaurant industry still running on mismatched, enterprise-focused tools is ready for something purpose-built.
Qu's seventh annual Restaurant Technology Benchmark Report reveals a striking gap between C-suite confidence and operational reality: 53% of CEOs report no major system instability affecting their brand, while only 17% of their own operational leaders agree. The report is a warning shot for any chain betting on AI to solve problems their foundational systems cannot yet handle.
Darden Restaurants posted Q3 fiscal 2026 sales of $3.35 billion, up 5.9% year over year, as LongHorn Steakhouse delivered 7.2% same-restaurant sales growth. The results signal a broader shift: the price gap between fast food and casual dining has narrowed enough that consumers are reconsidering where they spend their restaurant dollars.
Wingstop opened a record 493 net new restaurants in FY2025 while posting its first domestic same-store sales decline in 22 years. Is this a cyclical correction, or is the brand growing faster than its own unit economics can absorb?
Canadian beef now carries a 25% import duty, some seafood products have tripled in price, and the full cost wave hasn't hit yet. Here's what QSR operators need to know before the dam breaks.
Brinker International lifted its fiscal 2026 revenue forecast to $5.76-$5.83 billion after Chili's posted its sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit same-store sales growth, outpacing the casual dining industry by hundreds of basis points while its fast-food rivals scrambled to respond.
Brian Niccol has cut more than 2,000 corporate jobs, shuttered all 90 pickup-only stores, and is closing five Seattle coffeehouses in April. The early data says the pain is working.
The companies gave different economic assessments of the doughnut rollout. This chronology separates their disclosures from investors’ allegations.
McDonald's is doubling down on breakfast with $1 McMuffin promotions and a $4 McValue 2.0 meal launching in April, while Wendy's quietly pulled back on breakfast hours in weaker markets. Understanding who's winning the morning daypart, and why it matters to your bottom line.
With ground beef hitting $6.69 per pound and the U.S. cattle herd at a 75-year low, QSR chains are racing toward chicken with an urgency that goes beyond trend-chasing. From McDonald's Chicken Big Mac to Taco Bell's poultry pivot to Raising Cane's 1,000th location, the competitive dynamics of 2026 are reshaping how every operator thinks about protein.