TL;DR
Fast-food pizza chains saw sales decline last year, with fast-casual pizza chains experiencing an even greater decline. The decline is attributed to growing competition from third-party delivery and pressure on lower-income consumers.
Why are fast-food pizza chains struggling?
This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Robert Byrne, senior director of consumer research with Technomic.
Byrne and I spend the entire time discussing the state of the pizza market. Fast-food pizza chain sales declined last year, and fast-casual pizza chain sales declined even further.
We look at the factors behind that decline, including the growing competition from third-party delivery, pressure on lower-income consumers and other factors. We also discuss where pizza customers are visiting instead.
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In this story
This story was originally published in Restaurant Business on May 20, 2026. Burnaze summarizes and links to the original reporting.
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