The burger wars have a clear winner

Remember 2015? The world was so innocent then. No pandemic. A growing economy. AI wasn’t taking all our jobs. We knew exactly where we could find our favorite sports teams on television.

That was also the last time that Burger King bested McDonald’s by more than 770 basis points. In fact, the company had not outperformed McDonald’s same-store sales by even 290 basis points since then.

But that’s exactly what the fast-food chain did. And its earnings call was in remarkable contrast to that of McDonald’s, which replaced its U.S. president while its CEO authored a takedown of the business, and Wendy’s, whose new CEO used the phrase “quality degradation” to describe the concept.

Those of us who’ve followed Burger King for a while know just how unusual that quarter was. It has done better than an 8.5% same-store sales quarter. But that typically comes when the fast-food market is performing well. Burger King’s performance last quarter came when the fast-food market in general was struggling. Just a couple of years ago it was shuttering restaurants and watching franchisees file for bankruptcy.

The company has been working to get to this point for years. And ultimately that’s a reminder that revitalization plans usually don’t work quickly and require patience. Especially when the chain in need of revitalization has struggled for as long as Burger King did.

Salad and Go shut down, despite some strong consumer ratings. And then Dutch Bros pretty much rescued them from their dumb expansion decisions. Amazing.

I stumbled, almost literally, on a default judgment in the two-year-old Corner Bakery-Boston Market case. And then I discovered that there are only six Boston Markets left. At most.

By the way, the default judgment means there is a chance, albeit quite small, that Corner Bakery ends up owning Boston Market. Assuming it even wants it.

What a weird year Shake Shack has had. It’s been hammered for struggling in relation to its guidance, then opted not to do quarterly guidance, and now it has Starboard lurking. But it has been one of the best performing burger chains in recent years.

“You have a K-Pop Demon Hunters message, then you have a value message, then you have a beverage message, then you have a FIFA message. It’s tough to drive awareness when you’re sort of jumping around and giving those two, three, at most four-week windows.” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski, oddly arguing the company did too much marketing.

On A Deeper Dive I had Sysco CEO Kevin Hourican. On The Week in Restaurants we talked Salad and Go, Endless Shrimp, McDonald’s and Boston Market.

For questions, comments or story ideas, send me an email at jonathan.maze@informa.com. And follow me on Twitter at @jonathanmaze. And also LinkedIn. And TikTok.