Fast Food
Vanishing Workers Hit Fast Food
Fast-food chains are treating a shrinking immigrant workforce as a passing hiring dip. The numbers — 137,000 workers gone in four months — say it's a lasting cost shock worth $6.7 billion a year.
Fast Food
The industry built to scale is now being crushed by the very size it spent decades chasing.
Fast Food
Cheap Menus That No Longer Pay
Fast-food chains discounted hard to win customers back. Lower-income visits still fell by double digits and McDonald's US sales dropped 3.6%. The cheap-menu model may no longer pay for itself — at a modelled cost of about $8bn a year.
Fast Food
The Discount Habit That Won't Quit
Loyalty apps were meant to lock customers in. Instead they trained people to wait for a deal. With 30 to 57% of sales now running through these programs and repeat customers falling, the margin damage looks permanent — and the market hasn't priced it.
Fast Food
Franchisee Margins Are Collapsing
Most fast-food stores are run by independent owners — and 42% lost money in 2025. Now the chains want $480,000–$700,000 per store for remodels. The squeeze is a balance-sheet event the market still calls a blip.