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Tag: Fast-food restaurants

  • Prince George’s County wants more of these types of restaurants, and less of fast food joints – WTOP News

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    With no shortage of fast food joints in Prince George’s Co., council members are looking to encourage more sit-down places in the county.

    When it comes to dining out in Prince George’s County, Maryland, there’s no shortage of fast food joints offering fried chicken, flimsy burgers and anything greasy. And, in some parts of the county, there’s no sign of any kind of dining establishment where you can sit down with your whole family around a table.

    While forcing better restaurants to open up isn’t an option, a new bill proposed in the county hopes to try to make it worth their while to do so. At the same time, another bill is looking to put more restrictions on the grease traps found all over the place, but especially inside the Beltway.

    Both bills were introduced this week, with the Prince George’s County Council returning back to session after a long summer break.

    Prince George’s County Council Vice Chair Krystal Oriadha is backing a measure that would provide incentives for more sit-down restaurants to open up in neighborhoods otherwise marked by value meals and carry out bags.

    “We understand there’s an oversaturation of what’s not healthy — fast food restaurants on every corner — especially when we look inside of the Beltway,” Oriadha said. “And we don’t see a lot of sit-down restaurant options and things that have healthier menus. And so, we’re really trying to think strategically about, how do we shift that?”

    The oversaturation of unhealthy eateries rings especially true in Oriadha’s District 7.

    Her proposal emphasizes more tax incentives and less red tape.

    “About the permitting process, fast tracking it,” she explained. “If you bring your restaurant into an area, like inside of the Beltway, creating plans that (Department of Permitting, Inspections, and Enforcement) have that if you use this plan and this model, for example, a design that’s already been approved, it fast tracks your process.”

    “And then we’re also looking at the state level to give us the ability to have tax incentives to strip malls that rent to restaurants specifically inside of the Beltway,” she added.

    While there’s a demand for certain chain restaurants to open up inside the Beltway — the Cheesecake Factory is often mentioned, including by Oriadha — she’s also hopeful smaller, locally-owned restaurants would see this as a push to open up an establishment.

    On the flip side of that attempt is a new bill from Council member Tom Dernoga, whose proposal would put new restrictions on where a new fast food restaurant with a drive-thru is allowed to open. It would stop them entirely in residential areas, and make it harder to open in other areas, too.

    “We can’t just talk about what we don’t want, if we don’t create pathways for what we do want,” Oriadha said.

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    John Domen

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  • Chipotle’s California customers are spending less after the chain upped prices due to wage hike: CFO

    Chipotle’s California customers are spending less after the chain upped prices due to wage hike: CFO

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    Californian burrito lovers are fed up with higher prices.

    While some thought Chipotle would be able to pass along higher costs to its loyal following once the FAST Act took effect in April, CFO Jack Hartung said customers across the industry pulled back.

    “It’s not because the Chipotle burrito costs a little more. There’s really a reduced spending across the restaurant industry [in California],” Hartung told Yahoo Finance, “When we’ve looked at it, restaurant companies that took a very high increase had a impact on sales, about the same as what we’ve seen. Restaurants that have taken no increase had the same kind-of reduction in sales.”

    The FAST act mandated food chains that have at least 60 locations nationwide to raise their minimum wage for restaurant employees to $20 per hour, up from $16. As a response, Chipotle raised prices in California by 6.5% to 7% in April, Hartung said.

    The “best offense” to combat the slowing growth in foot traffic is with “great operations,” Hartung said.

    “It’s high quality food, it’s big portions, it’s a fast experience, and it’s the food that they crave,” Hartung said of Chipotle’s recipe to success, regardless of the macro environment.

    SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 01: Workers fill food orders at a Chipotle restaurant on April 01, 2024 in San Rafael, California. A new minimum wage law went into effect in California today that calls for fast food restaurants with at least 60 locations nationwide to pay employees a minimum of $20 per hour at their stores in California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    In its latest quarter, the company beat Wall Street estimates for revenue, earnings, and same store sales.

    For Q3, the company expects labor cost “to be in the low 25% range due to seasonally lower sales with wage inflation to remain at about 6%,” Hartung told investors on the earnings call. California accounts for around 15% of Chipotle locations.

    “About half of the wage inflation is due to the nearly 20% step-up in wages in California as a result of the increase in minimum wage for restaurant companies like ours that took effect in April,” he added.

    Foot traffic jumped 8% in the quarter, more than the 6.3% expected, with growth across all income cohorts. That’s compared to a 0.6% decline in the industry, according to a note to clients from Bernstein analyst Danilo Gargiulo.

    “Market share gains despite burger wars reinforce our view of Chipotle’s enduring value superiority,” Gargiulo wrote. “Wth the normalization of trends and on the back of the pricing resistance encountered in California,” Gargiulo expects fiscal year 2024 to end with 7.8% sales growth.

    Gargiulo said the company will still be able to increase prices, if the fall return of another limited-time offering — smoked brisket — surpasses expectations, and the inflationary environment persists.

    Hartung said this limited-time offering will likely bring in more customers, but is more expensive for the company than its current Chicken Al Pastor special.

    The industry at large has been keeping tabs on the impact California’s higher wages.

    “We continue to see visitation trends for most QSR and fast-casual restaurant chains in California lag the national average since the implementation of the $20 minimum wage increase in the state (and subsequent menu price increases by many operators),” R.J. Hottovy, Placer.ai’s head of analytical research, told Yahoo Finance in an email.

    Chipotle’s year over year weekly foot traffic growth in California lags behind the company’s national average by more than 5% since April 1, according to Placer.ai.

    Domino’s Pizza CEO Russell Weiner told Yahoo Finance, “We haven’t had closures [in California], we haven’t had to lay off our drivers, like some of our competition has, but it’s a long haul, and in the short term, you’re definitely going to lose orders when you increase prices.”

    The pizza chain’s Q2 results “benefitted from 1.5%” of price increases, “which was inclusive of high single digits [increase] in California,” CFO Sandeep Reddy said on the earnings call.

    McDonald’s is set to report its Q2 earnings on Monday, July 29, but Yahoo Finance previously reported one McDonald’s franchise owner that made the decision to close one location.

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    Brooke DiPalma is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com.

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  • Mom Mails Son Mother’s Day Gift

    Mom Mails Son Mother’s Day Gift

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    HOUSTON—Stressing that all she wanted for the holiday was for her son to be happy, local mom Beverly Higgins reportedly mailed her son Conner a Mother’s Day gift Sunday, according to sources. “Just a little something to show how much I love you on my special day,” read the card, which accompanied a brand-new Nintendo Switch, several pairs of wool socks, and a $25 gift card to Chipotle meant “to thank [him]” for giving her the gift of being his mother. “I was at the mall near the hospital after getting a little operation—don’t worry, I’m fine!—and then saw the GameStop and thought of you. You’ve already done enough just by being born, so don’t you think of getting me anything in return, mister! And if you already did, just return it and keep the money and buy yourself something nice. You deserve it! Mothers often get all the credit for the work we do, but I think you deserve it more for being my sweet, special boy.” At press time, Conner Higgins had reportedly called his mother a “bitch” after the package embarrassed him in front of his roommates.

    Nation’s Mothers Describe How Nice It Would Be If You Lived Closer

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  • Subway CEO Just Assumed Cold Cut Combo Started Covid

    Subway CEO Just Assumed Cold Cut Combo Started Covid

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    MILFORD, CT—With new genetic evidence tying Covid-19 to animals sold at a wet market in Wuhan, China, Subway CEO John Chidsey confirmed Friday that he had just assumed this whole time that the virus originated with the restaurant chain’s Cold Cut Combo. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but I was 99% sure Covid-19 made the jump to humans from one of our classic Cold Cut Combo sandwiches,” said Chidsey, adding that it wouldn’t have been the first time a global pandemic spread from one of the franchise’s menu offerings, nor would it be the last. “Between the three types of lukewarm, sweaty cold cuts; the translucent, decomposing vegetables; and the bulk, room-temperature mayonnaise we pile on that thing, I wouldn’t be surprised if it took out 3 million people in one day, let alone over the course of several years. In fact, I’m still not convinced it didn’t—that’s not too far off our annual number of rancid ham-related deaths. Nothing is cooked inside a Subway, and we are still not allowed to classify our bread as food, so you do the math. Most of this meat is just sitting outside the back door in a garbage bag—we don’t even order it, and when we do order it, it’s purchased loose from the back of some guy’s truck that’s always parked in the sun. So I can’t say whether or not an infected raccoon dog or bat or whatever made it into one of our sandwiches or was, God forbid, exposed to one, but either way, I presumed this whole thing was either our fault or Quiznos’.” At press time, Chidsey had reportedly used the public exoneration as an opportunity to relaunch Subway’s discontinued H1N1 Chicken Club from 2009.

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