Want instant sales? Try partnering with Minecraft. The latest restaurant chain to do this is Domino's, which this morning said it is rolling out six collectible Minecraft Dungeons II boxes and exclusive in-game items. It is also giving away 20,000 copies of the game. The promotion starts Oct. 26. McDonald's last year generated ultra-strong traffic when it released its Minecraft Movie Meal and a companion Happy Meal. In September, Crumbl (at least temporarily) lifted sales out of the cellar with its Minecraft Week. Domino's is banking on the same with this promotion, which is something new for the pizza chain. Customers who buy one of the chain's new single-serve Domino pizzas will receive one of the collectible boxes. It is also going to have a Minecraft Dungeons II Domino's Tracker. Minecraft has an enormous fan base, from kids to people like former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. So it makes sense for Domino's and other chains to do something like this. Domino's even has a website: dominos.com/minecraft-dungeo…

Meritage Hospitality, the big Wendy's operator based in Michigan, could close up to 60 locations by mid-November. It has closed 33 so far. That is furthering the brand's pullback, which has accelerated this year. Wendy's has closed a net of 254 U.S. locations in the first half of the year, and has closed more than 300 since it peaked at 6,000 U.S. restaurants in 2023. The company clearly has a lot of bad locations and in theory clearing those out could help, but it really has to get sales back in a positive direction. But it's been a really brutal stretch since the company opted to replace its CEO in early January 2024. There was the "dynamic pricing" fiasco, the short tenure of Kirk Tanner, the lengthy CEO hiring process, the maybe-I-will, no-I-won't-buy-Wendy's (again) from Nelson Peltz, and sales tanked as bad as they ever have. Then they had to watch longtime rival Burger King surge behind an upgraded Whopper. Wendy's surpassed BK a few years ago to become the No. 2 burger chain. BK is now bigger than Wendy's again. Can Wendy's come back? Absolutely. Bob Wright was a solid hire and is making a lot of good moves. And if Burger King can come back, Wendy's certainly can. But keep in mind, Burger King's comeback this year was five years in the making and cost the company nearly $2 billion, including the Reclaim the Flame incentive package and the $1 billion purchase of Carrols Restaurant Group. It also took hundreds of closures of its own plus several big bankruptcies. Wendy's fix probably won't take that much, but turning around a struggling franchise takes real investment from the brand and a lot of patience.

Ask Subway franchisees how that’s going for them. Or Quiznos. Or pick your yogurt concept. Or pick your bagel concept. AUVs have already fallen 39% since peak before they plunged this year. Some closures are not going to fix the problem.

New story on Crumbl posted. The company has publicly acknowledged its sales challenges and is working to improve marketing. One such plan: To start offering a zero calorie dirty soda and a thin chocolate chip cookie for $1.99 later this week. But sales continue to be weak. "October was a disaster," one franchisee said. One six-unit franchisee has filed for bankruptcy and some others are trying to get out. And then I'll just include the segment below. restaurantbusinessonline.com…

McDonald’s Monopoly promotion roping in other companies.

Beverage contracts at fast-food chains are fascinating. There are two big players and they compete hard for that business. They can involve a lot of money and if a franchise is involved it can potentially involve millions in rebate dollars. A few have changed in recent years, including: 2025 Subway from Coke to Pepsi Pizza Ranch from Coke to Pepsi 2023 Culver's from Pepsi to Coke 2018 Arby's Pepsi to Coke Panda Express Pepsi to Coke 2017 Golden Corral Pepsi to Coke When Subway switched, however, franchisees lost a $3,200-per-store rebate that Coke used to pay franchisees. Instead, Pepsi loaned the operators their fountain equipment. Operators are still not happy with that deal.

This sounds like a question for @McFranchisee ... hey zee what's the deal with Coke Zero?

Damn. Pepsi once owned KFC. Now it doesn't even have its beverage contract. nrn.com/quick-service/kfc-u-…

September CPI year over year: 3.7% September menu price inflation: 3.5% Wage growth: 3% Grocery prices: 2.5% Pretty much explains the problem restaurants have right now. Menu prices are rising slightly slower than overall inflation but faster than wages and grocery prices.

In the fast-food business there is not a ton of confidence in a short-term improvement in the economy.

So what's going on at Domino's right now is simple: The company is aggressively pushing price to get customers. That traffic push is helping it win share. But it is hurting franchisee profitability and slowing development. This is the benefit of the company's better unit economics. A typical Domino's makes about $300k/unit more than Papa Johns and $600k/unit more than Pizza Hut. So it can basically push discounts more heavily than its competitors. This will only last so long, however, and the company and the Street will want that traffic to turn into stronger topline results than the 0.3% it reported last quarter. And weakening franchisee profitability will absolutely slow development until those better results, and profitability, start showing up. $DPZ

Domino's believes it is now the No. 1 pizza player on DoorDash and Uber Eats but is not "receiving our fair share yet," referring to its market share. The company expects more growth in that business. $DPZ

Domino's expecting full-year same-store sales to be at the lower end of its low single digit projections. Company also highlighting pressure on franchisee profitability and development challenges. $DPZ

Domino's delivery was down 0.3% last quarter. Carryout up 1%. $DPZ

Domino's had order count growth in both delivery and carryout last quarter despite 0.3% same-store sales. Consumers clearly buying cheaper pizzas. The company believes that the economic "overhang" will remain a problem for the balance of the year. $DPZ

This tells you as much as you need to know about the pizza business and the market Domino's is operating in. The fast-food pizza chain's U.S. same-store sales rose 0.3%, continuing its relatively soft topline results. But relative to its competition it is really dominant. This graphic doesn't include the current quarter. But as Domino's sales have hovered in the low single digits it has outperformed the average of its two publicly traded competitors, Pizza Hut and Papa Johns, by roughly 300 bp to 1,000 bp. It has outperformed those two chains each period since 2021. The degree of that outperformance was at the same level as it was before the pandemic. The pizza business definitely has issues. Third-party delivery has fundamentally changed the level of demand. The brands no longer own the delivery business that they'd been built for. That has reduced occasions, and the result is a lower top line. At this point Domino's is doing well to stay above water at all. $DPZ

Such a weird combo.

Starbucks this morning: "I can confirm for you we are not buying Chipotle." Deal that was almost unthinkably unrealistic proves to be unrealistic. Who knew? But it is worth noting that until that report came out, Chipotle's valuation was down 45% in the two years post-Brian Niccol. And that made its valuation such that it was at least somewhat thinkable that somebody would actually try and buy the chain. The whole report appeared to be a "Brian Niccol wants to fix his old brand" thing and not a "does this deal actually make sense" thing. And the two big reasons this didn't make sense is that it was insanely expensive, likely 3x the next largest restaurant deal of all time, and there was no clear or obvious need for Starbucks to buy Chipotle. But you know it was fun to think about. $SBUX $CMG