Category: The Model
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A 300-Unit Wendy’s Franchisee Just Went Bankrupt. Beef Was Only the Excuse.
Meritage Hospitality Group, operator of 314 Wendy’s locations across 15 states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 18. The company blamed rising beef costs and weak traffic. USDA has wholesale beef running anywhere from 3 to 15 percent higher year over year depending on cut and region. That’s the…
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Starbucks-Chipotle: the only CEO who could price this deal correctly happens to run one of them
A tie-up between Starbucks and Chipotle surfaced in the trade press this week. Chipotle reportedly hired bankers to fend off a possible takeover, and the speculation kept landing on Starbucks as the buyer. Sources close to Chipotle say no bid has been made. The market shrugged. CMG ticked up about…
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Cracker Barrel up 5 percent on a zero-growth quarter. McDonald’s down on a spending plan. That is the whole story.
Two restaurant giants reported this week and the market’s reaction told operators everything about which capital allocation strategy Wall Street wants right now. Cracker Barrel (NASDAQ: CBRL) closed today’s session up more than 5 percent on a fiscal Q4 that showed comparable restaurant sales down 2.1 percent and guest traffic…
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Blackstone Took Chips Off the Table at Jersey Mike’s. It Did Not Exit.
Blackstone sold a slice of Jersey Mike’s at a below-entry valuation and kept the majority stake. What that means for restaurant operators.
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How Same-Store Sales Are Actually Calculated (And Why the Number You See Isn’t Yours)
What SSS actually measures, how public chains compute it, why traffic and check split matter more than the ratio itself, and Q2 2026 chain-by-chain benchmarks.
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Prime Cost Recovery Playbook: When You’re Above 65% and Need to Get Back
The sequenced levers to pull when prime cost creeps above 65 percent. Real numbers, real examples, no filler.
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The Restaurant Labor Cost Benchmark Everyone Quotes Is Wrong (Here’s the Real One)
Real 2026 labor benchmarks by concept, Q2 disclosures from 12 public chains, and the four rules for comparing your labor cost to a public peer honestly.
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Pizza Hut’s Global CEO Walked After LongRange Closed. Here’s the PE Playbook Every Operator Should Read Backwards.
Aaron Powell stepped down as Pizza Hut’s global CEO on August 17, hours after LongRange Capital closed. Here is what the transition tells operators and franchisees to watch for.
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Wendy’s Just Killed Its U.S. President Job. What That Signals to Every Multi-Unit Operator.
Wendy’s eliminated its U.S. President role on August 14, replacing it with a new COO position. The org chart change tells you where the board thinks the money is now.
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Bloomin’ Brands Raised Guidance on Pricing, Not Traffic
BLMN raised full-year EPS guidance on a +4.2% average check while traffic fell across three brands. What every operator should learn.