Fast Food Doesn’t Work Like It Used To
Why Fast Food is Splitting in Two
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Sources:https://www.reuters.com/business/yum-brands-begins-strategic-review-struggling-pizza-hut-chain-2025-11-04/
https://apnews.com/article/pizza-hut-closing-us-stores-yum-brands-4479dc3e6fe0221db862f2148fbe1c82
https://www.businessinsider.com/taco-bell-ceo-sean-tresvant-yum-brands-chain-winning-strategy-2026-2
https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/financing/wendys-sales-plunged-last-quarter
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/04/yum-brands-pizza-hut-strategic-options-sale.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/04/yum-brands-yum-q4-2025-earnings.html
https://apnews.com/article/wendys-value-restaurants-closing-cfd9a7865904ce569044ded5a205cf73
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/11/mcdonalds-mcd-q4-2025-earnings.html
Disclaimer: This video is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Myself and The Channel are in no way affiliated with these companies.
32 Comments
Pizza Hut is over priced asf. Idk why they think their pizzas should be valued that high. I went to little Cesar’s and had a way better experience
i cut way back on fast food due to cost and health. That said, if I do go, I feel Carl's Jr is the best bang for your buck. I like it better than Wendys, McDonalds, Burger King or Jack in the Box. I live by an In and Out burger but never go. Hell, even the Mexican mom and pop joint by me makes a great bacon double cheeseburger.
Pizza hut… Recently thought to treat myself to an order of breadsticks. 5 sticks for $8?!! Uffda. And learned my local pizza hut closed. Guess that's a double no.
Every Wendy's near me looks like a ghost town at all times of the day.
Had some Wendy’s recently after about 3 years of absence.. burger diameter has shrunk, the bun has became this enlarged sweet piece of breading, meat and other ingredients look the same as 20 years ago. With that the price has tripled. Is used to go to McDonald’s for mcChicken and fries. Burger King for whoppers. Wendy’s for bacon cheeseburgers. Now theses choices became financially unattractive. Fast food rhymes with cheap food. Now it’s just premium fast food I guess.
Wendys hasnt been the same since they changed from the Yellow aesthetic to the Red.
I rarely get fast food anymore, but in 2022 I paid something like $12 for a Big Mac Meal and was so underwhelmed that I just haven't been back to a McDonalds since. For fast food chains, In N Out still gets me in the door, but in general I try to find a hole in the wall taco place if I'm in a new town. And I think the last time I got Wendys was 2010 and it was pretty awful.
Did you play apex?
I dash some taco bell kinda regularly cause it has good value
Food quality is at lowest standards ever. Might as well eat the dirt the building sits on. Fix the food quality or close the stores.
I have pretty high income and I never go to such because of horrible food quality and their price still feels off. No hesitancy to book something fancy for couple hundred few times a week but when it comes to ordinary dinner at home I better get some frozen fish from Costco or fresh chicken or whatever I can cook quickly. It will be tastier, healthier and yes, cheaper. My last try was Chipotle but I just didn’t feel it as tasty and price was weird to me. We have tons of Mexican food trucks in LA and their burrito is light years ahead tastier for less. So for me it’s not about price per se but fast food just lacks value prop. And yes, sandwich from small grocery is another better alternative. P.S. many those places smell bad as well….
Pricing coupons and rewards. I visit tb and McDonald because of this
Hilariously in my area the biggie deals are each $2 more than what is advertised.
I will join a lot of people down in the comment section. I also do not eat fast food anymore, 1. They are pricing their lowest quality food items as if they are a 5 star restaurant in Dubai. And even though fast food was never a healthy option, in the last few years they drastically increased the amount of poison in their foods.
Burger, fries, and drink, is 15+ at Wendy's. I can go to a real restaurant for that
I drive for a living, mcdonalds and taco bell are both consistent from store to store for me. Also, there are enough cheap options to make it worth it when I can't get home for a meal.
I never eat fast food. Its poison. And overpriced. You have to be seriously mentally compromised to put that slop in your body.
Take pizza Hutt private again and it would bounce back. Private Equity kills everything. Domino's was crap ten years ago and they managed to right the ship. Pizza Hutt could to. I will never eat Taco Bell again. 20 bucks for a burrito and two tacos that were gone in two bites is a rip. Their food was always crap in my opinion, but at least you could get a lot of it on a budget and the rest of my family liked it.
Gee almost like exploiting your employees and customers to create short term profit for shareholders is not good for long term overall profits 😑 As we say in Dutch; «They can’t see further than their nose is long» 🤷♀️
Taco bell is still fairly priced compared to other fast food places. Especially if you use the app and its rewards. The $3 menu items for a quick snack are all generally decent price for calories and taste good, and then they still have the value meal deals too. Compared to a lot of fast food places now that barely have any value options, while also quality constantly dropping, it's a big difference. Taco bell isn't the highest of quality, but it's been consistent for years.
Pizza hut did away with most sit down restaurants and it's really hurt the brand as a whole. Pizza hut used to be an experience, now it's hardly that. I have one of the only sit down restaurants in my area by me, as does my sis by her. Ours no longer even does the buffet, hers actually does. But for the majority of the country sit-down pizza huts aren't even a thing anymore, as they went towards take-out mostly. We couldn't even get our breadsticks as an appetizer, it came with the pizza, because of how their system was designed to only show them everything together for take-out orders. They've sort of fixed it by me, but overall the experience is just not what it used to be.
It's not price but what you get for that, and what the experience of the major chains are all about now. I do spend $21 NYC. for Five Guys cheeseburger single, regular soda and regular or is it small fries. They are kept clean considering what can be in middle of NYC. I go to several of them here.
Wendy's is a 'cold' place. It is not conducive to feeling good or for the appetite, Even though a few weeks ago I got a good deal it was maybe $12 and change for combo. But ordinary taste and texture etc. That's why I pay so much more at Five Guys or Shake Shack.
How many years ago was it when Wendy's put the burgers in an open top fitted box or such and the fries were really fresh and skin on? That was last time it did taste better than average. Note: Every place I go to are storefront versions in Manhattan,
The only time I've been to McDonald's this year was on my birthday, to claim my free 'medium' fries ever since they ditched their $1.50 any size fries app-exclusive deal.
It's crazy that my 2 most favorite fast food brands of pizza and hamburgers growing up in the 90/00s are the poster child of declining quality.
i was wondering why a few years ago (the last time i went to subway) the prices were insane compared to the previous time i went. recently i was perusing wikipedia and saw that subway was bought out by private equity and then it all made sense.
my local family-owned sit-down has better, larger food portions with faster and better service than mcdonalds for a similar price. last i went a few weeks ago i spent $8 and was plenty enough food. the same amount of food at mcdonalds/burger king/dairy queen would be about double that.
Didn’t Wendy’s do dynamic pricing? Or was it some other fast food restaurant?
Taco Bell is thriving because of the Cinnabon Delights. Those things are friggin incredible.
I wished none of them were successful, but to be fair, at this point i feel like that for all US companies.
Excellent investigative reporting as always!! 👍🏾 👍🏾
I am old and Columbus was my home for decades, And that's where Wendy's had there first store in downtown Columbus, The chain was never the same after (Founder) Dave Thomas died, he gave so much to the Columbus community, ( His Hometown ) and really, he was just a average guy, much like his family. So often when I am in a Wendy's, I think Dave would turn over in his grave. Again, the company has never been the same. Will they be around in 20 years?? Send me a memo, I will be 95, no more Frosty for me.😥
He’s good looking!.!.
Is this really rocket surgery at this point? What's the key ingredient in KFC, Popeyes, Wendy's, BK, Pizza Hut, ect? Ever rising pricing, worse / fewer deals, atrocious service, long waits, for smaller size portions that they can't even produce to customer specs.
Do you remember not that many years ago Wendy's used to sell spicy chicken sammich 2 for $5? Well then it went to 2 for $6, $7, 7+ now they got rid of the promo all together. There's some Wendys near me that shut down and others nearby that have employees who will threaten you with violence at the drive through speaker. Then they'll close the place early, make you wait a half hour for your order, and not even bother to even add 3/4 of the ingredients to the items.
McDs has its flaws sure, but they seem to put forth at least a base level of effort to not be total trash (sometimes)
Not cheap, not fast, not food – why would anyone go?