- More than 10% of all US restaurant locations closed during the pandemic.
Dunkin ',Burger King , andSubway were the hardest hit large chains.- But others like Domino's and
Starbucks added locations last year.
10% of all restaurants have closed since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, including hundreds of locations of major chains, according to food industry research firm Dataessential's new report.
No sector of the industry was safe. Closures affected
Even fast food staples were hit by the pandemic. Burger King closed 319 locations, while
Some restaurants did manage to open new locations. Domino's came out on top, opening 358 new stores. This isn't necessarily surprising: pizza and wings were hailed as early winners in the pandemic as Americans increasingly ordered from brands that were already set up to accommodate delivery, like Papa John's and Wingstop.
The rest of the pizza industry saw huge losses, up to $30 billion in March and $50 billion in April. The trend doesn't apply to all pizza chains, though, as Little Caesar's shows.
Starbucks, Taco Bell, and
Starbucks is making efforts to improve drive-thru efficiency with digital drive-thru screens for ordering and handheld devices for baristas to input orders on. Taco Bell cut more than a dozen items in 2020 to make drive-thru lines move more quickly, and sales grew as a result. Chipotle is opening hundreds of Chipotlane drive-thru lanes, with plans to more than double locations.
Most restaurants that added locations have embraced drive-thrus and mobile ordering, while chains that didn't suffered, though this doesn't explain every chain.
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