New national frozen carbonated flavor rollout is underway: Frozen Blue Raspberry, Coke & the new Peach Sprite. Usually local markets vote on flavors, with Coke typically mandated and Blue Raspberry most popular, making the third barrel a local option. This decision eliminates all Dr Pepper. No votes were cast. It’s not that I dislike the flavor; the protocol followed was odd. The machine wasn’t subsidized, so three mandated flavors weren’t on the docket when purchased.

100% - ready for a hot take? 🔥 What people don't understand is that we ran the Dollar Menu for over a decade, and the last half of that run was a fight. It was debated internally every year. The margins were never there, and there was always a push to kill it because it simply wasn't sustainable. Today, I can’t build a McDouble for $1 on food cost alone. My margins are at historical lows (not a good thing). Nostalgia doesn't do math, beef and wages have both close to tripled since the Dollar Menu days, but that $1 price is burned into people's heads like it is canonized scripture. 🎯 McD catches every arrow for all inflation fatigue while being, on national average, pretty much the overall cheapest major QSR in the country. Cheaper than BK, Wendy's, SNS, etc. We'll have this exact same conversation in ten years about today’s McD $5 Meal Deal, people will swear it was the last honest price in America but we don’t get credit for it now - like the old dollar menu. The Dollar Menu looks like a better deal now than it ever was then. Memory inflates it even more. That's the real danger of promotions: they don't just move product, they reset what customers think your food should cost, even 10 years down the road. We can be a dollar or two cheaper than BK on the same meal and get zero credit for it, because we're not being compared to BK - we are being compared to McD 2008. That's the fight.

Base Food Cost (%) is such an interesting metric. It’s the lifeblood of any restaurant: the raw cost of a dish divided by the price you charge for it. However, there’s no North Star/corporate standard. If I talk to 10 different operators, I’ll get 10 different answers. It’s interesting to have so many differing opinions on something so fundamental. What base food cost % do you see in your restaurant?