This week on Nation's Restaurant News, the top story was “How the 2024 election results will impact the restaurant industry”. Following Democrat underperformance across the country, Donald Trump has secured a historic win over Vice President Kamala Harris to win the presidential election — becoming only the second president to win two nonconsecutive presidential terms, and the first president to take office after being convicted of multiple felonies.
The morning after Trump secured the presidency, the Dow Jones market jumped by 1,300 points, as U.S. stocks surged to record highs, and bitcoin value also jumped 3% to a record $75,000 (the latter likely in response to Trump’s promise to make America “the crypto capital of the planet”). Post-election stock market surges are usually nonpartisan and happen after both Democrat and Republican presidential wins, but what will the business world — particularly the hospitality industry — look like under a second Trump term?
In other news, Portillo’s Inc. reported mixed results for the third quarter ended Sept. 29, as the Chicago-based company saw revenues go up — mainly due to restaurant openings — but same-store sales and traffic declined by 0.9% and 3.5%, respectively.
Like many restaurant companies, Portillo’s is battling an unfavorable consumer environment. This quarter, same-store sales slippage was impacted by commodity inflation and increased labor costs, but CEO Michael Osanloo also mentioned the challenge of competing with heavily discounting brands.
Also, the headline from Yum Brands’ third quarter continued to be its Taco Bell system, which reported a same-store sales increase of 4% in the U.S. and system sales growth of 5%.
Executives also touted the 9% growth in KFC’s international units versus last year, with year-to-date gross openings up nearly 150 units. Also, digital sales exceeded $8 billion during the quarter, representing a digital mix of over 50%.
See what else was trending on NRN.com this week.
