Food & beverage

Rent, labor, and the franchise fee decide a restaurant, chain or not; shelf space and a cheaper recipe decide a packaged food or drink brand. Each case study is the written companion to a Modern MBA episode, read off franchise disclosures and per-store numbers.

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23 case studies

Case study — Food & beverageWhy your favorite brands got so much worseRecipes got cheaper and portions smaller across American brands at the same moment. Not a coincidence.10 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy the dairy industry is failingOatly lost $344M in a year and Dean Foods went bankrupt. Milk is priced by politics, and the subsidies stop at the farm gate.16 min readCase study — Food & beverageHow Papa John’s buried Papa JohnSix regimes in thirty years, four of them engineered by the founder. The filings contradict his version.13 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy omakase is suddenly everywhereNo servers, no walk-ins, no storefront, revenue booked before the door opens. Omakase deleted every cost that kills a restaurant.11 min readCase study — Food & beverageHow Burger King lost second place to Wendy's3G took Burger King's margin from 15% to 69%. Its average restaurant still sold exactly what it had five years before.10 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy Americans stopped drinking sodaBig Soda spent years funding scientists to blame exercise instead of sugar, and lost to a Midwest seltzer it never took seriously.8 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy Starbucks is fighting its own baristasIt can afford the raise. What it cannot afford is an operating margin that looks like a restaurant's.12 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy Chipotle got so much worseA weekly staple became a byword for small portions and high prices in under ten years. Here is what broke.10 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy fast food can't make a good burgerMcDonald's makes more from rent than from food. That is why it can't fix the burger — and why four LA independents can.13 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy pizza is the best restaurant businessThe one restaurant category where independents beat the chains on margin and almost nobody goes bankrupt.10 min readCase study — Food & beverageHow much a Texas BBQ joint actually makesOne in three fail, brisket yields 40%, and the biggest variable in whether you survive is one magazine editor's palate.16 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy Taco Bell got so expensiveThe most profitable chain in fast food is being squeezed hardest, and the reason is KFC and Pizza Hut.11 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy buffets went extinctThe buffet did not lose to a better restaurant. It lost to the deli counter twenty feet away, and to its own cost structure.16 min readCase study — Food & beverageHow McDonald's recovered from its worst yearThe turnaround began when McDonald's stopped trying to be something else and started collecting rent instead.10 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy nobody wants to own ice cream anymoreUnilever, Nestlé, and Kroger all owned the biggest brands in ice cream. All three decided it wasn't worth keeping.16 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy the Popeyes chicken sandwich was so goodThe sandwich came from a decade of R&D discipline its new owners inherited and did not build. That is the problem.14 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy donut shops out-earn Krispy KremeThe average Krispy Kreme grosses $119K a year. A 650 sq ft Portland shop grosses $600K at a 40% margin.12 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy diners never go out of businessThree chains, three opposite strategies, and identical 13% store margins. Diners survive everything and grow at nothing.14 min readCase study — Food & beverageHow much a taco truck actually makesTwo sisters run fifteen unbranded taco stands in LA grossing $7.58M a year. Almost nobody knows the business exists.11 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy bubble tea is so profitableA Sawtelle boba shop grosses $1.08M at a 30% store margin on $9 orders. The moat is the supply chain, not the brand.11 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy Crumbl won't lastMrs. Fields had its decade too. Crumbl store margins fell from 30% to 10% while corporate went from $4M to $152M.15 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy the most profitable steakhouses grow the slowestA Ruth's Chris grosses $5.5 million a year at an 11% margin, and the chain opens about two new ones a year on purpose.9 min readCase study — Food & beverageWhy KFC got so bad in AmericaThe same company, the same recipe, two outcomes. What changed was who owns the buildings and cooks the chicken.11 min read