Wolfe Consumer Checks

Research evidence excerpt

Wolfe Consumer Checks

June 6, 2026

Earlier this week, our conversations across the restaurant industry highlighted three key themes: 1) growth &

competition in beverages remains a prominent topic, drawing younger customers incrementally during the afternoon

daypart; 2) McDonald's "NEXT" global growth strategy, dominated the conversation at this week's franchisee

convention; and 3) pressure on lower-income consumers persists, with value remaining a key theme and no clear end

in sight. Click here for our full takeaways.

On Wednesday, June 3rd, we attended the Club Wingstop (WING) launch in NYC where we chatted with Alex Kaleida

(CFO) & Sarah Niehaus (IR). We think group ordering is well-timed ahead of the World Cup, and personalized challenges

could be a good mechanism to drive targeted customer behavior. The celeb collab (Love Island alum), in our view, marks

an interesting push into new demographics, which we think could benefit WING over the L-T if proven successful. Click

here for our full takeaways.

Shake Shack (SHAK) lowered its second quarter and full year 2026 guidance, reflecting macro uncertainty, a

challenging competitive landscape, and related impacts. The company made the following updates to 2Q guidance: 2Q

Same-Shack Sales lowered to 2.5-3% (from 3-5%), 2Q total revenue lowered to $415-420M (from $424-428M), 2Q

restaurant-level margins lowered to 22-23% (from 24-24.5%), and 2Q company-operated openings lowered to 16 new

stores (bottom of previous 16-19 range).

Earlier this week we published our monthly 7 Brew (private) Stand Tracker, which monitors monthly openings, maps

new locations, and quantifies competitive proximity to Dutch Bros (BROS) and Starbucks (SBUX) locations (this edition

covers May openings).