We have gas prices north of $6 a gallon in the huge fast food market of California because of the Iran conflict. Yet the CEOs of Dutch Bros and Chili's have come on this show the past two weeks to discuss accelerating sales gains in their respective first quarters. Burger King's viral US president Tom Curtis visited me last week on set with five revamped whoppers and told me how BK just posted a huge quarter of its own.

I think consumers are incredibly thoughtful right now on how they're spending their money and as we look at our value proposition, we have one of the strongest value propositions in the industry. I think that they're loving showing up at the window and everyone needs a little brightness in their day.

We will go where the consumer guides us. Right now, our consumers are telling us that they want to come into a restaurant. We've proven to ourselves that if you do offer a better experience and a better core product, that you can absolutely grow.

When you listen to these earnings calls about the consumer pulling back, the reality is the consumer is waiting for great value, and you're going to get great value with chili's and that's why we're winning market share right now.

I love seeing Kevin there in his uh Chili's shirt and then uh BK over there, uh Tom Curtis with his Burger King pin. But I sure will mention uh McDonald's stock has been burning a lot of fat, just reaching lows not seen since August 2024. Wendy's stock has gone up in flames because of atrocious first quarter. Now 83-year-old billionaire and former Wendy's chair Nelson Peltz is reportedly circling the drain on Wendy's with a big. Guys, it's been interesting to see this. Brooke, I'm coming over to you because you and I have had a lot of these conversations with these fast food executives.

There seems to be a real um difference between companies that focus on the higher-end consumer and the low-end consumer and how these chains are doing.

Brian, I was actually even just so to broaden this out even more when you think about the consumer overall, I was talking to the on holding aka on running co-CEO last night. And and what he was saying was that in this sort of environment, there's this aspirational consumer. and I couldn't help but think of our conversations with Starbucks CEO Brian Nickel and Dutch Bros CEO Christine Barone. I mean, this is a consumer that if they want to go out and spend $9 on say a latte or an energy refresher, they're going to do it. But at the same time, you have a company like McDonald's competing for that same consumer, so balancing those extra value meals for that maybe low and middle-income consumer who are under pressure right now even more so, but then that premium consumer who's maybe saying, hey, I can go out and spend on that big arch burger. I think this is an environment where every single food company right now is trying to understand how do I play into value while also offering more premium offerings that will sort of offset that average check size.

All right, uh any interest in playing some of these fast food companies? Theoretically, if you have Starbucks here in the first quarter reporting accelerating sales in the US at a time where gas prices are accelerating, especially in a key market like California, why wouldn't that, why wouldn't those sales even go or gain even faster later this year as knock on wood, some of those gas prices come off the highs?

That's a really good point. I want to just tag on to what Brooke offered up there about Starbucks because I think when you think about the the rational consumer and what it is that you would give up last. And I think you tying into our last segment, the last thing you'd give up is your Apple phone and everything that comes with it. The second to last thing you're going to give up is your Starbucks coffee or Dunkin Donuts if you're me. So, I think that is the the conscious consumer saying, okay, there are certain things that I consider to be staples versus uh discretionary and it certainly feels like those are two of the names that fall into that category.

And as I I just had a story hit on McDonald's uh to our side. I it's really, I mean they didn't have a terrible first quarter, but to see the stock back at August 2024 lows is pretty interesting.

Yeah, completely. McDonald's is down year to date. Uh for these fast food uh chains like McDonald's, like Burger King's, uh like Wendy's, for example, I mean, these it's it's difficult right now for them because you have beef that is is at all-time high prices. I mean, talk about, yes, gasoline prices, but their input costs are huge. So you've got stiff competition, all-time high prices and a consumer that is stretched. If you're talking about the bottom K of the consumer, the lower income consumer, those those consumers are stretched.

Brooke, you trying any of these uh new McDonald's dirty sodas?

No, but I can't wait to try it. I mean, it's like a dirty soda, Dr. Pepper, something like that. and then I there's an energy refresher. I I haven't tried it, but it's on my to-do list soon. I know that they just were rolling out and and I can't wait. And and and I don't like soda, Brian, I don't know if you know that about me. So I loved the high sea, so now this kind of gives me another alternative. But but I don't know if you saw that they're no longer doing the self-serve soda machine. So I'm gonna

Well, I did see and look, um anytime you see a bright colored drink at a fast food restaurant, clearly all the stuff is all very healthy.