Digital signage is becoming core QSR infrastructure, boosting ticket sizes, reducing decision fatigue, and strengthening guest trust through real time updates. Operators leveraging dynamic menus and time sensitive promos are benefitting.
AI-powered personalization, shifting health behaviors, and cost pressures are impacting restaurant strategies in 2026. Operators eye takeout growth and rising non alcoholic demand as key levers for expansion.
Minimum wage hikes that took effect Jan. 1 will boost pay for more than 8 million workers, but economists warn they may squeeze employment. Operators are bracing with pricing adjustments and selective automation to offset rising labor costs.
Instacart’s AI driven pricing tests are drawing FTC scrutiny and risking a consumer trust meltdown as shoppers balk at higher than expected costs. Experts warn that without transparency, retailers could push customers toward cheaper rivals and curbside alternatives.
