Fast Food News Round Up Week of 1/18 – Burger King to sell beer, McDonald’s sales up, and Pizza Hut vs. Domino’s continued.

By Jesse | January 24, 2010

Welcome back to another fast food news round up by fast food reviewed. Let’s get down to business.

Burger King will start selling beer at and some of their locations. That’s right. Beer and whoppers. The first one is set to open in Miami, selling beer to thirsty tourists in South Beach. No surprise here, since Miami is also home to BK. Burger King is sticking with domestic beers like Miller and Budweiser to start, but may look into other options down the road. Other locations are being explored in other touristy areas like Times Square and Las Vegas. Beers will even come as a value meal option.

This is obviously a to move combat decreasing fast food revenue over the last year. While it seem seedy and ethically questionable to serve beer at fast food restaurants, I don’t see it as being much worse than your average TGI Fridays, which serve beer. As long as they keep it to isolated locations and avoid over serving, it shouldn’t be a problem.

In somewhat related news, McDonald’s posted 4th quarter earnings this week, with same store sales jumping 23%. This is good news for the Golden Arches after declines last month. Sounds like their expanded dollar menu strategy is paying off. This is opposite the overall trend in the industry, while many chains are struggling (or serving beer) in the face of decline, McDonald’s has managed to grow sales while maintaining prices and margins. For more info, go here.

The best news of the week: I couldn’t find a single case of food contamination or related news story this week. Hurray for fast food!

One last thing, my friend and web developer at Chriscoyier.net created a hysterical graph plotting the quality of Pizza Hut against Dominos over time. Check it out here

Congrats to the Saints in the Colts. See you next week for more news.

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