In the competitive world of quick-serve and fast-casual restaurants, select chains are outperforming the pack.
That’s according to the Q1 2025 Quick-Service and Fast-Casual Recap from retail data firm Placer.ai, which revealed that both QSR and fast-casual chain visits followed similar monthly patterns in Q1 2025 – rising in January, dropping in February, and then stabilizing in March.
On a quarterly basis, visits to QSR chains declined by 1.6% in the first quarter 2025. However, select chains saw year-over-year growth, most notably Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers (+12.3%), which saw a double-digit increase compared to the first quarter of 2024. Taco Bell (+3.7%) also saw visit growth.
All other major QSR chains tracked by Placer.ai, including Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s, and more, saw visits decrease over the first three months of 2025.
https://chainstoreage.com/placerai-raising-canes-daves-hot-chicken-top-qsr-fast-casual-sectors-q1