Content area
Full text
IF EVIDENCE of the French fry's declining popularity wasn't enough bad news for the fast food industry last week, along comes word that the quick-service restaurant industry is falling down on the job when it comes to offering a favorable dining experience, with bad service as the chief culprit.
That's the latest, and perhaps most depressing, finding in a new survey of frequent fast-food consumers, those carbs-be-damned loyalists who own up to going to the likes of McDonald's, Taco Bell or KFC on a regular basis. Fully one-third of QSR goers who were surveyed by NFO World-Group, Greenwich, Conn., claimed dissatisfaction with various aspects of their meal-time experiences. That compared to fewer than 5% of customers expressing dissatisfaction with the "fast casual" restaurants they frequent.
The bad news for QSR players comes as fast casual chains, such as Panera Bread Co., Baja Fresh and Boston Market,...