America’s fast-food scene had some big winners, and even bigger losers, in Q2 2025
Taco Bell is beating Chipotle, Dutch Bros is crushing Starbucks, and the chicken wars are fiercer than ever.
Much was made of America’s inflation-weary fast-food consumers becoming more price conscious over the last few years.
Now, with Q2 in the rearview mirror, we can ask: which fast-food chains are winning in America?
Let’s start with the biggest in the game. McDonald’s actually had a great quarter, with the Golden Arches posting year-on-year same-store sales growth of 2.5% in the US, digging the Big Mac maker out of a hole after a lackluster year of declines. That was significant considering that the company’s execs characterized the quarter as “challenging,” as visits across the industry by low-income consumers declined by “double-digit” percentages.
Value option Taco Bell put up even better numbers, with same-store sales up 4% — crushing Chipotle in the Mexican-inspired scene as its more expensive competitor struggles to lure customers back for burritos and bowls, with same-store sales dropping 4% year on year.
Topping the list, however, was coffee chain Dutch Bros, where same-store sales rose 6.1% — perhaps benefiting from the difficulties at coffee giant Starbucks, which continues to invest heavily in a bid to reinvigorate the “coffeehouse experience.”
Elsewhere, with consumers’ love for chicken inspiring an entire generation of entrepreneurs to enter the chicken wars, the competition in all things wings has never been more intense — and it seems to be weighing on Yum! Brands’ KFC, where sales dropped 5%. But no company had a worse quarter than fast-casual salad chain Sweetgreen, where revenue resembled spinach being cooked: store sales shrunk a whopping 7.6% in the latest quarter.
Related reading: Battle of the sad desk lunches: Both Cava and Sweetgreen want to become the next Chipotle
