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McDonald's Corp (MCD)
Mark Kalinowski

MCD: Franchisee Survey Part 2 (Updated National Franchising Standards)

McDonald’s plans to release its Q4 earnings after the market close (not the usual before the market open) on Wednesday, February 11th. Today we publish part two of the January 2026 edition of our proprietary McDonald’s Franchisee Survey. As part of this, we asked our franchisee contacts to provide their thoughts and commentary about the updated National Franchising Standards.

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January 28, 2026 No Comments
McDonald's Corp (MCD)
Mark Kalinowski

MCD: Latest Franchisee Survey Leads to Updated Projections

McDonald’s plans to release its fourth-quarter earnings after the market close (not the usual before the market open) on Wednesday, February 11th. Ahead of that, we publish part one of our two-part, proprietary McDonald’s Franchisee Survey today.

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January 27, 2026 No Comments
Restaurant Industry
Mark Kalinowski

Kalinowski Restaurant Industry Index for Q4 Shows No Sequential Improvement from Q3

With this report, we update our data-driven Kalinowski Restaurant Industry Index for Q4 2025 to +1.6%. All in all, this ties for the second-best quarter since Q4 2023’s +3.6% result. But, it’s still over a percentage point below the long-term average, and does not imply any sequential improvement from Q3 2025. It has been a long two years for the domestic restaurant industry!

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January 22, 2026 No Comments
Restaurant Industry
Mark Kalinowski

Updating our Q4 Kalinowski Quick-Service Other Same-Store Sales Index (1/21/2026)

With this report, we update our data-driven Kalinowski Quick-Service Other Index for Q4 to +2.6%. Comparing to Q4 2019 levels – a pre-pandemic basis — the Kalinowski Quick-Service Other Index for Q4 2025 is at +23.1%. These numbers are based on our latest proprietary checks/data as regards same-store sales performance for this segment during October, November, and December.

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January 21, 2026 No Comments
Restaurant Industry
Mark Kalinowski

Updating our Q4 Kalinowski Quick-Service Burger Same-Store Sales Index (1/20/2026)

With this report, we update our data-driven Kalinowski Quick-Service Burger Index for Q4 to +2.0%. Comparing to Q4 2019 levels — a pre-pandemic basis — the Kalinowski Quick-Service Burger Index for Q4 2025 is at +28.8%. These numbers are based on our latest proprietary checks/data as regards same-store sales performance for this segment during October, November, and December.

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January 20, 2026 No Comments
Denny's Corporation (DENN)
Mark Kalinowski

DENN: Dropping Coverage as Acquisition Closed on Friday

With this report, we drop coverage of Denny’s (former ticker symbol DENN) as its acquisition by a trio of privately-held entities closed this past Friday (January 16th). Our former rating, EPS estimates, same-store sales forecasts, and other projections/opinions should no longer be relied upon. (We drop all of our prior EPS estimates and target price with this report.) For more info:

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January 20, 2026 No Comments