, UK

Weekly Global News Wrap Up: Taco Bell to add booze to its menu; Panera's CEO challenges fast food execs to eat their chains' kids' meal for a week; KFC creates first GPS cassette tape

Here is a summary of the most interesting QSR news stories of the week from around the world.

According to a release, KFC US has created the first GPS cassette tape in an effort to both modernize cassette tape technology and pay homage to the classic American road trip.

According to CBC News, fast-food restaurants in Quebec are closing due to unemployment rate nearing all-time low. KFC, McDonald’s, and Tim Hortons are part of the casualties.

According to Daily Meal, Panera Bread has released the largest “clean” kids’ menu of any national restaurant chain which features classic half-size portions of regular menu items such as mac and cheese, broccoli cheddar soup, and Greek salad. Its CEO challenges fast-food executives of McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s to eat their chains’ kids’ meals for a week to take a hard look at their kids’ menu offerings.

According to Food and Wine, Taco Bell is set to open 300 to 350 locations of new drive-thru-less cantinas in the US by 2022, and the majority of the new “urban in-line” locations will serve beer, wine, sangria, and Twisted Freezes or slushies with tequila, rum, or vodka.

According to Daily Mail, the employees of a pizza restaurant in Tasmania has painted the words 'to pineapple on pizza' on the anti-gay marriage campaign billboard – making it read 'It's OK to say NO to pineapple on pizza.' It was after the billboard popped up on the wall outside their Tasmania business.

According to B&T Magazine, a new study by Roy Morgan Research into the satisfaction levels of Australian quick service restaurant customers has found Grill’d burger fans to be fairly satisfied or very satisfied, with a 90.7% satisfaction rate. It was closely followed by Guzman Y Gomez with 89.3%, Crust Pizza (86.6%) and Subway (85.8%). McDonalds’ customer satisfaction was only 66.2%.

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Top News

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Exclusives

Price spread between fast-food and coffee chains exceeds 100%
Core items such as cappuccino and latte prices rose by about 9%, whilst speciality drinks have surged even more sharply. 
Afternoons now drives coffee traffic
Mid-afternoon to early evenings have become the fastest-growing daypart for coffee shops and bakeries.
London leads UK’s coffee and bakery boom
In the UK, there are an average of 1.75 outlets for every 10,000 people.