McDonald's "Comeback" Hits Smaller Chains Hardest

Jonathan Maze is one of the best financial writers covering the restaurant industry 
which is why so many of his articles show up on this website. But, on this topic I think 
he's missed a fine point.

Over the past two winters (2015/2016 and 2016/2017) sales at the national QSR chains 
have been helped by extremely mild winters in the Northeast and Northern Midwest. 
The smaller  regional chains would not have benefited from the mild weather, especially
the large number of smaller chains that have grown up in the South or the Western U.S.

In'N Out, Jack-In-The-Box, or Sonic wouldn't have benefited from this weather pattern. 
Chick-fil-A maybe a little, but they are still mostly in southern and now western areas.

It kind of proves my theory when Jonathan points out that Burger King and Wendy's did
a pretty good job of keeping up with McDonald's. Of course they did, they also have a 
high penetration of stores in the states where winter weather matters.

Opinion from NRN's Jonathan Maze
.