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Year in review: Top 10 headlines of 2015

In no particular order, here are 10 headlines that received the most attention from our readers.

December 30, 2015 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com

With just a couple days left in 2015, it's time to present the year's most-read stories. In no particular order, here are 10 headlines that received the most attention from our readers.

6 ways to build a catering sales culture inside your restaurant
A strong sales culture in any company creates an environment where everyone's in sales, according to Erle Dardick, who wrote thr blog. He discusses six ways to help restaurants build a catering sales culture

Debunking Top 5 restaurant emv myths
Chester Ritchie, of NCR Merchant Solutions, gives an in-depth look at the EMV liability shift that took effect Oct. 1.

Why Chipotle is wrong about loyalty
Punchh’s Jitendra Gupta calls out Chipotle’s chief creative and development officer for not giving more clout to mobile loyalty.

Back to the future: 6 innovative technologies saving restaurants money and changing the industry
This story looks at how the acceleration of restaurant technology is changing the industry. It specifically discusses table-tracking with RFID, digital place-based networks, text analytics, digital workforce management and energy analytics, waitlisting and managing vehicle traffic.

6 must-do strategies to attract millennials
Knowing that millennials yield $1.7 trillion in direct spending power is too much for restaurants to ignore, which is why many have changed everything from menu items to service models in an effort to indulge the 80 million millennial consumers. This story dives into the specific ways restaurants can best reach millennials.

Evolution of oven technology drives fast casual pizza segment
One of the major headlines in the restaurant industry throughout the past three years has been the swift growth of the top-your-own pizza segment. New oven technology has made that growth possible, and this story explains why and how.

Is Panera 2.0 starting to pay off?
Panera Bread has gained a lot of attention for implementing Panera 2.0, a suite of technology updates aimed and improving the customer experience that started rolling out in 2014. In this story, FastCasual.com interviews Panera EVP- Chief Transformation and Growth Officer Blaine Hurst to find out if it was a success.

Chipotle closes 43 restaurants due to E. coli reports
Chipotle Mexican Grill has had a tough years with sales and stock prices seeing  steady declines after the CDC reported several incidents of E. coli outbreaks throughout nine states. This story was one of the first to cover the outbreaks in detail.

Taco Bell shuts down fast casual experiment
YUM! Brands seems to be taking the adage, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again," more than a bit seriously. For the past two years, it's been trying — and failing — and trying to break into the fast casual space. This story reportd how Taco Bell's spinoff, U.S. Taco Company, closed just 14 months after it opened the concept in Huntington Beach, California.

Will silence prove deadly for Jimmy John's?
The killing of Cecil the lion put big game hunting at the forefront of news reels and consumer minds this year, and some consumers directed their rage at Jimmy John's after seeing photos of the chain’s owners posing in photos beside dead animals. Tweeters posted a variety of comments urging customers to boycott the chain after viewing the photos posted on social media.

What was your favorite headline of the year? Leave it in the comment section below.

About Cherryh Cansler

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Cherryh Cansler is VP of Events for Networld Media Group and publisher of FastCasual.com. She has been covering the restaurant industry since 2012. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine, among many others.

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