McDonald’s, Shake Shack and Yum Brands
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June 3, 2026
McDonald’s hopes to score a goal with its World Cup promotion. The burger giant is offering another adult happy meal in connection with the FIFA World Cup, featuring a choice of Big Mac or 10-piece chicken McNuggets, fries and a drink and one of nine collectible cups featuring various soccer stars from around the world and, you guessed it, Grimace. There’s also a special World Cup-inspired big Mac sauce cup that comes with the meal. There is also a breakfast meal featuring a sausage McMuffin with egg or sausage biscuit with hash browns. And finally, McDonald’s is offering a happy meal with Squishmallows dressed in world cup inspired jerseys.
Shake Shack has had a tough month. The fast-casual burger chain lowered its expectations for same-store sales, revenue and store-level profits. The company blamed macroeconomic challenges for the sales weakness, and executives told investors on Tuesday that beef costs and in some cases fuel surcharges from distributors contributed to the weakening profits. But the downgraded expectations came just one month after the company last updated guidance, which sent the company’s shares down more than 8% Tuesday.
Tracy Skeans has announced plans to retire at the end of this year. She has served at Yum Brands for more than 25 years, including most recently as its chief operating officer and chief people and culture officer. During her time with the company, she has worked her way up through subsequent roles, including at Pizza Hut where she was president of the international division. In an interview with Nation’s Restaurant News, Skeans said her biggest challenges were spinning off the company’s Yum China division, transitioning into an asset light company and navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic. Her responsibilities will be passed on to the company’s next chief people & culture officer and chief scale officer, both of whom are to be determined. Following her retirement later this year, Skeans will assist in the transition in her advisory role through early 2028.
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About the Authors
Lisa Jennings
Executive Editor, Restaurant Business
Lisa Jennings is a veteran restaurant industry reporter and editor who covers the fast-casual sector, independent restaurants and emerging chain concepts. Her experience includes other industry publications as well as the daily newspaper The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., where she was Food Editor. Her work has been cited in the Los Angeles Times, Business Insider, FoodBeast, The Huffington Post, Time.com and more.
Bret Thorn
Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News
Senior Food & Beverage Editor
Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality.
Hi is responsible for spotting and reporting on F&B trends across the country for both publications.
He is the co-host of a podcast, Menu Talk with Pat and Bret, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities, and other experts in foodservice operations.
From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.
He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN.
A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.
He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.
Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.
He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.
A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends.
Bret Thorn’s Experience:
Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989
Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986
Email: [email protected]
Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary
TikTok: @foodwriterdiary
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