I Looked Into Why Restaurant Quality Is Declining. What I Found Is SHOCKING

YouTube.com ^ | 11/28/2025 | Matt Walsh✓

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Video Summary

Matt Walsh argues that chain restaurant food quality has sharply declined in recent years, with nearly identical, poor-tasting food across major brands (Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, etc.).Key points raised:

• Private equity is often blamed, but it’s not the primary or new culprit; PE has owned major chains for decades (e.g., Domino’s to Bain in 1998, Burger King in 2002) and typically buys either growing or failing companies with the goal of long-term profit, not deliberate destruction. Some PE turnarounds (e.g., Arby’s) have been successful.

• Cases like Red Lobster are more complex: it was already in steep decline before PE involvement, hurt further by sale-leasebacks, COVID, rising rates, and competition—not simply “PE killed it.”

• Real drivers of uniform low quality:
  • Extreme supplier consolidation: Leprino Foods controls ~85% of all pizza cheese via patents, freezing methods, and logistics efficiency; chains prioritize shelf life and consistency over taste.

  • Sysco (and to a lesser extent US Foods) supplies pre-packaged, frozen/reheated food to well over half of U.S. restaurants, making menus identical across chains.

  • Shift from fresh, in-house preparation to frozen/reheated items even at non-PE-owned places (e.g., Cracker Barrel now uses days-old frozen biscuits and microwaved meat).

  • Labor changes: fast-food jobs increasingly filled by adults with high rates of substance abuse rather than motivated teens; migrant labor and low standards keep wages down and quality low.

  • General cultural acceptance of mediocrity: customers keep buying despite noticeable decline, so corporations have no incentive to improve.

• Ultimate conclusion: the decline is driven by consolidation, cost-cutting for scale, labor quality, and consumer tolerance—not capitalism or private equity alone. The fix is for consumers to raise standards and stop patronizing low-quality chains until quality returns.

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: copycatmatt; decline; food; labor; quality

[butlerweave]

Who can afford to eat out ?

[Fester Chugabrew]

Shocking? meh.

[Fester Chugabrew]

I get away with it twice a week or so.

[metmom]

We don’t eat out ever.

The food is such poor quality and God knows what’s in it or what disease ridden illegal or muslim did to the food before I got it.

There are some people I simply do not want handling my food.

[CodeToad]

Sysco and co are “Boil in the bag” foods, and many places serve that garbage.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

General cultural acceptance of mediocrity: customers keep buying despite noticeable decline, so corporations have no incentive to improve.

Bingo. Not just in quality of food, but in service…Plus the advent of doordash/ubereats plus Covid drive-thru/pick-up culture means people are okay with things being less than fresh? And more than likely won’t drive back if there’s a mistake or something missing…

[ClearCase_guy]

As a Conservative, I have spent most of my life supporting free markets and “capitalism”. Adam Smith recognized that people pursue their own enlightened self-interest. However, in the modern world, it seems like every business is completely focused on squeezing every last dollar of profit out of their customers — just so that they can “make the numbers” for this quarter. They want a quarterly bonus and they have to really rape the customer to get their bonus. Sure, it may tank the whole business in the long-term as customers try to go elsewhere, but who cares about the eventual bankruptcy of the business?? The only thing that matters is squeezing the customers so that I can look good this quarter.

If this is “capitalism”, then maybe I don’t like it quite as much as I used to.

[Red6]

Yes yes yes!!!

I noticed that too.

There is pre and post Covid.

Post Covid not only did the food quality take a dive, service became poor to non existent.

Crap service at most hotels, retailers, banks, airlines... You can’t even get anyone on a phone anymore and all this AI and multiple choose your option menus is a nice sales pitch but doesn’t really work well.

[CodeToad]

Clickbait title since all of that is extremely well known.

[hanamizu]

“Sysco (and to a lesser extent US Foods) supplies pre-packaged, frozen/reheated food...”

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Sysco also supplies food for schools. When I started teaching, the cooks actually cooked. Now they thaw and reheat. It’s not that they’re lazy, nutrition requirements for school lunches require that they are able to state how much sodium, fat, carbohydrates, protein, etc. etc. are in each serving. Can’t do that easily with home cooked meals. Still not as bad as when Mrs Obama had a say.

[DesertRhino]

Private equity. Everything is a Sysco frozen product prepared with some slight variations.
Everything is the same.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

And it’s not just with food. In our “Made in China” Walmart-ized era , there’s so little respect now for things like craftsmanship, attention to detail, recipes or trades being passed down from generation to generation…

[KarlInOhio]

Are you not SHOCKED by this SHOCKING news?

[Maine Mariner]

Sysco-Wasn’t he the captain on Deep Space Nine?

[CodeToad]

I am shocked it is called shocking.

[CodeToad]

Never saw the show but the name does sound familiar.

[KarlInOhio]

You need more capital letters. Maybe even a boost in font size.

[irishjuggler]

“Extreme supplier consolidation: Leprino Foods controls ~85% of all pizza cheese via patents, freezing methods, and logistics efficiency; chains prioritize shelf life and consistency over taste.”

^^^This. Leprino is simultaneously responsible for the existence of cheap pizza (e.g., your $9.99 Large two-topping special) and its sucky taste. No one can compete with them on price, but the quality of the so-called “cheese” that they manufacture in like 1 minute is pathetic.

[Tipllub]

I see people complain about poor quality and high prices but judging by the crowds I see at these places, they are not voting with their wallets.