FOR months, restaurant chains have felt better about business as customers who cut back to save money began eating out again. Now, as the spring marketing season approaches, they are concerned about what rising gasoline prices may do to their nascent recovery.
“It can’t be good,” said Dick Lynch, chief marketing officer at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in Atlanta, part of AFC Enterprises, because “there tends to be a correlation between gasoline prices and Q.S.R. sales” — Q.S.R. being the abbreviation for quick-service restaurants.
“We are taking a wait-and-see attitude,” Mr. Lynch said. “We haven’t seen an impact yet, but we’re watching closely.”
Popeyes is promoting meal deals like a Butterfly Shrimp Tackle Box, priced at $4.99, which an actress in a television commercial, portraying an employee, compares with the seafood served by unnamed competitors: “a squished-together fish patty in a bun.”
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