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Speaker unverified: belief

21 Apr 2026 Cheeky Pint The economics and trends of the restaurant industry, with Tony Xu of DoorDash

“In fact, if you looked at the census data in America now, and this is also true in China, but if you looked in America, in the last 60 years, I think there's only a couple of years where the number of restaurants in the current year didn't exceed that in the previous year.”

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Speaker unverified
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Not verified from this transcript
Claim type
belief
Recorded
21 Apr 2026
Publisher
Cheeky Pint

Transcript context

…Yeah. Restaurants are very hard businesses, and they're one of the most common businesses that people start, and yet they're incredibly sophisticated, even on a small scale. Yes, and they are also incredibly sought after. In fact, if you looked at the census data in America now, and this is also true in China, but if you looked in America, in the last 60 years, I think there's only a couple of years where the number of restaurants in the current year didn't exceed that in the previous year. Even though they are such difficult businesses because of our love for food, for socializing, being with each other and what a meal represents and how it can connect different people, it continues to grow. In fact, it's the number one type of establishment that malls and a lot of shopping centers want the most of. Talk to me about the trends in the restaurant industry these days. If I think about what people talk about, there's dark kitchens. That was more a few years ago, people were talking about dark kitchens. There's the fact that high-end restaurants can't make any money these days because no one drinks. There's maybe the emergence of new fast casual trends, but also some criticism of the slop bowls and everything. But that's just what people are… You're in it. Tell me what's actually going on in the restaurant industry.…

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