Most Popular Fast Food Restaurants

Popeye's is a bit of an exception and has pollock and I think (sometimes? seasonally?) catfish, popcorn shrimp and that's a lot for a fast food menu (it's pretty good).

My speculation is that Crumbl is basically built around a scheme to make money on franchisers paying franchise fees (and then taking all the risk and going bankrupt when demand flags).

It's an appealing franchise startup because they're literally taking the cookie baking oven from Subway and making a business out of it. So the "build out" doesn't involve anything but installing a very spare countertop, a few tablets and a couple of pieces of kitchen furniture. No actual kitchen required, staff doesn't need any special skills, etc. So they can flood the market at this time with a lot of growth on the back of franchisers.

Crumbl cookies is like any trend, like the cupcake stores were ten years ago and Peace/Love/Donuts were five years ago. People get excited about these big sloppy cookies and they pop up in like an office park or disused strip mall. When the trend fades, they'll go under, but that's on the franchisers; Crumbl's made its money.

I like Jimmy John's, but the last time I went, a group of five literal clowns ordered sandwiches with too much sauce. The whole experience was very uncanny.