{"id":91863,"date":"2026-04-30T22:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/91863\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:51:12","slug":"wingstop-saw-its-sales-drop-as-company-blames-iran-war-and-high-gas-prices-for-customer-decrease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/91863\/","title":{"rendered":"Wingstop saw its sales drop as company blames Iran war and high gas prices for customer decrease"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The CEO of Wingstop, a popular chicken wing fast-food restaurant, has blamed rising gas prices<\/a> caused by the war in Iran<\/a> on a drop in its sales. <\/p>\n

Michael Skipworth, the company’s CEO, made the comments during the chain’s first-quarter earnings call on Wednesday. He said that a drop in visits from lower-income customers<\/a> paired with some temporary store closures due to winter weather contributed to an 8.7 percent decline in same-restaurant sales during its first quarter. <\/p>\n

He noted that the company experienced a similar pull-back amongst its lower-income customer base in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, Restaurant Dive<\/a> reports. The invasion triggered a spike in gas prices<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Gas prices<\/a> since the outbreak of the Iran war<\/a> have hit a new record high, with the average price per gallon in the U.S. costing consumers nearly $4.30, according to AAA.<\/p>\n

It’s not all bad news for Wingstop. Skipworth said the decline in sales was offset by a 17 percent year-over-year increase in the number of stores it operates. <\/p>\n

\"WingstopWingstop CEO Michael Skipworth blamed high gas prices caused by the war in Iran for an 8.7 percent decrease in restaurant sales during the company’s first quarter of 2026 (Getty)<\/p>\n

In late November 2025, Wingstop opened its 3,000th location. It has opened 97 net new locations since the first quarter 2025, according to a Market Chameleon analysis<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Skipworth said during the call that he expects consumer trends to return to normal fairly quickly. The decline in sales is the fourth consecutive drop for the chain’s same-store sales.<\/p>\n

Rather than discounting its current offerings, Skipworth said the company plans to highlight its sandwich and chicken tender combo offerings which are priced under $10.<\/p>\n

A decline in visits from lower-income customers is especially difficult for Wingstop. The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Alex Kaleida, said that demographic accounts for approximately 25 percent of the chain’s transactions.<\/p>\n

He said that rather than looking for cheaper options, lower-income customers are choosing to spend their money on items that offer larger portions, according to Restaurant Dive.<\/p>\n

\"FinancialFinancial strain caused by high gas prices is causing some Americans to reign in their spending on fast-food. Wingstop blamed an 8.7 percent first quarter sales decrease on the spike in fuel costs caused by the war in Iran (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re actually trading up into larger bundles. We\u2019ve seen the ticket increase, but the items that they\u2019re attaching per ticket has changed, that\u2019s come down a little bit,\u201d Kaleida said. \u201cSo they\u2019re almost kind of looking for that abundance quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CFO said that the company is also rolling out a new loyalty program later this year called Club Wingstop in an effort to encourage repeat visits.<\/p>\n

He said the company has seen some success in retaining lower-income customers through its testing of the loyalty program.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong low-income consumers in our market where we\u2019re testing loyalty, their engagement, their frequency, has been sustaining,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, President Donald Trump told reporters that gas prices will “drop like a rock” when the war in Iran ends, according to Reuters<\/a>. <\/p>\n

There’s no indication that the conflict will conclude anytime soon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1011,18580,32422,13360,147,18581,5084,11192,34,8739,201,20632,256],"class_list":{"0":"post-91863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-agriculture","9":"tag-business-finance-and-industry","10":"tag-chicago-illinois","11":"tag-color-image","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-finance-and-economy","14":"tag-horizontal","15":"tag-illinois","16":"tag-iran","17":"tag-logo","18":"tag-photography","19":"tag-restaurant","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116496111134472589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}