Visits to certain categories of quick-service restaurants are down, suggesting inflation may be tempering consumer spending.

New data from Placer.ai reveals that while year-over-year visits to burger leaders like McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King are up, year-over-three-year visits are down. The firm's Shira Petrack notes that while Placer.ai's numbers don't include all drive-thru and delivery orders, "May 2022 Yo3Y foot traffic to the leading QSR burger brands underperformed offline visits trends to the wider fast food and QSR category."

McDonald's is leading the big three, with Yo3Y in April 2022 up by 6.3% and May 2022 Yo3Y visits up by 3.8%. The company has also shown the strongest year over year growth with monthly year over year foot traffic consistently up by double digits each month—all against the backdrop of a shrinking overall store footprint. Meanwhile, foot traffic to Wendy's and Burger King in May was down 12.1% and 12.4%, respectively, year-over-three years.