When Weight Loss Drugs Meet All-You-Can-Eat, Some Chains Get Left Behind

As needles replace napkins, the era of endless shrimp has never looked so… finite. GLP-1 drugs, now a blockbuster weight-loss fix, are set to erase $30B to $55B in annual food and beverage sales by 2030. With sales already lagging their pre-pandemic peak, some sit-down chains look dangerously close to life support.

• Roughly one in eight US adults already use GLP-1s, with the average user eating 21% fewer calories than before — a customer base JPMorgan expects to triple by 2030.
• In particular, GLP-1 users are cutting back most on snacks, breakfast, and dinner — helping push US restaurant traffic roughly 2% below last year and beneath 2019 levels.

What’s cooking: As less becomes more, the gap between losers and winners is widening fast. With ~100 unprofitable locations, the all-you-can-eat sensation Red Lobster has been in the red in four of its past five quarters and still sits roughly 20% below its pre-bankruptcy sales. On the flip side, CelsiusCELH

pulled in $2.5B in revenue last year, up 86%, while pitching its cans as protein-boosting “multivitamins.” In a world of smaller portions and maximizing protein per calorie, not every food stock is still on the menu.