McDonald's opened somewhere around 1,000 new U.S. locations in 2025. That's not a typo. A thousand restaurants in a single year, and they're not slowing down for 2026.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Earl, what does a burger chain have to do with smoking brisket? Stay with me.
When the largest food service operation on the planet makes moves this aggressive, it tells you something about where the money's going. Where consumer spending is headed. And more importantly for you — what kind of volume expectations are becoming the new normal for anyone trying to make a living feeding people.
The Volume Game Changed While Some of You Weren't Looking
I've been watching the restaurant numbers come out of Nation's Restaurant News, and the story isn't just McDonald's. Jersey Mike's is pushing expansion hard. Layne's Chicken Fingers — a brand half of you probably haven't heard of — is chasing what they're calling "massive franchise growth." Even Red Lobster, after all their troubles, is part of conversations about the Top 500 chains repositioning for growth.
What this tells me: operators who figured out how to scale are the ones getting capital. The ones who can push consistent product through multiple locations without quality falling apart.
That's the game now.
I had a guy call me last month from outside Houston. Running two BBQ joints, looking at opening a third. His question wasn't about flavor profiles or wood selection — he wanted to know if his current equipment could handle the production load if he centralized his smoking operation and distributed to all three locations from one kitchen.
Smart question. Wrong equipment. He was running a competitor's unit I won't name, but you'd recognize it. Thin gauge steel, temperature swings of 20 degrees every time the fan cycled. Fine for one location doing 300 pounds a day. Disaster for what he was planning.
What High-Volume Actually Means for Your Smoker
Here's where I get a little worked up, so bear with me.
When chains like McDonald's talk about opening a thousand locations, they're not doing it with equipment that "mostly works." They're not gambling on inconsistent cook times or replacement parts shipping from overseas. They've got systems dialed in so tight that a Big Mac in Amarillo tastes exactly like one in Austin.
You don't have to like their food — I'm not exactly a regular customer — but you have to respect the operational discipline.
And that's what separates professional BBQ operations from the hobbyists who somehow ended up with a restaurant lease. Discipline. Repeatability. Equipment that doesn't fight you.
I've run my catering operation for going on 18 years now. Twelve units spread across East Texas. When I'm cooking for a corporate event doing 800 plates, I can't afford a smoker that runs hot on the left side. I can't afford a rotisserie motor that burns out mid-cook. I definitely can't afford to be on hold with some distributor trying to track down a replacement igniter that's "backordered from the manufacturer."
This is why I've been running Southern Pride units across my whole fleet. The SP-700 specifically. That rotisserie system just keeps turning. I've got units with over a decade on them, original motors, still holding temp within five degrees of where I set them.
The Parts Problem Nobody Talks About
Let me tell you about a conversation I had at a competition in Lockhart a few years back. Guy running an Ole Hickory — decent smoker, I'll give credit where it's due, their build quality isn't terrible — but he'd been waiting three weeks for a replacement thermostat. Three weeks. In the middle of his busy season.
He was running his backup unit, which was undersized for his operation, turning away catering jobs because he couldn't guarantee capacity. Losing money every day that thermostat sat on a truck somewhere.
This is the thing about running commercial equipment: the smoker itself is only half the equation. You need a parts supply chain that actually works. You need technical support from people who've actually run these units in production environments, not just read the manual.
We stock Southern Pride parts domestically. When someone calls southernprideoftexas.com needing a burner assembly or a new temperature probe, we're not putting them on a waitlist. That's not a sales pitch — it's just how we've set up the operation. Because I've been the guy waiting on parts, and it's a terrible way to run a business.
Matching Equipment to Operation Size
The McDonald's expansion model works because they've figured out exactly what equipment profile each location needs. They're not putting a flagship kitchen in a small-town drive-through. They're sizing appropriately.
Same principle applies to commercial smoking, and I see operators get this wrong constantly.
If you're running a mid-volume restaurant — maybe 150-200 pounds of product a day — the SP-500 is probably your sweet spot. Enough capacity that you're not running double shifts on the smoker, not so much that you're wasting fuel heating empty space.
High-volume single location or a two-three unit operation with centralized production? That's SP-700 territory. It's what I run for catering, and there's a reason.
Large-scale production — I'm talking commissary kitchens, major wholesale operations — that's when you're looking at the SP-1000 or bigger. I know a processor outside of Dallas running a 2000 series that pushes out product for grocery store BBQ programs across three states. Different scale entirely.
And for you mobile operators and caterers who need to bring the smoke to the customer, the MLR series was built for exactly that. Trailer-mounted, same quality internals as the stationary units.
Why the Chains Are Winning (And What You Can Steal From Them)
Back to McDonald's for a second.
Their expansion isn't just about real estate. They've been making noise about protein lately — trying to remind people they're not just a burger chain, that they've got chicken options, that they're competing with the Chick-fil-A's and Raising Cane's of the world.
Menu strategy matters. Fuzzy's is doing seasonal rotations. Wendy's is throwing watermelon and cookie dough at the wall. Everyone's trying to give customers a reason to come back.
For BBQ operators, the lesson isn't to start serving watermelon brisket. Please don't. The lesson is that the chains winning right now are the ones who can execute consistently while also staying relevant.
You can't do that if your equipment is the bottleneck. You can't experiment with a smoked turkey program or a weekend-only burnt ends special if your smoker is already maxed out just keeping up with base demand.
I've seen operators turn down profitable opportunities — catering contracts, wholesale accounts, even just running a proper lunch rush — because their equipment couldn't scale. That's leaving money on the table.
A Word on the Cheap Imports
Every few months someone asks me about the Chinese-manufactured smokers that have been hitting the market. I'll be honest with you.
They're cheap. Some of them look pretty good on paper. And if you're cooking for your family reunion, fine, whatever, do what you want.
But I've been inside the kitchens of operators who tried to go that route for commercial work. The welds aren't consistent. The insulation is thin enough that you're fighting ambient temperature all day. And when something breaks — and something will break — you're looking at parts compatibility issues, warranty support that doesn't exist, and service techs who've never seen the unit before.
Southern Pride is made in the USA. Has been since the beginning. The steel is thicker. The engineering is proven across thousands of commercial installations. When you call for support, you're talking to people who understand commercial food service, not a call center reading from a script.
That matters when you're running a business.
Where This Is All Going
The trends coming out of the industry reports point toward consolidation. The operators who figure out how to scale — whether that's multiple locations, expanded catering, or wholesale distribution — are going to be the ones still standing when the market shakes out.
McDonald's opening a thousand restaurants in a year isn't just a fast food story. It's a signal about what's required to compete at scale in American food service.
You don't have to become a chain. But you do have to think like one when it comes to your equipment decisions. Consistency. Reliability. A supply chain that doesn't leave you stranded.
That's the game now. And the operators who get it are the ones I see coming back year after year, adding units to their fleet, building something that lasts.
The rest are the ones calling me in a panic because their smoker went down on a Friday afternoon before a 600-person event. I'll help them if I can. But I'd rather help you make the right choice before you're in that situation.
Give us a call at Southern Pride of Texas if you want to talk through what makes sense for your operation. We've been doing this a long time. We'll shoot you straight.
Resources: Southern Pride of Texas | Southern Pride | National Barbecue & Grilling Association
#BBQ #TexasBBQ #CommercialBBQ #SouthernPrideSmokers #BBQLife #SmokeMaster
Photo by Hamit Ferhat on Pexels.
About the Author: Earl has been competing in sanctioned BBQ events since the early 1990s and operates a commercial catering operation in Southeast Texas.