Signs PDQ Won't Be Around Much Longer

The fast food industry can hardly breathe for fried chicken chains, but PDQ proved that there's always room for one more. First launched in Tampa in 2011, PDQ (which stands for "People Dedicated to Quality") was established by a team with plenty of know-how about quick, reliable dining. One of its founders, Bob Basham, also played a part in founding Outback Steakhouse. Together with co-founder, Nick Reader (who was the CEO of a private equity firm), he bought a small North Carolina chain called Tenders and built PDQ off the back of its success — tweaking the menu for two years until it made its debut on the Sunshine State's culinary scene.

Over a decade later, PDQ Chicken has seen huge growth with 52 locations in Florida alone. But it's not all good news for the fast food restaurant. In recent years, we've spotted a few warning signs which seem to suggest that things aren't going so smoothly for PDQ. At a time when restaurants are closing up shop front, left, and center, here's why we're concerned about the future of PDQ Chicken.

A surefire sign of a struggling fast food chain is dwindling physical locations. Sadly, that's very much the case for PDQ Chicken right now. Fans of the restaurant were blindsided when eight restaurants suddenly closed in the Carolinas in February 2024. PDQ explained that the "difficult decision comes after careful consideration and evaluation of market conditions," with a handful of these locations swiftly replaced with outlets of the Texas burger mainstay Whataburger (via CBS 17).

These closures wouldn't be as alarming if they were isolated. However, PDQ has also culled restaurants en masse in other states in recent years. In 2019, all of its Oklahoma units were closed without explanation, while two PDQ restaurants in New Jersey shut down in late 2023 and two were axed in Arizona in 2020. With these closures, just 58 PDQ restaurants remain nationwide. As we mentioned before, the bulk of these (52, to be precise) are in Florida, while three remain in North Carolina, two are located in New York, and one is in New Jersey. Reports from 2016 claimed that PDQ has a presence in Alabama, Texas, Nevada, and Georgia, meaning the restaurant has backed out of multiple markets over the years — something that's rarely conducive to a flourishing business.

Brands love the idea of replacing or supplementing actual human, salaried workers with machines, but employees and customers themselves? Not so much. That hasn't stopped PDQ Chicken from forging ahead with new self-ordering technology in 2024. Having carried out a successful pilot run in 2023, the Floridian chicken chain started rolling out Samsung Kiosks powered by GRUBBRR as a way of slashing operating costs in all of its stores in April, with the process complete by early June of that same year.

Of course, self-service kiosks aren't exactly rare in the world of fast food. You can find similar machines in the likes of McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and Shake Shack. However, that doesn't make it any easier to stomach the idea that a restaurant is explicitly doing so "to test the effectiveness of its technology in decreasing operating costs, minimizing dependency on labor, increasing revenue and providing guests with a better overall experience" (via Samsung). PDQ also noted that its customers were more likely to choose automated upsells when placing their orders via a kiosk instead of an employee.

There's no shortage of chicken restaurants out there, with Chick-fil-A, Church's Texas Chicken, Popeye's, and more all competing to sell you deep fried poultry. With PDQ entering the chicken game relatively late compared to its competitors, the odds were always going to be stacked against it, but it's still done a decent job of winning over customers through delectable tenders and made-in-house dipping sauces.

However, even those who are a big fan of PDQ's chicken have noted that they're opting to eat elsewhere due to high costs and long wait times. In a Reddit thread debating PDQ versus Chick-fil-A, one user noted that "PDQ is twice the price, and takes twice as long ... I love PDQ, but even when Chick-fil-A is causing traffic problems they're so backed up, they're faster than PDQ, and that's 99% of what I need when I get a fast food chicken sandwich."

Multiple other customers have claimed that the chicken is overpriced compared to other outlets, with one Reddit user responding to the news of their local restaurant's close with the declaration, "Not a bad fast food joint but it didn't offer anything special for the price." Comparing prices between PDQ and a competitor like Chick-fil-A, the restaurant does come up more expensive. Prices vary by location, but, for example, a basic chicken sandwich at a Chick-fil-A in Central Florida costs $5.29, while the equivalent at a nearby PDQ will set you back $6.99.

Employees always offer the best insight into the inner workings of any company, which is why one of our first stops when digging into the current state of PDQ Chicken was its Glassdoor page. Poring through the reviews from both former and current workers, one thing that stuck out most was the complaints about "poor management."

Like any business, experiences are always going to differ from person to person and store to store. Some employees also highlighted plenty of positives about their time at PDQ Chicken. However, there was a recurring trend of criticizing PDQ management. One former employee at a North Carolina store simply declared that "toxic management" was a huge con at their job, while an employee from a unit in Florida went into more detail, claiming that "management has terrible attitude as well as gossiping" and that there was "no professionalism or organization amongst managers."

Meanwhile, another worker from an undisclosed PDQ store also alleged that their location (where they worked for over five years) boasted "atrocious management, and [a] very toxic work environment. Management has favorites and lets everything slide." Yikes. Again, everyone's take on a company is different. Fast food chains in general also don't have the best reputations working environment-wise. However, there's still a concerning pattern at play here.

If there's one thing worse than a restaurant packed out with ravenous customers, it's one that's so suspiciously empty during peak dinner hours that you have to wonder why nobody wants to eat there at all. Even though in-restaurant dining is on the decline for fast food in general, many have noticed that their local PDQ Chicken it is often considerably more empty than its competitors, such as Chick-fil-A. One customer located in Orlando noted on Reddit, "PDQ is always dead when Chick-fil-A is always popping."

With that in mind, some customers were unsurprised to discover that their local PDQ Chicken was closing down for good. One resident of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, took to Reddit upon hearing the news, writing that "this doesn't surprise me one bit. It always looks empty to me." Even the professionals have noticed that traffic is slow. A reviewer for Inside Fort Lauderdale claimed in their review for a now-permanently-closed location in the South Florida city that "the place was dead empty with one other patron" during their visit, and that they "drive past this huge restaurant all the time and the place is always dead empty."

Reviews for any fast food chain are typically mixed, but lately it seems like there are more complaints about the quality of meat at PDQ Chicken. Known primarily for its tenders, sandwiches, and nuggets (although customers are also pretty dedicated to its zucchini fries), meat is the core of PDQ Chicken's business, which is why it's so alarming to see it allegedly on the decline.

As per one Reddit user, "PDQ used to be fantastic years ago. Chicken tenders were the best I've ever had, shoestring fries were unbelievable and the sauces were so damn good. Slowly, everything changed and it all went downhill." More specifically, customers have complained that the nuggets have shrunk in size, the chicken sandwiches no longer taste the same, the meat is increasingly overcooked and dry, and that the quality is inconsistent. Or, as one customer rather eloquently put it, "Pre-COVID they were great. Post-COVID they should change their name to Pretty Dull Quality."

Some people theorize that it's because they've changed the batter recipe, while one alleged employee claimed that the drop in quality is due to the prioritization of convenience over quality. As "freezers started coming in" and "homemade potatoes [were] replaced by frozen waffle fries," they believe that "greed made quality go downhill." Whatever the reason, it's still not promising to hear that some customers have apparently lost faith in PDQ Chicken.

A change in leadership isn't always cause for concern, but it can sometimes signify that something else is going on within a company. Whatever the reason, PDQ Chicken's CEO and co-founder Nick Reader — who launched PDQ with Bob Basham in 2011 — stepped aside in August 2023, naming Kep Sweeney as his successor.

Sweeney had previously served as PDQ Chicken's president since 2020, so he wasn't a total newcomer to the business. Prior to that, he was a consultant for CR3 Partners — a management consulting firm that, interestingly enough, "serves organizations during times of transition, opportunity, or distress." As per an email Reader sent to Restaurant Dive, the transition was positive. "We are excited about our future with Kep at the helm and for all the things we can accomplish these next few years," he wrote. "We've grown; we've fought a pandemic; we maneuvered through poultry inflation; and we've built a great company with a tremendous future."

Since Sweeney stepped in, he's been extremely vocal about his vision for PDQ Chicken's future. As he told QSR Web in September 2023, the chain wants to "look for all types of distribution" and "be at the top of the culinary stack." However, he also acknowledged that PDQ has faced a turbulent market lately, especially in regards to purchasing poultry. "We did raise prices a little, but we can't pass that on to the guest," he said. (A few reviews complaining about high prices would disagree).

PDQ Chicken doesn't publicly share its income or revenue information online, but there's still some information out there about its financials. Restaurant Business Online compiles an annual top 500 ranking of chain restaurants in the U.S., with each company's annual system sales deciding its spot on the list. When it comes to PDQ Chicken, 2021 saw it placed 215th with a year-on-year sales change of -12%.

Two years later, PDQ Chicken dropped to 250. As of 2024, it's fallen even further to 279. Meanwhile, some of its biggest fried chicken competitors — such as Raising Cane's — have climbed the ranks in that time, jumping from 33 to 28 between 2022 and 2024. Admittedly, PDQ Chicken does have far fewer units than Raising Cane's (which boasts nearly 700 restaurants nationwide), but even chains with a smaller or the same presence have managed to outrank PDQ. For example, Condado Tacos boasts the exact same number of units as PDQ Chicken and placed at 246 in 2024, while Boston Market (which is notoriously facing its own hardships) was ranked at 249 with just 27 restaurants.