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Delivery, digital, additive oddities top 2018 blog reads

From the delivery trade that's driving dining trends these days, to leadership stress and hair-growing fry additives, QSRweb blog readers had lots on their minds this year, as proven by the top 10 most-read blogs of 2018.

December 31, 2018

A QSR leader's life is a stressful one, due to the daily competitive angst they have to grind through. And according to our top 10 blogs of the year, a lot of that anxiety revolves around the industry's transition to all things digital and delivery. 

Case in point? Olo CEO Noah Glass's wonderful March 14 blog about his education in the ways and necessities of restaurant delivery upon becoming a new father. At that early time in the year, Glass pointed out three disruptive 2017 trends that made him predict that digital ordering for delivery would double again this past year, along with what he called "far greater use" of online ordering in general. It was our site's No. 1 blog in 2018 and we wonder if he put any money on the soothsaying he put out for all the world to see in that blog.

The other stories in the top three indicate that some issues of great interest to restaurant leaders aren't necessarily issues of common discussion, and that the daily doings of mega-QSR, McDonald's will almost always generate readers, no matter how strange the subject matter may be.  Oh, and by the way, on that last story, McDonald's never did respond with a comment on the subject. 

Filling out the top 10 blogs, the aforementioned delivery and digital issues, held strong, along with labor and marketing. But again, leadership issues around just how difficult it is to command a QSR's ship through uncharted waters were clearly top of mind. Here are the remaining seven top blogs of the year:  

4. QSR brands suffer mightily from old, unintegrated tech by Softtek's Robert Whitehead (no relation to the editor of this site) Nov. 14, 2018

5. Top loyalty program pain points to know before you press 'Go' by blogger, Dan Slavin on March 28, 2018.

6. 4 QSR marketing tactics to take on the Gen Z challenge, by UNiDAYS Alex Gallagher on March 7, 2018. 

7. A crippling QSR leadership problem: Fear at the top, by blogger Bobby Shaw on May 4, 2018.

8. The restaurant labor solution staring us in the face: Older adults, by blogger Matt MacInnis on Sept. 19, 2018. 

9. Restaurant leadership stress: Save yourself, save your staff by QSRweb Editor Shelly Whitehead on June 20, 20018. 

10. LTOs increasingly make the restaurant world go round, by California Tortilla COO Keith Goldman on May 7, 2018.