A sandwich chain is about to go public at a $12 billion valuation. That should tell you everything you need to know about where consumers are spending time.

When you zoom out and look at what’s happening across the food & bev category, it becomes clear this is not a set of isolated wins, it’s a coordinated shift. Last week, PopUp Bagels announced a $300 million valuation, Joe & The Juice secured a minority investment from UAE-based Emirates International Investment Company (EIIC) at a ~$1.8 billion valuation to support global expansion through new stores and franchising, while Goop Kitchen is expanding to NYC and reportedly doing roughly $20,000 per day per location, according to the Wall Street Journal. Just last year, Pura Vida took on a strategic growth investment from TSG Consumer, and La La Land is expanding rapidly across new markets.

Jersey Mike’s didn’t just grow, it scaled with consistency. Store count has more than tripled in the last decade, which is how you end up at a $12 billion IPO. Individually, these are strong businesses but together, they point to something much bigger and the thing I keep coming back to as I build Hot Smart Rich is