Peggy Cherng introduced computerized order entry at Panda’s restaurants by 1983, the year she and Andrew Cherng opened the first Panda Express. Staff could enter meal orders on a computer. In a 2013 account, Peggy described how networking restaurants with headquarters allowed the business to collect information about popular dishes and made ordering easier.
Peggy’s background included a master’s degree in computer science and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri. Before joining the family restaurant business in the early 1980s, she worked in engineering and software development at McDonnell Douglas and Comtal/3M.
“It was clear to me as an engineer that you need a system,” Peggy said in 2013. She described using computers in the 1980s to give the business more information about what customers ordered.
Introducing the technology required staff to learn new routines. Discussing the point-of-sale system in 2015, Peggy said: “It was confusing at the beginning, especially when everyone got nervous and pressed the wrong buttons. But it made everything more efficient.”
From Panda Inn to restaurants beyond the mall
Andrew, who was born in Yangzhou, China, and Peggy, who was born in Burma, now Myanmar, and raised in Hong Kong, met while studying at Baker University in Kansas. Andrew and his father, Ming-Tsai Cherng, opened the full-service Panda Inn in Pasadena, California, in 1973.
The first Panda Express opened at the Glendale Galleria in October 1983 after the mall’s developer invited Andrew to establish a quick-service restaurant there. Mall locations dominated the chain’s first decade.
Andrew said in 2013 that the business initially operated as a collection of individual restaurants with limited infrastructure and control. As it expanded, he concentrated on opening locations while Peggy developed the systems used to run them.
Expansion beyond malls brought different operating demands. Peggy said street locations required marketing and discounts to attract customers. Panda Express also added drive-thru restaurants, with its first in Hesperia, California.
Systems for staffing, feedback and finances
In a 2015 discussion, Peggy described the company’s technology priorities at the time: systems for recruiting, retaining and rewarding employees; customer feedback and evaluations of food-safety trainers; and financial reporting covering daily sales and quarterly analysis. She said operators used the information to identify improvements and compare performance internally.
Panda Restaurant Group, the parent of Panda Express, reached $2.2 billion in revenue in 2014. That figure covered the parent company rather than Panda Express alone.
In its 2025 Lunar New Year announcement, Panda Express said it had more than 2,500 locations across the United States. The company also identified Andrea Cherng as its chief brand officer and said its philanthropic arm, Panda Cares, had raised more than $415 million since 1999.
