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McDonald's posts biggest US sales drop since 2020
24 geox 21 5/1/2025, 3:57:25 PM bbc.com ↗
Inflation should impact most fast foods or restaurant in a relative same way.
But McDo used to be the cheapest option to eat, now it is often more expensive than going to a lot of other places or chains.
You can eat at home. This seems more like a sign of the loss of purchasing power among the working poor.
Oftentimes, that's not true for lunch. I thought that was a huge part of McDonald's business: people grabbing a quick and cheap bite to eat for lunch. Followed by soccer moms grabbing a quick dinner or snack for the kids via the drive-thru on the way to practice. Yes, I know you can get better food for just a little bit more, but it's still more money and oftentimes a drive-thru isn't available.
Or maybe these core customers are still going to McDonald's but it's the folks outside of these groups that have fallen off? If you don't need the drive-thru and you have a little more money to spend then you have a lot of options.
Sure they did, but they just ate out more frequently before.
> Inflation his everybody, not just them or their competitors.
The primary mechanism is their customers' loss of disposable/discretionary income.
To add to that, due to class reasons, people who previously ate out at higher end fast food are not going to downshift to McDonalds because of class and perceived low quality at McDonalds.
They will probably eat at home more, which allows them to stay in their current class association.
Anecdote time:
I'm not a fan of McDonald's food, but one thing I once could count on from McDonald's was pretty much the same quality store to store. And as far as fast food went the employees seemed happy an motivated (as much as they can at a fast food place and noticeably more than other fast food places). That's not the case anymore.
Quality store to store and even the same store at different times now varies wildly in my experience and near me there are several "bad stores" where it's pretty clear nobody (employees) is happy and straight up not trying.
Not passing judgment on employees here (it's up to the company to do their thing to keep quality up), but either way McDnonald's to me just isn't reliable.
I occasionally stop at one for a coffee, and most times something goes wrong with my order. It's fascinating how such a crappy firm can still survive.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4119246-the-big-mac-index-m...
This is from January this year: “McDonald's has missed a key sales target, partly due to customers boycotting the firm for its perceived support of Israel. The fast food chain reported its first quarterly sales miss in nearly four years due to weak growth in its international business division.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68209085
These global corporations probably arrogantly ignored the impact of young people especially ceasing and boycotting any future support. Sure maybe this isn’t you and your friends, but whole families and friendship groups across most counties have hard stopped visiting McDonalds regardless of the time of day or the latest burger specials. FAFO.
It may not be obvious to those inside the US, but the rest of the world aren’t feeling any motivation to get behind all American brands right now.