McDonald’s earnings, revenue miss estimates as consumer pullback worsens

I don't understand getting to the drive-thru and seeing those prices and ordering the food anyhow. Why don't you just tell the person, "actually, never mind. this is too expensive?"

Go to a grocery store nearby and grab a deli sandwich and fountain drink. At least it'll be fresh food.

Coke for breakfast, yuck

Edit: you can downvote all you want, I’m not wrong. If you’re drinking coke for breakfast, you’ve got issues, maybe negligent parents.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I do wonder how much of this is brought up from vendors being greedy as well towards McD?

McDonald's has long forgotten what is supposed to be. Cheap, low quality food. Now it is expensive, low quality food. Like you said...you can get a better burger at a restaurant for the same price if not lower. Longhorn Steakhouse has a burger lunch special for $9.99

Also there are fast food alternatives to McDonalds as well.

IMO, Wendy's has much better burgers. Haven't had Carl's Jr's in a long while but I remember their "$6 Burgers" were pretty good.

Burger King, the meat quality seems to have gone downhill. Like an unchewable but in each meat patty. They used to be my favorite.

Edit: the "$6 burger" is now called the thick burger since it now costs more than $6

The headline uses that term because consumer spending, across the economy as a whole, is up and a healthy amount. The "pullback" appears to be in select subsectors where price increases have drastically outstripped core inflation and/or specific companies who have done so without regard for competitors' pricing.

and "consumer saying 'hey waitaminute, i don't actually need half the bullshit they're telling me i can't live without...'"

Some talking heads on NPR were discussing the economy and how this was "the first time Millenials were seeing inflation" and how the economy is just waiting for consumers to "adjust". This in the context of them also basically saying there needs to be more unemployment so wages don't get higher.

It's like victim blaming or something, corporations went on a price gouging spree during the pandemic and now we all have to learn to deal with it so Wallstreet can go back to business as usual, and they're getting all pissy that people's response is simply finding ways to spend less, instead of giving up their last nickle.

Funny how they never talk about corporations needing to tighten their belt or "adjust their expectations" to paying higher wages.

In before shitty comments about downloading the McDonalds app so you can get discounts while selling your private info

There's a pizza place near my house that does wood-fired NY pizza, two giant slices plus a soda, for $7.50.

I dunno how they're making those prices work, but that's the only junk food meal I'm buying these days. I'd pay more for less food of worse quality at any fast food place.

Yeah these companies have gotten so out of control. They act like they are gods gift to earth and we should be grateful for anything they allow us to have. The same goes for employment too. They treat people like shit because they think someone else will come around and be grateful for the opportunity.

I'm not accepting that anymore

Fuck you MC Donalds for forcing me to use your god damn stupid ass terminals for ordering something. There are just a few things I hate with such a passion than this god forsaken pieces of shit. Let me order my food at the counter. Its a much better experience and its hell a lot faster. They are one of the many reasons I don't go there.

as a shareholder i also do not care

Looking at the stock price movement today, it doesn't seem like the shareholders care, in fact it went up a significant amount probably because they were thinking it'd be worse. They'll care if it continues to get worse, but for now they don't seem to mind.

From the article:

“Industry traffic has declined in major markets like the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Germany. In several markets, we also continue to be negatively impacted by the war in the Middle East,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said on the company’s earnings call.

So it does seem to be working to some extent.

I boycotted McD due to this list, UK, and I really don’t miss it. It also got hella expensive and the service got worse.

I must say, boycotting things has had no Ill effect on my life and in fact I likely spend less money than before.

I’ve been boycotting McGenocide, KFC, Coca Cola, etc. for 10 months now and it’s not like it’s any effort at this point. I’m healthy and wasn’t planning on eating that garbage until Palestine is free. And at this point why would I ever eat it again? Shit food, unhealthy, expensive, supporting genocide. Why would I go back to it?

My household has boycotted them due to this so there's definitely some of us.

Their burgers are also filled with soy filler, won’t even fill you up anymore.

This chart really highlights the problem; since 2014 overall inflation is 31% but MCDONALDS inflation is at 100%!

Bring back the burger stools.

We used to be a PROPAH countreh

Value for money is the heart of the problem. The quality has been declining for a good while now. I enjoy the occasional junk food meal on the rare times I need to travel. And McDonalds was almost always been my choice. But it's been a long time since I have even considered them for that quick stop and go meal.

Inflation or not, I will look for the value I get. I ain't getting it at McDonalds anymore.

But their bottom line was affected. That's the point of this post.

I don't see how that's relevant. They still want to sell food. They can coast for a while, but this isn't good for them regardless.

A two cheeseburger meal costs about eight US dollars where I am. For two dollars more, I can get this humongous burrito from a Mexican restaurant across the street loaded with potatoes, beans, and shredded chicken. For two dollars less, I can get two pieces of fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and potato salad from the deli counter at the grocery store literally in the same car park.

When I was deployed, we had a dog at one of our checkpoints that would hang out and follow us. She would eat any MRE we gave her, except the Beef Stew MRE.

We watched this starving dog chomp down everything we gave her, and she had puppies. One sniff of the Beef Stew and she turned her head.

We collectively decided “I ain’t eatin that shit ever again.”

Please don't feed cats human food.

Even if they're shitbags.

being horrible food

This is the most upsetting of all. I worked a combined 4 years at various restaurants in the 90s (from styrofoam packaging to 'queueing' micro-wave eras), the last part while in college and needing a place where I could get long shifts and legal free food -- hint: Cool Runnings. It was maligned often, even then, but it was honest food, still -- it was mass-cooked, but it was beef and actual pickles and actual onions and real ketchup and such. People complain about it being oily or bland, and that's a taste thing we can't refute; but it was beef and bread and cheese, and that job and a bus pass got me most of the way through where rice and beans couldn't.

I don’t understand how McDonald’s was ever popular to begin with.

I agree with every single criticism of McDonald's that is in this discussion.

But my dude, let me tell you how delicious McDonald's was in the 70s and 80s. Their fries were less crispy than today, but OMFG I would have killed for them. The food was good. It was still fast food, it was never what you'd come up with if you cooked the same thing at home, but their burgers and fries were good. How good other stuff on the menu was is probably more of a mixed bag.

I might let someone have the tip of my pinky if they could magic a double cheeseburger and large McD's fries directly from 1979 onto my plate for dinner one time.

Over the decades they have changed ingredients and formulations in addition to (or in some cases because of, I'm sure) all of this corporate greed. What you eat today is not what we were enjoying back then, and I'm sure what we were enjoying back then was not as good as early McDonald's.

But it was at least cheap, fast, and reasonably enjoyable to eat for a time.

I used to have a cat who absolutely loved their French fries. He'd come and beg for them and try to steal them like a dog. When he managed to get one, he'd hold it in his little fist (he had pterodactyly) and eat it like a toddler.

like she was presenting a decayed corpse

I mean.. it quite literally is a ground up corpse. Given this is McDonald's, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a little decayed as well.

Oh, I still buy burgers. I'll just go to a burger establishment to get them instead. Fast food used to be fast (aka convenient) and cheap. Now it's just fast.

Note that I was not a frequent fast food eater before this, but I have pivoted to going to restaurants when I forget my lunch.

I can get a lunch combo with a burger, fries, and a coke for $8 at a local joint that's far superior to anything McDonald's serves. They priced themselves out of being competitive.

It's like $30 to feed me and two elementary aged children with no drinks. McDonald's is the most expensive of all the fast food places. Arby's is much better and often less expensive.

I'm betting what your smelling is the "beef flavor" (actually made of wheat and milk) in their fry seasoning. McDonald's once used beef fat to cook their fries, so when they switched to vegetable oil they started throwing "beef flavor" on their fries to replicate the meaty flavor.

I agree with that, but to me the McDonalds smell smells like piss from someone who is dehydrated. It’s so gross. 🤮

We've been to visit our family in Boo, and gone to I think a Nacka McDonald's.

It's different from the McDonald's I've worked at and seen, in that it's clean and visually appealing. It stands out as being a little up-scale vs American metropolitan McDonald's, which usually seem like late-stage professional surrender, and STILL it stuck out as being "not good enough" for Sweden. I think Trump has been good for people to re-examine their emulation of Americans and decide what they want for themselves. Take-out in Sweden was always expensive, based on visiting over the 20 years since our family grew there and we began visiting, and I barely saw it as a worthwhile thing then; making it more expensive will kill its presence in many countries completely.

Consumer spending continues to show growth and be positive. This is a McDonald's and fast food generally contraction due to the industry's greed -- pricing of fast food has outstripped actual inflation drastically.

Best of luck finding work.

I'm with you, in that I smell a recession. I don't think it will be cataclysmic, but we have a lot of things pointing to some shrinkage:

Consumers are unhappy with greedflation

Housing is fucking expensive and no one has extra cash on hand

Multiple reports of a large percentage people not being able to make bills or worried about making them.

Can we put the "thank you", "donate", and "beep boop" in a collapsed section too? That's a heck of a footer for basically the one line of data I'd otherwise want from this bot.