McDonald’s is experiencing a major U.S. sales and traffic decline driven by soaring menu prices, deal fatigue, and the loss of low-income customers.
Key Causes of the Decline
Price Inflation: Average menu prices jumped by roughly 40% between 2019 and 2024, far outpacing general U.S. food-price inflation and turning a traditional budget meal into a luxury for many households. [1, 2]
Low-Income Customer Drop-Off: Spending by households earning under $40,000–$50,000 annually has fallen sharply, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost quarterly revenue as these diners skip fast food or cook at home. [1, 2]
The effective way to order McDonald's is their app, stick to family combo deal with several budget items and use the 25% coupon.
Even then it's still more than cooking at home though.
It's a shithole though. In Europe a joke nickname for McDonald is "the American embassy". Shockingly, I've had McDonald's in 6 countries in Europe because I live here and have young kids, and it's actually not expensive as people make it sound in Europe. A value combo menu meal with 2 burgers and fries/drink plus nuggets is €6
I am so sick of hearing people constantly shilling mcdonalds app (not that you are). Like holy fuck why are you forcing a consumer to have a $500+ product not related to yours in any way to get a somewhat reasonable price on garbage. Fuck the app, fuck mcdonalds.
It's more than that. They've gamified it. You earn points and future benefits so you come back and shop again. You get a free large fry with your order, but you have to order to get that. Same thing the gambling apps do
It don't work for me I hardly ever use my points because the coupons are always a better deal. And you can't use points and the coupon At the same time
I've actually stopped eating at places that require the app to get the discounts (McD for example for drink days). I don't need 30 apps just to eat out, if anything its made me appreciate home cooking again.
Got McDonalds in a pinch this week. They have the monopoly going on so I figured why not. I won a free meal but was immediately turned off when I had to download the app to redeem it.
Thank you, I hardly ever go to McDonald's. Fast food is supposed to be fast, cheap and convenient. We predicated so much of our business strategies in the United States on the business models that fast food capitalized on and now McDonald's isn't even cheap and convenient anymore. No, I shouldn't have to go on an app and play games just to get a fast, cheap and convenient meal. That defeats the purpose of the business model. Their food isn't good enough for what they're charging now.
It used to be “fast, cheap good, pick two,” and for fast food, you picked fast and cheap. Now, it’s “fast, cheap, good, pick one, get none, and also go fuck yourself.”
my experience with mcdonalds yesterday was 0 of 3. the 3 car drive thru line took 15 minutes. the burger was lukewarm and the fries undercooked and underslated. the prices were too high for mcdonalds, as we all know.
I went to McDonalds yesterday for the first time in years and ordered the fish sandwich. That and a drink was almost nine dollars, and the sandwich was so small that if it was a burger you’d call it a slider.
I agree. The only time I would ever get fast food is if I’m on a lunch break and have a half hour to grab something quick, if I’m on my way home from work and feel like grabbing a quick bite. If I’m like planning out my dinner, it’s not gonna be McDonald’s. The convenience was the benefit while getting food that wasn’t as great as other places or you could make at home. That and the low prices, which are no longer low.
The fact that McDondalds want me to take the extra step and use their app is one more step away from convenience. So no thank you. I will not allow you to track my spending, and allow them to dynamically price my meal. Fuck off and fuck them.
I live in a major city and will go to food carts and other options before going to a fast food chain. In no way does this make me better than anyone it’s just I don’t think about eating at McDonalds or any other competitor when I am feeling peckish.
i think they're (ALL OF THEM) are overpricing food (at a discount for people willing who does stuff that gets advertised to them) ... so the companies get money from the advertisement .
I think that's where everything is going these days.
That app-only coupon situation is dastardly. Then they announced they’re looking into algorithmic pricing.
“Pay what we think you can pay.” The very idea that I wasn’t going to get the same price as anyone walking in is an insult.
So I only go to the near grocery for one item at a time. Never a full cart with them, ever again.
Kroger is dead to me.
Discounts are quite good at least here in Europe, as points are easy to get. I’ve got about 2000 points from not even eating that much and a large family meal with two burgers, two fries and xhicken nuggets is about 1500 points
I'm with the boomers on the app thing. If your service requires an app and it's not something I am intending to use almost exclusively via my phone (i.e. Robinhood, MyQ, Delta, etc) then you can go fuck yourself expecting me to let you become a data gathering piece of bloatware on my most important piece of daily use tech.
And if it doesn't require it? If you don't want discounts, you don't get the app. It's that simple. It's not like you have to scan your phone at the McVault to get in.
The app means they get to keep the price conscious customers with app deals, while still charging more money to the customers who don't care and just pay whatever
It's corporate split pricing and it's a deliberate strategy
I get that, Its still a disenguous practice and while im sure its been successful (and allows them to collect and sell your data) its obviously garnering a lot of bad faith and less repeat customers which will hurt them in the long run.
There was an article I had read not too long ago about a guy who legally requested a copy of the data collected about him via the McDonalds app...
It was a several hundred page report, and even included information regarding what his "worth" was to the company, for potential investors of course. Fucking wild, imo.
I don't eat fast food nor have I in quite some time. Never used any of the apps, and never plan to.
Not to defend the app (I have zero food apps on my phone), but you can get low-end smart phones pretty cheap these days, and for a lot of people they are a practically a requirement. Think of banking, 2FA stuff, calling, etc. If you're willing to get a used phone then the price for a relatively decent phone can be $100 or less, plus theres things like Trac Phone out there that have smartphone options.
Point is, there's cheaper options, phones are insanely ingrained in most peoples lives, and the app isn't required. Now if you'll excuse me, this talk of food has me wanting some Wendy's.
I feel like the apps really slowed the drive thru to a halt. I have only ever stopped at those places if the drive through is empty or only has a car or two. It’s been a few years since I’ve been able to get my food in under 20 minutes. I wonder if it was because they were busy preparing pre orders
agreed, i used to stop by a couple times a month for some mcchickens 2/$4 awhile back. I wont ever go to a mcdonalds again unless I'm starving and have literally zero other options. Same with chipotle.
Raise a giant middle finger to your customers, and you'll get one back.
It has to do with data that they extrapolate from the app instead of paying people for that data their gathering it now. That’s why they’re pushing it not cause it makes things easier or streamlined it’s their way of selling your data.
First off, nobody has to have a $500 phone. Plenty of good phones between 100-200. Secondly, McDs is giving you a discount for harvesting data and saving them money through efficiencies. Yes it sucks. I miss coupons haha
I feel the same. If getting a "deal" brings it down to a reasonable price I still feel like it's too much. Deals should be the incentive to go, not the ability.
because they want your data. they make more off your data than the coupons you will use. shit is collecting your data even when you're not using the app or coupons.
They do this so they can basically charge lower prices for the poor people and higher prices for the well off, without explictly advertising it as such.
Have you tried smoking weed? I hear it's good for this kind of problem. Otherwise I guess you could just not think about McDonald's. That's a heavy ask I know.
You can download an app on a 20 dollar prepaid phone at walmart. Mcdonalds has wifi. If it's 2026 and you don't have a smartphone, you shouldn't even be eating mcdonalds since you're obviously penniless if you can't afford a 20-30 dollar smartphone just for using apps on free wifi.
As someone who was involved in app developments like these before...
They are probably doing so to try to reduce their marketing costs and make sure they are only allocating discounts and marketing spend to people actively seeking them... And not to people who just walked into the store, saw a deal and took it.
People like me are very unlikely to want to install the app. So I'm just going to pay full price.
Other more traditional methods like coupons and emails... It's expensive and more difficult to administer physical coupons. And who looks at the junk folder in their email box?
The other advantage is they can confirm your engagement, testing what worked and didn't work. Print and emails are not as easy and reliable to know if someone's actually opened it, print, obviously, you can't tell. And with email, recent crackdowns by Apple have made it harder to track if someone has opened your email.
The mobile app is the shiny answer to a lot of those problems. So the companies are pouring a ton of money into them, and push you pretty hard to use the app to justify that cost of building it.
Agreed. It isn't mcdonalds, it is other restaurants having this BS policy of using an app. It is just one more account, one more app to steal data and take up space that doesn't need to.
While I get that everyone has a smartphone, I also wonder why these companies are so obsessed with apps.
Like every company seems to prop themselves up with app downloads, email lists, etc.
“Enter email for 25% off your first order”
“Create an account to view this in the app”
Fuck, just the other day I noticed when googling something via the iPhone safari search bar, if you switch over to “images” it pulls up the fucking google app now instead of just staying in web.
I keep seeing “@threads” which is I guess some form of social media? It’ll be a post from there that’s usually cut off before the joke or whatever so that you’ll click to expand it and then it’s “see more in the @threads” app. At that point, there’s nothing I care about enough to download your app. I’ll just search the joke (last time I did this it was a stand up joke that didn’t actually have a punchline anyway)
Because like most every company's app, they're collecting and selling your data. Grocery stores are the worst with this, extorting people to download their app or pay double on more and more products. I refuse to DL any company's app to pay normal prices, but I appear to be losing the battle.
"why are you forcing a consumer to have a $500+ product not related to yours in any way to get a somewhat reasonable price on garbage."
A very quick Google search says the following:
"Approximately 91% of American adults own a smartphone.
Overall Mobile Ownership: 98% of U.S. adults own a cell phone of some kind, and roughly 91% of those are smartphones.
Age Variations: Smartphone adoption reaches 95% to 97% among adults aged 18 to 49, while usage remains lower among older demographics."
In other words, if anyone is forcing people to get a smartphone, it sure as hell isn't just McDonald's.
You can choose whether or not you want to install the app, but don't blame them for "forcing" you to have something that pretty much everyone has anyway.
FYI, the Double Quarter Pounder meal at my nearest McDonald's upsized to a large fries and large drink is $13.49. No app needed.
The 12oz New York Strip with two sides at my local Texas Roadhouse, without a drink, is $27.49. Add a soda, tax and tip, and you're easily flirting with a $40 bill.
I'm not sure where Mr. Camelcast lives where a McDonald's meal costs 30% more while a Texas Roadhouse meal costs 30% less, but my guess is fantasy land. Either that, or he's lying his ass off and expects people to believe him without actually looking for themselves. Take your pick.
Twas rhetorical dude, there are a few reasons why they do it, and they gain more than the consumer for each of them. DQ punder meal is 17ish where i live. Thanks tho
i hate how every single product and service is creating a companion app theyre trying to push you to install, but this is a bad take imo. there's plenty of budget phone options well below 500 dollars, no ones forcing you to have the latest gen flagship model.
You can have a basic android phone for under 50 bucks, i personally only buy used phones and buy 2-3 gens below current in order to spend 300 or less, I'm currently using a galaxy S24+ i bought last december for $290 and i'll probably use it until 2030 if not longer
Yeah whenever i bring up not eating fast food my friends start talking about the app, YOU SHOULD USE THE APP, like hell no I am not putting yet another corpo tracker on my phone
My main issue with the McDonald's App is that delivery is ran through DoorDash and they have no way of linking your DoorDash account to the app. Despite their incessant pushing to use the delivery feature. Hell no I ain't paying the delivery fee.
100% agree with your post, but I'd just like to point out that you can buy brand new phones that can install apps like $20 nowadays. Dont even need a contract, just wifi. Cant expect them to run games or anything, but it would technically work. I have also in the past, I've used an emulator on my pc for phone only software when i didn't have one.
I'm American, and I had McDonald's in Belgium (don't @ me, everything else was closed, and I had been drinking). Not a fan of McDonald's in the states. Maybe eath there one or twice a year. But the McDonald's in Belgium tasted like it was made with real ingredients. It tasted so much better, and they served beer. My friend who was with me was addicted to fast food back home. He did not care for the additive free European McDonald's.
American Fast food in every other country is top tier, mainly because of regional items. Asian Mcdonalds/KFC/etc is always better than the garbage here in US.
McDonald's literally has their own internal counterintelligence agency, I have seen it with my own eyes. They'll even go wear sandwich boards and pose as protestors and shit. The office is like an ikea bare essentials version of a movie intelligence command center, with the big displays on the front walls and low-key under the desk workstations, then there's this shelf with all vintage CIA and cointel books on display. Its wild that big companies act like their own independent nation-states
But thats half the issue for some of this. I don't want to use an app. I don't want to use the self checkout. The only difference with MCD is that you actually get a "discount" compared to Walmart.
Been a lot of years so it may have changed, but ate at a McDonalds in Switzerland as a young teenager, and the food there was much better than what we had at the time in the US. Don't know about McDonalds internationally, but in the US, they have only gotten worse since. Don't eat there unless there isn't another option.
Swiss McDonald's was the most expensive thing I've ever seen. Converted exchange rate from Swiss franc to dollars was killer. I paid about $10 for my kid to get a happy meal. Like wtf. It was off the highway in Lucerne though. Just needed a quick stop while crossing from ITA to DEU.
Also, at least 20 years ago, I found the quality of the fast food in Europe was far superior to US. I stopped eating fast food when I moved to the US 20 years ago.
Depends where in Europe, in Netherlands and Germany its like really really expensive and not that high quality you can easily eat in a restaurant and eat like crazy at a Chinese place for like 14 EUR that is usually how much a person spends.
Most people don't want to have to learn how to deal-hunt in apps in order to save a couple bucks at what should be the cheapest restaurant in the country.
You don’t know how bad it really is; McDonalds is so much worse in the US. Fried burgers in lakes of fat, no EU food standards, US McDonalds is really greasy and more unhealthy because there is basically no food health standards just basic hygiene which can be alarmingly low; places that would be shutdown in many countries just get a low rating but can continue serving.
I was shocked the first time I had it in the US, I really thought it would be better, being the original. When I brought my kids to visit the US they also insisted on trying it themselves and were really disappointed. I’m amazed it ever became popular given how bad the original was. Operating in Europe really forced them to improve a lot, also they could not use GM or Corn Oil which gives many restaurants in the US a distinctive weird smell.
Where in Europe is that? Here in Belgium that would be a lot more than 6 euro. 6 chicken nuggets are almost 6 euro and that’s without sauce. Every sauce is another euro.
Only time I go to McDonalds these days is if they have a straight up two-for-one deal. Few weeks ago was the last time I went, got 2 Big Macs for the price of one for 7.49€. Their "bigger deals" here are honestly a joke, I rather go to some local place. Like look at the example screenshot, I'm not paying 15€ for that and that's a "deal/coupon" when I compare what I can get at some local place for 15€.
Their deals/coupons got really shit over the last few years. If your lucky there is like one actually good one out of 15-20.
This shit gets inconvenient after a while. I had an offer a Subway. When I went in, the offer was for online orders to be picked up (I couldn't read that part as it was obscured). So now the worker and I are stood like morons with my sandwich ready, and he's telling me I need to go on my app and order online to get the discount, whilst I'm stood in the shop and people are waiting. I politely declined and I haven't been back since
In Paris it was 10 euro for a royale with cheese. Insane pricing. I thought your catchphrase was Europe is not a country lol. What country do you mean. Because it was also expensive in Italy, Norway, and Croatia
Shouldn't need an app for a correctly priced meal. Also, you are paying for that discount with your information. Their food should not be priced that high in the first place, an app is not an excuse.
yeah which is inconvenient, I only went to mcdicks when i was driving by it and it was convenient. Having to pull into a parking lot, pull up my phone to order on the janky cluttered app, then wait additional time instead of just going through the drive through ruins the whole value proposition of convenience and accessibility and low cost. Even then, the deals weren't good, and you had to earn them with points by spending money there full price, again defeating the point of convenience and ease of access and just being a bad financial proposition. If it's going to take any sort of effort, I will go elsewhere for actual food at a cheaper price and comparable effort.
Mcdicks used to be the cheapest of any fast food, and the quality reflected it, but it was still worth it. Now the price has at least doubled (usually more) for most items, the quality has somehow gone down even worse (qc at locations has plummeted, 50/50 chance you get some fucked up mcchicken with 50lbs of lettuce, a gram of mayo, and the chicken patty not even between the buns, and wait times and convenience has gone away completely.
The enshittification of every industry is getting exhausting. No one seems to be putting any care into creating a quality (yes its mcdonalds, but consistency is still quality) product or holding to any sort of standards anymore, and lifting a giant middle finger to their customer base.
It is time to break up these monopolies, they have gained too much power.
Why the fuck would we use that stupid app to jump through all those hoops to eat dogshit for only slightly stupid prices? Like who the fuck has time for this dumb shit or cares about McDonald’s enough?
Here’s the funny thing. I don’t get McDonald’s very often and now with the prices, I never do. But there’s no world where in order to save money at McDonald’s and make the pricing make sense I’m going to be forced to get on their app for a coupon.
It's ONLY ok if you're single though. It sucks for families because you can only use one deal at a time. It's actually INSANE that I can't use a deal at the same time as my earned points. Even when I use points, you can only select 1 free item.
The fact that I could have 5 monopoly pieces for free items, points from ordering there over time, and they have their own deals to select through, and you can only choose 1 of those every 15 minutes if stupid and they deserve no business for making limitations on that.
Of course for the first time in maybe 2 months, I tried getting a $2 Bacon McGriddle (no cheese) this morning. Take it home, open it, and it's a Sausage egg & cheese on a biscuit.
There’s nothing fast about using a cumbersome app with unpredictable discounts. In fact, I gave up and deleted it after trying 5 different times to find decent discount deals for things I actually wanted to order. The location by my house never had any. So not only did McDonald’s gouge me, but they wasted my time, too. Done and gone. I’m bitter and ticked off at them at this point. All the goodwill they’d earned from me over the years is gone.
McDonalds in Europe is so much better than in the US too. Also a great place to get a big freakin coffee that local places won't provide. I don't want to buy 8 thimbles of coffee in the morning to get going.
That combo is the only one left I still get when it's convenient but everything else is outrageous, I remember when there was a 1x1 deal like hamburger, small fries, a snack wrap sundae and such each for 1€(many many years ago) and maybe just because of that I don't get anything else apart from this one combo for 6€ (2burgers,fries,drink)
I live in Spain. I buy 2 basic cheeseburgers for €1.70 each. No drink. I stuff my face for €3.40 (including tax). That burger is so far down the screen that I'm getting arm strains with the swiping. But there it is. The tastiest burger McDonalds ever made.
It’s cheap on the app because they’re selling your data and monitoring your phone. There’s a huge privacy trade off. Read the user agreement when you download the app.
It's cheaper because it has less overhead. Theoretically if everyone orders on the app that's less employee hours to take all those orders plus increased drive-through speed because she just drive up and speak four numbers or letters and move on. They've increased efficiency by having the customer do some of the work, they offer a little bit of that efficiency back in the form of a coupon to make the customer think that they're getting a savings, but they really just provided unpaid labor in order to be able to obtain
What? no.... that's not how it works at all. Having to pull up to the drive through and say an order number instead of say "I'd like a big mac" does not save McDonalds on overhead.
They give you a discount with the app because you're giving them access to your phone and personal data. You're giving McDonalds the ability to advertise directly to you. You're giving McDonalds the ability to harvest and sell your data.
They have this $6 McDouble 4 McNuggets small fry and small drink meal that’s not so bad. Crazy up charges on it tonight like plus .60 for tea instead of a soda
McDonalds app will take your data and sell it off to marketers and use it themselves to better prey on you. Thats why they're routing you there instead for "deals".
Unpopular opinion: I prefer not giving corporations my data freely, for them to do their bidding with. Those apps and deals only exist to get your data. You can argue it’s no big deal and they aren’t getting anything off you anyway, but apparently it’s a big enough deal to them, and hence why they keep doing it.
I know giving up our data is impossible to avoid. But places like McDonald’s? I’m either paying retail or not eating there at all. The less I eat, the better off I am in so many ways
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u/SkunkDitchRipper 5d ago
They arent really. Their sales are really bad.
McDonald’s is experiencing a major U.S. sales and traffic decline driven by soaring menu prices, deal fatigue, and the loss of low-income customers.
Key Causes of the Decline