I don’t think I care what you think, because you posted nothing but snark. I posted a link to a story about McDonald’s sales and profits.
Their growth in North America has slowed and actually shrunk for the first time from what I have read. Most of this has been attributed to Food costs eating at profits, people being more concerned with healthful eating and Fast casual places stealing the upper end of their market.
One man’s snark is another man’s valid rebuttal, YMMV.
They are planning on reducing store count for the first time since at least 1970, I don’t think normal adequately describes these adjustments.
That’s total store count, they’ve eliminated a lot of non-producing stores along the way. It may be nothing but an indication of overall market saturation and what matters now is who how well the do relative to their competitors. I think they’ll hold the biggest piece of the pie for quite a while, and several of their major competitors and many of the minor ones will disappear long before they do.
Do you have some sort of cite showing that they have eliminated a lot of non-producing stores in the recent past in the US? To clarify what I mean by a lot, is it anything similar to the proposed culling?
No. I mean maybe I could find the numbers, but that is not my point. Culling non-performing stores is not in itself an indication of doom for a company. In the case of a long established company like McDonalds it’s an indication that they are tightening up operations and preparing to ride out the storm. They are in a much better position to do this than recent entries into the market. I believe this explains why their stock has risen sharply in the last few days. All of their competition faces the same pressures they do, unless you think the entire fast food industry is facing collapse then McDonalds looks very strong right now.
No. That’s just plain stupid. Snark is never a rebuttal. It’s by definition pithy and devoid of substance. It’s used when you don’t think an argument is worth an actual rebuttal. It’s a show of contempt for the idea being presented.
And, in this case, it’s also really stupid snark, accusing Kenm of shit he never said. He has every reason to not care about what you think if you continue to argue disingenuously.
Being snobby about it like you are here won’t change that–it only makes it worse. Now I question your “facts,” too.
Read the article, determine the “facts” for yourself.
I am not arguing disingenuously. I specifically quoted the article and gave a rebuttal showing specifically the points in the article that give a much different perspective than the points that Kenm posted.
Out to the entire article, Kenm posted 3 points that showed favorable financial health for MacDonalds. I rebutted with quotes from the article that show a less than favorable picture of the financial health of McDonald’s in the US market.
His reply was to say that his post was not “rosy.” I disagree for the reasons stated.
In reading this article, what leads you to think that it is describing increasing performance and health for the US market? Kenm can only respond by saying that all my quotes and analysis equate to nothing more than baseless snark; do you have anything better to add to this discussion? Perhaps something that would indicate that you have actually read the article?
I think their stock has risen because they are doing very well globally - at least from what I have seen. I am seeing a great disparity between their global performance and their performance in the US, and the poor performance in the US does not mean overall that the company is doing very well. Stock is valued besed upon performance of the company as a whole and not on its performance in a single market.
A lot of what people are talking about in the thread concerns specifics of the US market; the anecdotes and assessments are mostly based upon US customers commenting. Also all the competition being mentioned pertains to the US and North American market AFAIK.
I am making my comments with that general thread direction in mind.
They have closed more stores than they have opened this year. That hasn’t happened in 40 years. This is more than just a normal correction. I don’t think anyone is saying they will go out of business but there is definitely a problem.
I would not mind self serve kiosks! I can self check out grocery shopping…not liking how long it takes but hey…better than having the person behind the counter misunderstanding me about the order. I’ll only have ma’self to blame, or the cook for getting it wrong
I suspect the real use case and desire behind self-service kiosks is for the many people who order exactly the same thing exactly the same way every time. Pretty soon the kiosk software becomes non-anonymous. Wave your phone at it and your order is entered and your credit card charged. All with zero employee involvement and darn near zero seconds spent in front of the kiosk.
That’s the end game where costs go down & store throughput goes up.
As to McDs overall, clearly they’re retrenching a bit at least in the US. I don’t follow the industry closely enough to know for sure whether they’re doing that more or less than their competition and whether they’re more or less successful at it.
When the OP asks if they’re “in trouble”, there’s clearly a big difference between A) they’re circling the drain, B) they’re lagging their peers, C) they’re beating their peers but in the midst of a cyclic decline of the overall economy, and D) they’re beating their peers but in the midst of a secular decline in their industry.
My reading of a couple recent articles puts it somewhere between C & D. And as in all things economic, the little guy will get squashed before the big guy squeals. So the franchisees will take this one up the ass long before corporate takes much of a hit.
That’s a pretty good analysis. A lot of what we hear about McDonalds is based on their image as a whipping boy for broader issues much in the way we hear about WalMart. It makes a good news story to talk about the decline of a giant, but there’s no reason to think they are in trouble, and all the more reason to believe they will survive current market conditions. If McDonalds is in trouble someone ought to call Wall Street and let them know about it.
that may be part of it. When we see regions make useless bullshit gestures “for public health,” McDonald’s seems to be the easiest target. San Francisco bans Happy Meal toys, yet does nothing about the aisles of garbage food lining the freezers of supermarkets.
No comment on your point, but “pithy” means “brief, but substantive and meaningful”, so I’m pretty sure you meant to use a different word there.
One thing I’ve read or heard is that with all-day breakfast, they’re not attracting many new customers, but rather their old customers are simply buying less-expensive stuff all day long. That can’t be good for business.
“Fast food” providers in general are in a cage death match to become “fast, ultra-cheap food.” When most of your clientele is buying only from the dollar menu and only with a cup of water you’re in a whole new business.
The guys with the best cost control will win, but along the way margins will be destroyed. So it will be a Pyhrric victory for somebody. I’d bet that McDs will win this fight, but a lot of franchisees who can’t borrow at 2% APR like Corporate can will be hammered along the way.
I heard a story on NPR about McDonald’s recent troubles. They spoke to the writer of this story from The New Yorker about the changes in American diets. In short, people want healthier food.