McDonald’s crisis, Americans eat the hamburger at home: « worried consumers »

McDonald’s recorded The greatest decline in sales in the United States from the Pandemic peak of Covid-19 five years ago, since the uncertainty caused by duties of President Donald Trump weighs heavily on consumer trust. The turnover decreased by 3.6 percent on an annual basis in the quarter ended in March. This is mainly due to the least number of customers, has declared the largest hamburger chain in the world in the results published on Thursday.

Geopolitical tensions

The CEO of McDonald’s, Chris Kempczinski, said that « consumers today are struggling with uncertainty ». In a conference call with analysts he observed that « geopolitical tensions aggravated uncertainty and The feeling of consumers more than we expected weaken. « 

The collapse of the consumption of the low income band

The top manager added that the restaurant chain is not « immune to the volatility of the sector or to the pressures that our consumers face ». According to Visible Alpha, analysts expected a more modest drop in 1.4% in the sales of the approximately 14 thousand McDonald’s restaurants in the USA.

Second consecutive quarter down

It is the second consecutive quarter that sales record a drop, the most significant after the collapse of 8.7% recorded in the middle of 2020. According to Kempczinski, entrances to low -income consumers in the United States decreased by almost 10% in the first quarter. These are customers who receive income up to $ 45,000 a year. Even for the medium -income band, from $ 45 thousand to 90 thousand a year, the entrances to restaurants have decreased at a similar rhythm, which suggests greater economic concern among consumers.

The difficulties of other food groups

« People are simply becoming more judicious, » said Kempczinski, adding that some customers now have breakfast (and lunch) at home instead of at the McDonald’s, or they completely jump these meals. These numbers reflect a similar drop quarterly sales in the United States of other food groups and drinks, such as Starbucks, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Kfc and Yum Brands pizza. On the contrary, Yum’s US division, Taco Bell, recorded a 9% increase in sales to the same points of sale.

The « 5 -dollar meal » offer

McDonald’s continued to extend promotions such as the « 5 dollar meal » introduced last summer to attract consumers in his restaurants. He also launched limited time offers as a combination of big Macs, fries, drink and collector characters on the occasion of the release of « A Minecraft Movie« This month, report An article by the Financial Times. But evidently the landslide of the middle class in the United States has not slowed down this drop.

The drop of 1% on a global scale

Global sales instead decreased by 1% on an annual basis in the first quarter, with the weakness of countries such as the United Kingdom partially compensated by higher sales in markets such as the Middle East And Japan. Until recently, sales in the Middle East had been affected by the boycott related to Gaza. But now they are left.

Anti-American sentiment grows

Kempczinski also revealed un poll among consumers in the main world markets to find out what they think of the United States, American brands and McDonald’sreconstructed the ft. Although there were no changes in public opinion on the McDonald’s brand, many have reported that they would reduce the purchase of American brands. The surveys highlighted an increase of 8-10 percentage points of the « anti-American feeling », in particular in northern Europe and in Canada. The turnover of McDonald’s thus dropped by 3% to 5.96 billion dollars, below the estimate of analysts of 6.12 billion dollars. Even net profit has disappointed expectations, with a drop of 3% to 1.87 billion.