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A Historic Anniversary For McDonalds: 12 Months Without An Increase In US Sales
October was a historic month for McDonalds. While the investing public was already well aware that things are bad and getting worse when it comes to demand for the iconic hamburger following MCD's 30% plunge in Q3 profit, moments ago the troubled fast-food chain reported that in the first month of the fourth quarter it celebrated a tragic anniversary: one year of US comp store sales without a single increase, following a 1% drop in US October sales! This is the first time in history when MCD has anniversaried negative same store sales in the US.
And global MCD sales:
According to AP, "McDonald's Corp. says that a key global sales figure slipped 0.5 percent in October, with weakness in the U.S. and ongoing difficulties from a food-safety scandal in China weighing down its business. The world's biggest hamburger chain said Monday that the decline in global sales at locations open at least 13 months included a 1 percent drop in the U.S. and a 4.2 percent decline for the unit that includes the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Africa. McDonald's APMEA division has been trying to bounce back since the summer, when a TV report in China showed workers at one of its suppliers repackaging meat that was alleged to be expired. The claim has not been publicly confirmed by the supplier or the government."
And while nobody can blame Asian consumers of MCD to be revolted based on finally learning what they are eating, the US "spin" that low-price consumers are simply migrating to such much higher priced venues as Chipotle, are quite ridiculous. For a better idea of what is causing the collapse in end demand for MCD a far better explanation may be the previously noted implosion in Millennial purchasing power, as well as the relentless surge in workers 55 and older...
... who are too busy working to be able to afford the McNuggets mystery meat.
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If only we could go 12 months without an increase in waist size.
Oh well... pass me that big mac.
McDonald's is screwed now cause they made their menu moar and moar expensive to boost margins
Just like GM relying on high price, high margin cars and trucks to boost EPS
And I have no idea how insanely overpriced Starbucks will survive much longer.
Long White Castle..
Clown: Sales up up up.
I'm luvin' it: Nothingburger.
It ain't that that tough. Ghetto culture, ghetto food, ghetto workers= Ghetto sales.
pods
Um, actually, perhaps the REAL problem is that we have (SCHOCK) inflation, and the cost of materials, even pink slime, is increasing? Of course, Gubmin data hides this fact. But in reality we all know, except Obumboy...
A limerick for poor Mayor McCheese
He has the deflation disease
Grimace is crying
His business is dying
Consumers are facing a squeeze
nicely done TLK...
Of course it is inflation. Chick Fil-A is dying:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-28/chick-fil-a-stole-kfcs-c...
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2014/03/report-chick-fil...
Seems inflation only affects stores that go for the ghetto marketing ploy I guess?
pods
so it's "ghetto" vs. the "white Christian" fast fud eaters now?
whatever derivative excuse works. . .
praise jeebus, pass the CAFO white meat!!
What has caught my attention is the marketing of McD's and who they market to. They market more heavily to a certain ethnic group because they have become a large portion of their customers, which changes the companies "brand" and it can snowballs. A couple of the beer companies have been trapped by this. McD's "ribs" scare me.
And it's is not just McD's, KFC went this way as are some failing dept stores.
It's a tough market though at today price for decent beef (not saying McD uses decent beef).
dude, MickeyD's is a global corporation, and their "marketing" is territorial, like any good corporation. I agree they market to "a certain ethnic group" when purchasing ad time in amrkn cities, but if you think that's a "global" tactic, then you need to get out more.
cathartes, The article is headlined and about US Sales. My comments are about the marketing in the US just as the article is about US sales.
cool story bro.
stick to the topic.
oh,
from the article above.
McD's made the same mistake back in the 80's, ran a bunch of ghetto "boom shack-a-lacka" campaigns and lost whites and people of color who were not, and did not want to be seen, as ghetto.
I suppose the management team who figured out that mistake is off to retirement acres - and the new bunch are repeating the past mistake.
Not to mention the ridiculously over-priced coffee and food, the bait-and-switch pricing tactics, and the over-decorated interiors.
white folks here at ZH are still posting their support - even as they bitch about the product they queue to purchase - maybe not so much in THIS thread, but barely a day goes by without some MickeyD chatter.
one thing I'm not seeing mentioned is the "cheap beef" sold because of the "drought" has been replaced, and bid up, by the more "spendy beef" being squeezed out the tubes - prices for "beef" are up all round, no?
so McD's has to deal with how to stretch that "beef" while still identifying as a "burger" chain - that's quite a dance to watch! new "coffee dranks" and "salady bowls" and wotever else they can dream up. . .
meanwhile, amrkns stuff themselves with pizza, and the more devout, chikken.
Chicken is healthier and cheaper. Chick fil a doesn't have to advertise because their food is good. McDonalds charges high prices for crappy food. Not hard to figure out why sales are down
"their food is good" hmmm?
sure, if you like CAFO chikken, GMO-soy, HFCS, fud-dyes, and other additives all used to "excite" yer taste buds - on ye go!
fast fud is fast fud, the "cheap" part of it is all most seem to care about any more.
Chikfilla is apparently making the move to "anti-biotic free chikken" -
hopefully everything will stay rosy & upbeat in amrka till then!!
I guess their strategy of marketing exclusively to the lowest trash of 13% of the population did not turn out well.
He said it was inflation. Which means all stores should be suffering correct?
Cath, you are offering up a red herring with this one.
I never said anything about white Christian. They run a great place with excellent service. Always a happy face when I order.
pods
the "white Christian" vote for chikken is well-documented, the ChicFilla tax-free foundations less so, but /shrug.
owner sets up a "tax free foundation" to promote his agenda, but hey, that's okay - all the billionares do it!
I seriously don't care, I'm just pointing out the trends - and chikken is the new preferred fast fud for the masses, as "beef" prices rise due to "drought" and commodity bidding. meanwhile, everyone misses the new normal - chikken processed in China, shipped to amrka, no "disclosure" needed sez FDA. . .
supporting God and Profits, go go consumers!!! eat moar chikkin!!!
McDonalds food is crap. Why can't you admit that? Plenty of burger joints are doing fine becaise they serve a good product with good service. There's no 365white websites needed
McDonald's fud IS crap!!
noted and admitted - I just don't "vote the other side" - "ghetto" McDonald's VS. "white meat", as your posted opinions here appear to do.
I don't eat "out" - if I want chicken, I'll head outside and source it fresh. . .
Their 365Black campaign means no decent white man would ever eat their ghetto food.
eat more Chinese CAFO chikken round eye!!!!
~.~
Ghetto culture, you say?
http://only20somethingstopfronting.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/mcdonalds...
Management is bullet proof right now, as far as US stock holders are concerned. Maybe, if/when they are forced to sell out to foreign holders, they will get back to fundamentals.
Lemmee see here now, higher taxes, higher obamascare health insurance premiums, no pay raise even if u have a job, lower wages if ur lucky to find one, Gummint enabled stealth inflation all of whic equals less discretionary funds for hard working tax paying citizens. Duh... of course that is n/a if ur a Gummint freeloader whether ur elected, hired or EBT'd.
"anniversaried" <---- Seriously?
I stop going to NcDonald's and their sales take a dive.
In my opinion McDonald's sales went to hell in the US when they messed with the dollar menu.
What can you get for a dollar?
A dollar doesn't even buy a dollar today?
I got 3 pennies from 1913 that I will trade you that dollar for !!!
Remember when McD's actually made decent food at a reasonable price? Yes, it's hard to remember decades ago.
They've steadily lowered the quality and jacked up prices -- until, bang... the wall.
This is basically american business 101. Make a shit product and market the hell out of it. Enough idiots will fall for the marketing and pay high prices.
sales went to hell when they brought the dollar menu. why spend $4 for a big mac when you can get 3 mcdoubles?
the fries are still the best fast food drive thru you can get.
Just avoid most everything else.
Best combo of junk food.
MCD Fries.
BK whopper (which I have not had in a couple of decades but I long for it)
Wendys Chocolate Frosty
My typical dinner now: home made soup and salad with real chicken or fish on it, or sandwich.
I have to hide the candy in the basement rafters.
When your best customers are being poisoned off by your frankenfood, is it any surprise that you orders are falling?
McDonald's fights Frankenfood criticismMcDonald's wants to explain why its burgers may not rot and that there are no worms in its beef.
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2014/10/13/mcdonalds-fights-frankenfood-c...
Most of the best customers are sick or dead.
Bonappetite
McDonalds has trouble ahead
The people who eat there have fled
Their burgers don't rot
A seedier plot
Is many who ate there are dead
Seriously, my kids are quite particular about what my grandkids eat, If I have the grandkids on a saturday they query me on where we are going for lunch. Not to mention do I really know how to use the child seats in cars and restaurants. The grandkids will be in car seats till they are 18 .
Had dinner at kids the other night--mac and cheese home made--it was good but kraft was easier.
This attitude is going to kill restaurants. Not to mentioend the costs incl tax and grat.
But good paying jobs are plentiful.
Now they are the reason behind the GMO potato. Business is about to fall off even more. They should bulldoze them and plant small community gardens in their place.
That potato is brilliant. GG Simplot!
I just read an article saying the genome of coffee has been matched. The big benefit (according to the article) is that now we can have GMO coffee. Great. They're going to fuck up another one of our food groups.
Luddites revolt!
Lysenkoism forever!
That cheap crap food of Mc Donalds is way to expensive here in Europe. It's about the same price as going to a decent restaurant where you are served by a waiter.
Europeans are subsidising American obesity.
If it has to be fast-food the entire family would rather stop at a Subway. Our kids don't even like McD's..
Sears, Radio Shack and McDonalds. None of which I would miss if they went away. Well, OK, maybe Sears for the lifetime warranty on hand tools. But that's about it.
I think this all bodes well for the return of moar Mom & Pop restaurants and shops cause they don't have the huge corporate overhead, lower labor costs and the labor has equity in the business if it does well.
food carts are the new "restaurant" - no one has enough fiat bux for a long-term lease and outfitting,
but many can scrape together some $$ for a vintage trailer and a wooden picnic table.
Clearly, the words 'economy of scale' are not in your vocabulary.
I have nothing against Mom and Pop stores, and I frequent many. However, the giant corporations have delivered many things that you and I use - big screen TV's, cars, X-ray machines - that Mom and Pop could never deliver.
There's room in my world for both.
There's room in my world for both.
Not with the FED around, subsidizing one at the detriment of the other.The old man went to Sears with a broken monkey wrench that was 20+ years old. Initial salesman didn't want to honor the warranty but then the old man demanded the manager. The old man got a brand new monkey wrench!
All of the iconic Craftsman hand tools are now made in China, while the prices didn't drop one penny.
The difference goes right into Hedge Fund Eddie's pocket.
Craftsman tools are guaranteed by Craftsman(TM) and Sears is just the administrator. When Sears goes down Craftsman will be sold off to anyone
that can house the brand and market it. If Sears went down today one of the other BIG box stores would take up the brand. Craftsman Tools(TM)
are still a good brand to purchase because of the lifetime guarantee, but Sears is by no means a worthy cash cow anymore.
Sears maybe 10 years ago started opening smaller units just doing hardware and lawn and garden. that made sense plus appliances.
I guess hand tools are like Classical music--the kids outsource on jobs around the house and do not like classical which appears to be dying.
Well, it's a good thing that there's Lowe's, Menard's and Home Depot, else you wouldn't have an avatar! :>D
haven't been to McCracks in over a decade
Five Guys!!!!!!!!!!!!
A funny thing happened at a food expo in the Netherlands last month. Some pranksters served up McDonalds burgers as biological food. Food experts that tasted the meat were raving about how the meat tasted delicious, had excellent structure and was so pure and honest because it was biological. Little did the tasters know they were eating McDonalds!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qa6QXBxxWw
Ahh yes, the perception is always the reality,, and marketers know this all too well. Folks have been conditioned not to question or investigate anything and keep tuned into the NFL, NBA, The Voice, etc, etc. ,, that's all you really need in life. Wake the fuck up folks!!!
Doritos, pizza delivered, energy drinks & eye candy.
captured!!
I hope MCD goes out of business becuase of their support of Obama has hurt the economy. On the brighter side, Obama has wrecked MCD's business in Russia....NICE!
Once they install McRobot workers, everything will turn around.
"V" shaped recovery.
Welcome to McDonald's Automat.
http://www.theautomat.com/
Not sure who will eat at McDonald's, after all the workers are automated and don't have jobs. I suppose McDonald's could go upscale, but that's a contradiction in terms. Low-end will be an increasingly risky play going forward.
Maybe public-private partnership?
Maybe a McDonald's tax to ensure the unemployed have credits to spend at Ray Kroc's little image of Heaven on Earth?
The donkeys are waking up. Better drag out Chindit and tell everyone how nutritious there stuff is and anything counter to that is conspiracy theory.
I dont even remember what mcdonalds taste like other than processed chemical shit. Been a few years since I have the pleasure of eating at one.
Coffee is good. They have been running large coffee for 99 cents for a long time now. Its way better than SBUX which is so burnt and bitter it is undrinkable.
McD's coffee is good if you like weak-ass coffee. It's the Bud light of the coffee world.
What??? The coffee is swill. The breakfast sandwich especially are decent.
French Press (or Espresso!) is the only way to do it properly.
Everyone wants to find some fixable reason for poor sales. Get this stat up, and the customers will spend. Lower gas prices will give consumers more to spend. More crappy jobs will give consumers more to spend, blah, blah, blah...
What if we were seeing something more ominous? What if this consumer pull-back isn't some temporary thing, but a real deep attitude change? What if it turns out to be completely unresponsive to any and all attempts to turn it around?
The generation that was traumatized by the Great Depression never recovered. They never regained their free-spending ways, and continued to hoard and pinch pennies till the day they died, much to the amusement of later generations. But it wasn't until THEIR children were grown that the economy picked up any real speed.
If that's the case, today's bankers will be worm-food long before their industry recovers.
Top 20% in my little eastern Washington State community spending like drunken sailors.
Of course the federal government does pump billions of dollars annually directly into our economy.
It's a sight to behold.
edit: To stay on topic, all of the McDonald's stores 'round these parts have recently undergone, or are undergoing, big, upscale renovations.
edit: To stay on topic, all of the McDonald's stores 'round these parts have recently undergone, or are undergoing, big, upscale renovations.
That's 'cause so many upscale people love to dine there./
or is that "fomerly" upscale people
That's part of it. The other part is their TeeVee sales pitch isn't working anymore because the younger gen's don't sit mindlessly in front of the boob box for hours. More likely, they're on the internet or watching movies.
This explains, to me, why MCD's started their ghetto ads. It's actually a stop gap measure, at best, and already well past it the point of diminishing returns.
The McDonald's business model is clearly broken just like the business model of the USA itself. McDonalds is an accurate business metric for North America in so far as this corporation accurately reflects the state of the corporation of the USA when it comes to business successes since 2008.
American Hegemony is losing market share by the day and cannot possibly
continue to exist without a complete teardown of Capitalism and a rebuild.
NOTE: The engines of Capitalism have worn out cam shafts, crank shafts, pistons, rings, lifters, and main bearings. The blocks, heads, and intakes are all cracked beyond repair or rebuild. Clearly, America needs new engines to power what is left of the economy or we will all collectively be stranded on the side of the road indefinately.
Socialistic money, from the FED, trumped capitalism decades ago.
When you eat three Big Macs you get a relentless surge no matter your age.
Ah, yes, the McShits which are preceded by the McGas.
It's damn plain old competition. Notice the Chic Fil A and Zaxby's drive thu lines at peak hours? Put's McD's to shame...plus you don't get the runs..
Nothing, but nothing will satisfy when a Mac Attack slams into you.
It's either a Big MAc, Big Boy or some other copy that matches it.
That's just the way it is, with a supersized order of fries with that.
Long Live the El Jefe Mac.
The urge to eat shitty tasting overpriced franken food?
Overpriced lately for sure. But I consider a Big Mac an essential part of my diet at least 6 times a year,
The humble pomme de terre is fine nutrition.
Peak Obesity?
Good news. Food is crap. Should of gone out of business years ago.
Maybe they all had heart attacks?!?
McDonalds had a jingle in the 70s, for their Big Mac. I have altered the lyrics:
"There's somethin' about a Big Mac, that gives you a heart attack!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgWbK_gE-uM
Sheeple finally sick of eating vomit inducing sugar lard puss filled with sawdust?
Who would have thought?
A factor in McDonald's poor performance is the attempt to lure customers with single loss-leader items, which at the store level were concealed or, at staff suggestion, nullified by the addition of extras which turned off the low price. Customers have become tired of this kind of trickery and taken their business elsewhere.