McDonald’s To Benefit From Recession

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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McDonald’s To Benefit From Recession

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Unlike many large-cap stocks, McDonald’s shares have not sold off in the market slide. As a matter of fact, they have done much better than any of the three major indexes. McDonald’s continues to be one of America’s huge recession-proof companies.

Consumer-facing companies fall into three categories during a recession.

The first are those that sell things people cannot do without. Verizon and AT&T are high on the list. The next are companies that sell things people can definitely do without. Airlines, despite strong performances recently, are among these. Falling consumer purchasing power because of high inflation and job-retention troubles force many people to consider the least expensive option in the final category. McDonald’s holds a strong position in this segment.

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Undoubtedly, McDonald’s faces price pressure. The cost of many ingredients in its foods has already risen sharply. The price of diesel fuel has spiked. Labor costs may rise some, but McDonald’s has been adroit at keeping hourly pay low.

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McDonald’s continues to have pricing power because what it charges for food is already cheap. McDonald’s still has $1, $2, and $3 menus.

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As the economy weakens, “cheap” is at the top of many consumer spending behaviors.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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