McDonald’s Loses Its Edge

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
McDonald’s Loses Its Edge

© sshaw75 / Getty Images

McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) | MCD Price Prediction had an edge over many retailers. Its locations were open longer than many other retailers over the early wave of the pandemic. People who did not want to shop at stores became fast food buyers. McDonald’s meals were cheap. However, these advantages have started to disappear. Shares in the company have dropped 7% this year, while the S&P 500 is off less than 4%.

McDonald’s food price advantages remain. People can get a full meal for $10 to $15. But, the new surge in the spread of COVID-19 has caused it to keep store hours short. The delay in openings will probably stretch another three weeks. People can pick-up at drive-throughs, but that means a drop in revenue, which could be substantial.

In the first two months of the second quarter, global sales dropped by 30%.

McDonald’s continues to have the fast-food edge in store count. It has almost 14,000 locations in the U.S. But, if they are not open some of that advantage is lost.

As McDonald’s announced its drop in April and May sales, CEO Chris Kempczinski said: “Our strong foundation and the unique advantages of the McDonald’s System, including a high percentage of drive-thru restaurants and investments in delivery and digital, have enabled us to adapt to the changing landscape presented by the COVID-19 outbreak. I am confident in our ability to manage through the immediate challenges and emerge from this pandemic in a position of competitive strength.”

However, the pandemic is worsening. No matter what advantages McDonald’s has over the competition only goes so far, under the circumstances.

 

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
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.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618