Overview
- The company reported on Tuesday that U.S. same-store sales rose just 0.8% in Q2, missing analyst expectations and slowing sharply from a 2.5% gain a year earlier.
- CEO Chris Kempczinski said the slowdown was an execution failure not a strategy shift and called removing prior digital offers a “bad trade” that explained roughly two-thirds of the traffic miss.
- McDonald’s said only about 60–65% of restaurants followed corporate guidance on the under-$3 McValue menu, and many locations faced slower service after multiple simultaneous promotions overwhelmed kitchens.
- McDonald’s named 26-year company veteran Skye Anderson president of McDonald’s USA and said it will simplify non-customer-facing tasks and roll out national digital flash offers to re‑energize high-frequency customers.
- Despite U.S. weakness, global comparable sales rose 1.3% and net income grew to about $2.36 billion, leaving the company to use an investor meeting to outline the broader ‘McDonald’s Next’ plan and how it will restore traffic among deal-sensitive customers.