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McDonald's (MCD) lackluster February sales report is a fresh sign the real economy where people...

  • Saturday, March 9, 8:25 AM ET
    McDonald's (MCD) lackluster February sales report is a fresh sign the real economy where people eat fast food and earn less than $24/hour is still sluggish, despite the upbeat jobs report and a soaring Dow. While the numbers exceeded Wall Street expectations, sales at MickeyD's U.S. restaurants open at least a year were flat, suggesting MCD - and a big chunk of the economy - are stuck in neutral.
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This news story has 30 comments:

  •  
    You assume too much. Sales of packaged, high fat food branded 50 years ago obviously could be losing share to other segments.
    9 Mar, 08:36 AM Reply Like
  •  
    Agreed. There are abundant signs of slow but steady, and possibly accelerating, growth. The jobs report, housing, and consumer spending all indicate genuine progress.

    MCD is long term winner who is going through a period of adjustments to their menu. Never count them out!
    9 Mar, 08:45 AM Reply Like
  •  
    I agree with Sirvasq. Has McD been losing market share to home dining? To upscale dining? To other fast-food chains?

    Is there an established correlation between wealth and the number of Big Macs sold, or is this yet another attempt to take an isolated number and try to deduce the health of the entire economy from it?
    9 Mar, 08:59 AM Reply Like
  •  
    There is such a thing as burger economics. Check it out.
    9 Mar, 09:39 PM Reply Like
  •  
    $1.00 hamburgers sell better in good times or bad times? just wondering...try to fix at home for that
    9 Mar, 09:00 AM Reply Like
  •  
    $1.00 hamburgers, sure, but when you add drinks, etc., the package ends up $4-$7 per, or about $20-$25 for a family of four. You can prepare fresh food at home for way less than that. Unfortunately, that takes ability and work ethic, something which more and more people lack.
    9 Mar, 09:59 AM Reply Like
  •  
    I agree with Hubert. That's why I have no problem buying my meat from a local farm, while the price is dear relative to factory farm meat, the quality is superior and it's definitely less expensive than even eating out at McDonalds.

    MCD mind you is running at a net profit margin of 19.82% of sales! Was in the low double digits 10 years ago. Regression to the mean in profit margins + flat sales spells trouble for share price I think, but I've been wrong so take with grain of salt.
    9 Mar, 10:45 AM Reply Like
  •  
    I would counsel go easy on salt intake.
    9 Mar, 07:11 PM Reply Like
  •  
    So the 50 million people on foodstamps aren't spending them at MCD?
    9 Mar, 09:37 AM Reply Like
  •  
    $24.00 an hour???

    I wish my two jobs together would pay that.
    9 Mar, 09:49 AM Reply Like
  •  
    I think the $24/hr is meant to represent those families making $50,000/year or less.
    9 Mar, 09:52 AM Reply Like
  •  
    "rlp2451"
    You read my mind.
    9 Mar, 10:08 AM Reply Like
  •  
    Me three. I would LOVE to make $24 an hour.
    9 Mar, 09:44 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Actually, it is way more expensive to eat at McDonald's than to buy and cook fresh food. More and more people have no clue how to prepare food using basic, inexpensive ingredients. How to stretch their budget for food, or anything else, for that matter. McDonald's is really more of a dumb and dumber indicator than anything else.
    9 Mar, 09:55 AM Reply Like
  •  
    Hey, lets not harsh on McD's!!!

    How many times have you pulled off an interstate - gotten a Big Mac, fries, and a soda - stretched your legs in the parking lot - hit the restroom - gotten back into the car and felt you could drive another 4 hours no problem!!!

    Not to mention the number of double cheesburgers and Big Macs eaten during the 4 years of college.

    And would you rather your teenagers swing by McD's on Friday night having fun with their friends or partaking in something more "organic" like smoking weed.

    McD's has its place in a community and they've gotten much better at serving food that is at least moderately ok for you.
    9 Mar, 01:26 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Mr. Market disagrees with you as per the advance in the stock price yesterday. Perhaps you're missing the fact that the comparable is to last year, a leap year and one with an extra business day. MCD is doing just fine and the dividend is in no danger of being reduced.
    9 Mar, 12:52 PM Reply Like
  •  
    $24 per hr?

    Shows how disconnected Wall St & Policy makers are, with mainstrean media playing along.


    $24 per hour is much higher than the average US wage.

    $24 per hour is about for the entire average US houshold income , based on a 40 hour work week.
    9 Mar, 12:52 PM Reply Like
  •  
    There is a very simple solution.

    Cut taxes for those making $1M per year or more, may be to 5% max of the entire income.

    When the makers make, the takers will take because if the takers take when the makers don't make, neither the takers nor the makers make and then nobody takes.

    The Kenyan soshalist has to listen to the intellectual giants of the GOP for things to improve and at least go back to where they were in 2001-2008 - more wars and more crises.
    9 Mar, 01:08 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Exactly. Cut taxes on the wealthy and raise them on the poor and the middle class, to build a thriving and balanced recovery, because it is likely that the 10% or so who have any discretionary income at all will find a way to give it away to those who don't, since wages are declining every year and 'productivity gains' more or less assure that the trickle down effect won't work. Or maybe instead that 10% will just sit on their assets,watch them balloon in value and continue to bitch about what a raw deal they're getting. I guess we'll find out. (full disclosure: I am in fact a member of that higher bracket, I have done well for doing nothing over the last few years, and I believe that current trends do not bode well for our economy in the long run)
    9 Mar, 03:32 PM Reply Like
  •  
    You might be on to something if we cut government spending by a corresponding amount! Then we might actually see economic growth going forward (and not the pretend kind of borrowed money handed to bureaucrats).

    I haven't noticed any drop in "crises" in the past 4+ years - in fact seems everything is a crisis.

    So do what you want with taxes - just cut spending drastically - and you'll see real economic growth will soon follow.
    9 Mar, 04:28 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Of course. Fire all the government employees, and all those in the private sector who make less that $24 per hour - as they have no real education above the fifth grade level and therefore do not contribute much to the society - and there will be an immediate improvement in the economy.

    All hail Austerity! Long live Ayn Rand! All hail Galt.
    9 Mar, 05:29 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Well if you fire all the private sector employees making less than $24 an hour (your idea), then the bureaucrats might - maybe - be able to get jobs - though I doubt they'll last very long when they find that flex-time and showing up at 10 and leaving at 4 for junior's soccer game aren't ok in the private sector.

    We haven't had austerity - so can't hail to it.
    9 Mar, 07:47 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Absolutely.

    I don't see any people dying of hunger on the streets.

    We have to bring back Austerity so that the poor suffer as they must.
    9 Mar, 07:59 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Well, since we didn't have people dying in the streets prior to have all this bureaucracy have to wonder exactly what we've bought?

    What? You mean communities and people helped each other out on their own? You mean there wasn't any 100K bureaucrat to tell them to fill out a form? How did the world work????

    Hmmmm........

    And again we haven't had austerity so nothing to bring back.
    9 Mar, 09:32 PM Reply Like
  •  
    The average hourly earnings are skewed higher because of people who make considerably more. The better figure is the median earnings which I would imagine is below the average.
    9 Mar, 01:19 PM Reply Like
  •  
    maybe people are finally starting to eat healthier? processed foods have been getting more press lately and mcd is all about processed foods...this could also be why their profit margin has increased so much while the cost of food has risen....instead of real food, just add rat hair, bug juices, sand and whatnot
    9 Mar, 02:27 PM Reply Like
  •  
    I just sold MCD to realize a nice profit and plan to buy it when the market corrects. We call it Scottish food where I live and people from all walks of life eat there from Welfare Queens to Soccer Moms and their respective broods. Not even Mayor Bloomberg can defeat the taste buds of Mickie D fans.
    9 Mar, 05:32 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Just had a Swiss-mushroom Angus burger and Shamrock Shake. Unfortunately, no pot of gold.
    9 Mar, 09:54 PM Reply Like
  •  
    In 2011 median family income was $50,500 and the average wage was $26,965 according to Soc. Sec. Admin. numbers. That works out to an average wage of $12.96/hour ($26965/2080hrs)
    9 Mar, 09:57 PM Reply Like
  •  
    February 17th - Work & Money section of the News & Observer

    Post-recession economy haunted by 'wage theft'

    "Since the most recent downturn, worker advocates and law enforcement officials say, a growing number of employers have violated wage and labor laws enacted 75 years ago in response to worker mistreatment during the Great Depression."

    That explains the low wages.
    10 Mar, 09:09 PM Reply Like
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