McDonald’s has flooded the market with value offers, but the numbers still point the wrong way. The $5 Sausage McMuffin meal did not lift traffic, and the $6 mix-and-match deal did not reverse the slowdown.
CEO Chris Kempczinski has been trying to win back customers squeezed by inflation or tempted by rival burgers and chicken sandwiches. So far, the company’s U.S. growth has shrunk in each quarter this year, and customer visits have reportedly dropped. Wall Street has noticed: McDonald’s shares are down 32% from an all-time high in February.
The pressure is showing up in the company’s own performance. In its most recent quarter, McDonald’s reported U.S. comparable sales growth of 0.8%, which the market clearly sees as underwhelming. That compares with an 8.5% jump at Burger King, a rival that has leaned on a different formula: restaurant remodels, menu refreshes, and a more targeted turnaround plan.
Investors are most worried about traffic. McDonald’s does not report visit counts, but Placer.ai estimates U.S. visits fell 4.5% in the first half of 2026. The company said it is unable to corroborate or validate third-party data. Still, the direction is hard to ignore when the chain says growth must come from capturing greater market share.
There is also a cost problem. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says beef prices in August were 5.9% higher than a year earlier. Kempczinski said last month that beef costs had nearly doubled over the last five years in the company’s biggest markets. He has said price hikes are on the table, but McDonald’s lost customers after it raised prices during the COVID crisis.
The franchise model adds another layer of friction. Franchisees own 95% of McDonald’s restaurants, and operators pay rent, fees, and royalties while the parent company keeps a strong say over locations and standards. But franchisees can opt out of directives, and just 60% to 65% of restaurants implemented the company’s under $3 menu this summer amid fears of lower margins.
Kempczinski has also conceded that too many new menu and deal launches overwhelmed restaurants and hurt service. The company has pushed back its target of renovating 50,000 total restaurants to 2028 from a 2027 deadline set in 2023.
The market has already voted on the strategy. For now, McDonald’s looks less like a turnaround story than a cautionary one: aggressive promotions can protect sales only if customers believe the product, the service, and the price all still make sense. When those break down, discounting becomes just another cost.
