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A Value Strategy That Started to Backfire
McDonald’s has spent years building its reputation around convenience, affordability, and increasingly aggressive value offers. But the world’s most recognizable burger chain is now facing an uncomfortable problem: giving customers more deals does not necessarily mean giving restaurants more breathing room.
The company’s latest results suggest that its push to attract price-conscious consumers may have become too complicated for its own restaurants to handle efficiently. U.S. sales increased just 0.8% in the second quarter, marking the slowest growth reported since 2025 and falling short of management’s expectations.
The problem was not simply a lack of promotions. According to McDonald’s leadership, there were almost too many of them.
A wave of limited-time meals, app promotions, value offers and menu changes created additional operational pressure inside restaurants. As employees struggled to keep up with the constant stream of new offers, service slowed. And when service becomes slower at a fast-food restaurant, even loyal customers can start looking elsewhere.
McDonald’s Admits Its U.S. Business Slowed Significantly
McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski acknowledged that the company’s U.S. business “slowed significantly” during the quarter.
The admission is important because McDonald’s has been working aggressively to position itself as an affordable option at a time when consumers remain highly sensitive to food prices.
Instead of producing the traffic boost the company wanted, however, the expanding value strategy appears to have created a different problem.
More promotions meant more complexity.
More complexity meant slower restaurant operations.
And slower operations meant longer customer wait times.
That chain reaction could have contributed to the disappointing sales performance.
Too Many Deals Created Too Much Operational Pressure
McDonald’s introduced a number of high-profile promotions in recent months, including limited-time FIFA World Cup and KPop Demon Hunter meals, alongside changes to its broader value strategy.
Each promotion may appear relatively simple from a customer’s perspective. Behind the counter, however, every new menu item can mean additional preparation requirements, packaging, inventory planning, employee training, digital ordering changes and more complicated workflows.
The company ultimately acknowledged that restaurants were overwhelmed by the number of promotional “deployments” during the quarter.
The result was less efficient restaurant operations and longer customer service times.
For a company whose entire business model depends on moving customers through restaurants quickly, that is a serious warning sign.
The McValue Menu Was Supposed to Restore Affordability
McDonald’s has been increasingly focused on value as consumers have become more cautious about spending.
Earlier this year, the company moved away from several digital promotions and its widely recognized Buy One, Get One for $1 offer and instead promoted a McValue menu featuring multiple items priced below $3.
The strategy was designed to send a clear message to consumers: McDonald’s still offers affordable food.
But implementing a nationwide value strategy proved more complicated than simply putting cheaper items on a menu.
Only around 65% of franchise restaurants participated in the McValue promotion, creating an inconsistent experience from one location to another.
In some cases, restaurants reportedly used the promotion as an opportunity to increase prices on other menu items while keeping promoted products below the $3 threshold.
That can make a value campaign much harder for consumers to understand.
The Value Message Can Become Confusing
Price-sensitive customers are not necessarily looking for the largest number of promotions.
They are often looking for something much simpler: a meal that feels worth the money.
When a restaurant has multiple limited-time offers, app-only discounts, value menus, special bundles and changing prices, customers can become overwhelmed.
Instead of thinking, “McDonald’s is affordable,” consumers may begin asking, “Which deal is actually the best one?”
That distinction matters.
A successful value strategy should reduce the mental cost of buying food. If customers have to navigate a maze of promotions before finding a worthwhile price, the strategy can lose some of its appeal.
Loyal Customers May Have Been the Biggest Casualty
McDonald’s CFO Ian Borden said that the combination of these factors negatively affected visits from some of the chain’s most loyal customers.
That may be one of the most important details in the entire quarter.
McDonald’s does not simply depend on occasional customers. Its business is heavily supported by people who return frequently, often several times a month or even several times a week.
These customers already know the menu.
They know what they like.
They know how long an order normally takes.
And they notice when the experience suddenly becomes slower or more complicated.
If promotions designed to attract new bargain hunters begin frustrating high-frequency customers, McDonald’s could end up weakening the very audience that provides its most dependable traffic.
McDonald’s Plans a Promotional Reset
Rather than abandoning value altogether, McDonald’s plans to adjust its strategy.
The company said it will introduce new promotions through its app in an effort to re-energize high-frequency customers.
This suggests that McDonald’s is not concluding that discounts are ineffective.
Instead, the company appears to be acknowledging that the execution of those discounts matters just as much as the price itself.
McDonald’s also plans to increase marketing around proven value offerings, including its Extra Value Meals.
That approach could represent a shift away from constantly introducing new promotions and toward emphasizing offers that restaurants already know how to execute efficiently.
The App Is Becoming a More Important Battlefield
The McDonald’s app is increasingly central to the company’s value strategy.
Digital promotions allow McDonald’s to target customers based on purchasing behavior, encourage repeat visits and personalize offers.
But digital marketing also creates a potential operational problem.
A promotion can be launched instantly inside an app, while a physical restaurant still needs employees, equipment, ingredients and time to fulfill it.
That disconnect can become dangerous.
Marketing teams may see a promotion as an opportunity to generate demand, while restaurant operators may see the same promotion as another workload added to an already busy shift.
The lesson for McDonald’s is clear: digital demand generation must be synchronized with physical restaurant capacity.
Fast Food Has a Speed Problem When Complexity Grows
The name “fast food” creates a basic customer expectation.
People expect the process to be relatively quick.
That does not mean customers expect instant service, but they do expect the restaurant to operate efficiently.
When a promotion causes longer preparation times, more complicated ordering procedures or additional employee tasks, the customer experience begins moving in the wrong direction.
A discount cannot always compensate for frustration.
Someone may save a few dollars on a meal, but if they spend significantly more time waiting for it, the perceived value of the transaction can deteriorate.
This is especially important for customers visiting during lunch breaks, commuting periods or other situations where time matters.
McDonald’s Is Also Changing Its U.S. Leadership
The disappointing quarter comes alongside a significant leadership change.
Joe Erlinger, who has served as McDonald’s U.S. president since 2019, is leaving the position immediately.
Erlinger guided the U.S. business through major disruptions, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the company’s response to an E. coli outbreak.
His replacement will be Skye Anderson, a 26-year McDonald’s veteran who currently serves as chief operating officer for U.S. operations.
The appointment is notable because Anderson comes from the operational side of the business.
That could prove particularly relevant given the central issue exposed by the latest results.
Why Choosing an Operations Veteran Matters
McDonald’s does not simply need another marketing campaign.
It needs to ensure that its restaurants can execute the campaigns already being created.
Putting an experienced operations executive into the U.S. leadership position could therefore signal a renewed focus on restaurant execution.
The company needs promotions that employees can handle.
It needs menus that customers can understand.
It needs prices that feel competitive.
And it needs all of those elements to work together without damaging speed or service quality.
Anderson’s operational background could become particularly valuable as McDonald’s attempts to simplify execution while maintaining its value message.
The Bigger Problem Is Not Just Price
McDonald’s current challenge illustrates a larger problem facing the entire fast-food industry.
Consumers want lower prices.
Restaurant operators want healthy margins.
Employees need manageable workloads.
Customers want fast service.
Investors want sales growth.
Those objectives do not always fit neatly together.
A company can lower prices to generate traffic, but increased traffic can strain restaurants.
A company can introduce more products to create excitement, but menu complexity can slow operations.
A company can launch more digital promotions, but a sudden increase in demand can overwhelm physical locations.
The difficult part is not creating a discount.
The difficult part is creating a discount that works economically and operationally.
What Undercode Say:
The McDonald’s Problem Is a Lesson in Operational Economics
McDonald’s latest results reveal something that is easy to miss when looking only at the headline sales number.
The problem may not be that consumers stopped caring about McDonald’s.
The bigger problem may be that McDonald’s created too many moving parts at the same time.
Value campaigns work by encouraging customers to buy.
But every successful promotion also creates demand that restaurants must fulfill.
That means a promotion has a hidden operational cost.
The more successful the promotion becomes, the greater that operational burden can become.
Discounts Are Only Valuable When the Experience Still Works
Customers rarely calculate value using price alone.
They also consider waiting time, convenience, accuracy, availability and overall experience.
A $3 meal that takes too long to arrive may feel less valuable than a slightly more expensive meal that arrives quickly.
This is why McDonald’s decision to revisit its promotional strategy makes sense.
The company needs to think about total customer value, not simply the advertised price.
McDonald’s May Have Over-Optimized for Headlines
The fast-food industry has entered an era where promotional announcements can generate enormous attention.
A new limited-time meal can dominate social media.
A celebrity collaboration can generate millions of impressions.
A cheap menu item can become a viral talking point.
But attention is not the same as sustainable restaurant performance.
McDonald’s has to convert promotional excitement into profitable, repeatable transactions.
If the promotion creates social-media buzz but slows down restaurants, its real-world value becomes much more questionable.
The Menu Has Become a Technology Problem
Modern fast-food restaurants increasingly operate like technology companies.
Orders arrive through kiosks.
Customers use mobile apps.
Promotions are digitally targeted.
Delivery platforms send orders directly into restaurant systems.
Loyalty programs track customer behavior.
Behind all of this is a physical kitchen that still has to prepare the food.
That creates an unusual technological bottleneck.
McDonald’s can change its digital storefront in seconds, but the kitchen cannot instantly become twice as efficient.
The company therefore needs to treat restaurant capacity as a critical part of its digital strategy.
Franchisees Have Different Economic Realities
The fact that only around 65% of franchise restaurants participated in the McValue offer is also important.
McDonald’s corporate leadership can design a national promotion, but franchise operators ultimately have to make the economics work locally.
Food costs differ.
Labor costs differ.
Rent differs.
Customer behavior differs.
Competition differs.
A promotion that makes sense in one market may be less attractive in another.
That creates a fundamental tension between corporate consistency and franchise-level economics.
The $3 Psychological Threshold Has Power
There is also a psychological reason McDonald’s continues emphasizing low-price thresholds.
A product below $3 can feel dramatically more affordable than one priced above it, even if the actual difference is relatively small.
Consumers often use round numbers as mental anchors.
McDonald’s understands this extremely well.
The problem is that keeping individual products below a psychological price threshold does not automatically make the entire meal inexpensive.
Customers ultimately judge the final bill.
If the burger is cheap but the complete meal becomes expensive, the perception of affordability can disappear.
The Company Needs Fewer, Better Promotions
The strongest lesson from this quarter may be surprisingly simple.
McDonald’s probably does not need more promotions.
It needs better promotions.
A smaller number of highly recognizable offers could be easier for customers to understand and easier for restaurants to execute.
That could improve both sides of the equation.
Customers receive clearer value.
Restaurants face less complexity.
Employees can execute orders more consistently.
And McDonald’s can concentrate marketing dollars on offers with proven demand.
High-Frequency Customers Should Be Protected
McDonald’s comments about loyal customers deserve particular attention.
High-frequency customers are extremely valuable because the company does not have to repeatedly convince them to visit.
They already have the habit.
The objective is to maintain that habit.
If those customers become frustrated by slower service or confusing promotions, the damage can extend beyond a single quarter.
A customer who normally visits several times per month can quietly reduce those visits.
That kind of behavioral change may not be immediately visible, but over time it can become a serious revenue problem.
Leadership Changes Could Accelerate the Reset
Skye
Her operational experience puts her close to the problems highlighted by the latest results.
The new leadership challenge is therefore straightforward but difficult: make McDonald’s value proposition attractive without making McDonald’s restaurants harder to operate.
That requires coordination between marketing, technology, franchisees and restaurant employees.
The Real Competitive Battle Is Convenience
McDonald’s competes on more than burgers and fries.
It competes on convenience.
Consumers choose McDonald’s because they know what they are going to get, where they can find it and roughly how long it will take.
That predictability is part of the brand.
If excessive promotions undermine that predictability, McDonald’s risks weakening one of its most important competitive advantages.
Competitors Can Exploit Operational Weakness
The danger does not exist in isolation.
Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Starbucks and countless regional chains are also fighting for consumers who increasingly care about price.
If McDonald’s becomes slower or more confusing while competitors provide a smoother experience, consumers have alternatives.
Value alone does not guarantee loyalty.
Convenience plus value is much harder for competitors to defeat.
McDonald’s Should Treat Restaurant Speed as a Core Metric
Sales growth gets enormous attention during earnings calls.
But restaurant speed deserves similar attention.
If service times rise, customer satisfaction can fall.
If satisfaction falls, repeat visits can decline.
If repeat visits decline, marketing costs may need to increase to replace lost traffic.
That creates a negative cycle.
The better strategy is to protect operational speed before it becomes a customer-retention problem.
The Next Phase Could Be Simpler and More Targeted
The upcoming app promotions could provide an important test.
If McDonald’s concentrates offers on customers who already visit frequently, it may be able to generate incremental visits without creating the same level of operational disruption associated with a broad national promotion.
Targeted promotions also allow McDonald’s to learn which incentives actually change customer behavior.
That data could become more valuable than simply launching more discounts.
McDonald’s Has an Opportunity to Rebuild Its Value Strategy
The disappointing quarter should not automatically be interpreted as a collapse of the McDonald’s business.
The company remains one of the
Its enormous restaurant footprint, loyalty ecosystem, digital infrastructure and franchise network give it substantial advantages.
But those advantages can only deliver results when the pieces operate together.
The current quarter demonstrates what happens when promotional ambition moves faster than operational capacity.
The Future of Fast Food May Be Less About More and More About Smarter
The next generation of fast-food competition will likely be defined by intelligent simplicity.
Restaurants will use data to determine which offers customers actually want.
Apps will deliver personalized discounts.
Menus will become easier to execute.
Operations will increasingly be optimized around demand patterns.
And promotions will need to be evaluated not only by how many people they attract, but also by how efficiently restaurants can serve them.
McDonald’s has an opportunity to become better at this before the problem grows larger.
Deep Analysis: The Commands McDonald’s Needs to Follow
Command 1: Simplify the Menu
McDonald’s should identify promotions that create unnecessary complexity and eliminate or consolidate them.
Every additional item should justify the operational burden it creates.
Command 2: Protect Restaurant Speed
Service time should be treated as a strategic business metric rather than simply a restaurant-level performance measurement.
A cheaper meal is not enough if customers are forced to wait significantly longer.
Command 3: Prioritize Proven Value
Instead of continuously creating new offers, McDonald’s should invest more heavily in promotions that have already demonstrated strong customer demand and reliable restaurant execution.
Command 4: Use the App Intelligently
The McDonald’s app should become a precision marketing tool.
Rather than pushing the same discount to everyone, the company can target customers with offers designed to increase frequency without overwhelming restaurants.
Command 5: Listen to Franchise Operators
Franchisees understand local demand and operational limitations better than corporate marketing teams can from a distance.
Their feedback should influence which promotions become national campaigns.
Command 6: Protect Loyal Customers
McDonald’s should avoid creating promotional strategies that accidentally punish its most frequent visitors with slower service or increasingly complicated ordering experiences.
Command 7: Measure Profit, Not Just Traffic
A promotion that increases visits but produces weak margins or operational disruption may not be a successful promotion.
The company needs to measure the complete economic impact.
Command 8: Make Value Easy to Understand
Customers should not need to compare ten different offers to determine whether McDonald’s is affordable.
The best value proposition is immediately understandable.
Command 9: Align Marketing With Kitchen Capacity
Marketing campaigns should be tested against realistic restaurant capacity before they are aggressively promoted.
Demand generation and operational readiness must become one coordinated process.
Command 10: Make Consistency the Goal
Customers should receive a predictable experience regardless of which participating McDonald’s they visit.
Consistency can strengthen trust and make value campaigns more effective.
✅ U.S. Sales Growth Was Weak
The article’s central claim is that McDonald’s U.S. sales rose only about 0.8% in the second quarter, representing a significant slowdown. The figure is presented as the key indicator behind management’s concern about the quarter.
✅ McDonald’s Linked Promotions to Operational Pressure
Company leadership attributed part of the weakness to restaurants being overwhelmed by the number of promotional deployments, which contributed to less efficient operations and slower service times. This directly supports the article’s central argument.
✅ Leadership Changes Followed the Disappointing Quarter
Joe Erlinger is leaving his role as McDonald’s U.S. president, with Skye Anderson, an experienced McDonald’s executive and U.S. operations leader, selected as his replacement. The change reinforces the company’s focus on improving execution.
Prediction
(+1) McDonald’s Will Move Toward Fewer, Stronger Promotions
McDonald’s is likely to reduce promotional complexity and focus more heavily on offers that are already proven to generate customer traffic without creating major operational problems.
(+1) Personalized App Offers Will Become More Important
The company will probably use its digital ecosystem to target high-frequency customers more precisely rather than relying exclusively on broad national discounts.
(+1) Operational Efficiency Will Become a Bigger Corporate Priority
With an operations-focused executive taking over the U.S. business, restaurant speed, employee workload and execution are likely to receive greater attention.
(-1) Endless Discounting Is Unlikely to Solve the Problem
McDonald’s may discover that repeatedly lowering prices is not enough to produce sustainable growth. If promotions continue to increase complexity, the company could face another cycle of weaker service and disappointing traffic.
(+1) McDonald’s Still Has Room to Recover
The latest slowdown looks more like a strategic warning than an irreversible collapse. McDonald’s has the brand recognition, restaurant network and digital infrastructure needed to correct course.
(-1) Value Competition Will Remain Difficult
Consumers are still highly sensitive to prices, meaning McDonald’s cannot simply abandon affordability. The company will have to balance lower prices with profitability, speed and restaurant capacity.
The Bigger Picture
McDonald’s current problem is ultimately a lesson in the difference between attracting customers and serving customers well.
The company succeeded in creating attention around value.
But attention created demand, and demand exposed operational limits.
Now McDonald’s has to find a better balance.
The future strategy will probably not be about offering the largest number of deals. It will be about offering the right deals, to the right customers, at the right time, while ensuring restaurants can deliver the experience customers expect.
For a company built around speed, consistency and convenience, that may be the most important lesson of all.
McDonald’s does not necessarily need to become cheaper.
It needs to become smarter about value.
And the leadership changes, promotional reset and renewed focus on high-frequency customers suggest that the company has already begun that process.
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