McDonald’s just got a reminder that value alone does not fix everything. The company said U.S. sales slowed after its push for cheaper deals fell short in the field, with leaders pointing to uneven execution, softer digital promotions, and pressure on traffic from loyal customers.
CEO Chris Kempczinski said the problem was not the playbook, but how it was carried out. He said about two-thirds of the quarter’s traffic gap came from weaker promotion of value offers and less momentum around digital deals, including buy-one-add-one offers that had been a familiar draw for regulars.
Comparable sales in the company’s biggest market rose 0.8%, missing expectations and landing well below the 2.5% pace McDonald’s posted in the same stretch last year. That kind of slowdown matters because U.S. restaurants remain the engine room for the brand, and even a small miss can ripple through the whole system.
Kempczinski did not try to dress it up. “We don’t have a strategy problem. We simply didn’t execute at the level we needed to in the second quarter,” he said.
He also said McDonald’s had regained its overall value and affordability edge, but the results showed the system was not delivering it evenly. The best-performing restaurants followed the affordable price menu plan closely, while others lagged behind and failed to match that same level of consistency.
That gap is getting attention fast. Kempczinski said about one-third of the company’s restaurants did not follow guidance on the everyday affordable price menu, and franchisees will be reminded that compliance with the pricing approach will factor into business reviews.
The pressure did not stop at pricing. Kempczinski said restaurant teams were overloaded by the number of deployments rolled out during the quarter, which hurt efficiency and stretched customer service times, while marketing efforts also came up short.
That matters because fast-food customers notice friction quickly. When service slows and deals feel scattered, even a brand with McDonald’s reach can lose the easy, repeat-business rhythm it depends on.
Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden said the company is moving to answer that with a fresh round of national digital flash offers starting next week. He said the goal is to reenergize high-frequency customers while also pushing more personalized digital offers at the chain’s most loyal guests.
McDonald’s is also trying to unclog some of the operational drag that built up during the quarter. Borden said the company will simplify restaurant operations by cutting out several non-customer-facing activities through the rest of the year, a move meant to free up crews and improve speed.
The leadership shakeup adds another layer to the turnaround effort. McDonald’s named Skye Anderson to lead its U.S. business, leaning on an executive with a long company history and broad experience across operations and international markets.
Anderson has spent 26 years with McDonald’s, including time as U.S. chief operating officer, and will now oversee roughly 14,000 restaurants. The job is a big one, especially with the company trying to tighten execution, calm the chaos inside stores, and make sure the promise of value actually shows up at the counter.
