McDonald’s is one of the most popular restaurants in the world, but the company has been witnessing a change in customer behavior recently as the economy is looking for more customers, forcing them to reduce their visits.
Customers can’t be blamed, given that fast food restaurant (QSR) prices have skyrocketed, making fast food more pricier than ever. When I went recently, six McNuggets, a small Split, and small fries cost $8. Crazy expensive, no? However, it is not common to go to McDonald’s and see the price menu facing $ 10 more, which makes the cost of lunch or dinner for a small family feel more like a regular meal than a fast food.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. The latest inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Index shows that food-away-from-home prices increased by 3.7% in September on a year-over-year basis.
With prices increasing, it is not surprising that many people skip the drive-thru-habit, according to Placer.ai, has reported, adding pressure to McDonald’s.
MCDONALD’S (MCD) Foot Traink fell 3.5% overall in the third quarter, according to the latest report from Placer.ai. But digging into the details, the numbers are very relative. The opening of a new store has been partially removed. Remove those locations from the equation, and traffic to stores that are open at least annually is down 4%.
MCDONALD’s Foot Traffic is down as consumers discount rising prices. image source & colon; Chip East & Sol; Bloomberg via Getty Images” loading=”eager” height=”540″ width=”960″ class=”yf-1gfnohs loader”/>
McDonald’s foot traffic has fallen as consumers cut back on price hikes.Image source & column; Chip East & Sol; Bloomberg via Getty Images
“The quick service sector is under pressure from many Fronts: Continued inflation, consumer volatility, price menu fatigue, and the growing consumption of diet pills,” writes Placer.ai.
Consumers are becoming increasingly cautious about spending money, especially households with a complete IPlose-McDonald’s customer base. The rise of layoffs and inflation to cover wages is a big and persistent end.
“We found low-income consumers living under pressure; their visits to QSR [industrywide] they were down twice as much in Q2,” commented McDonald’s CFO IAN Borden in the Coll Coght Quarter Real Lill Like.
Year founded: 1940
Number of locations worldwide: 43,477 in 2024.
Annual revenue: $25.9 billion in 2024.
Employees: > 2 million worldwide, including franchises. Source: Sec 10-K Filing.
McDonald’s CEO, Chris Kempczski, said the difficulty for low-income customers was due to a decline in price conversion rates and shared sentiment, possibly due to the neglect of taxes and job increases.
In August, the US unemployment rate was 4.3%, the highest since 2021, from 3.4% in 2023.
Placer.ai says that McDonald’s Foot Traffic this summer follows 2024, and the trend has been called recently, resulting in a 4.4% drop in September visits.
September 2025: -4.4%
August 2025: -4.4%
July 2025: -1.8%
McDonald’s foot traffic finally picked up in April, before more pricing was implemented. Since then, CPI inflation has increased to 3% from 2.3%.
McDonald’s isn’t the only QSR chain facing a drop in foot traffic. It’s an industry-wide problem. For example, Wendy’s traffic was worse, falling 6.5% in the third quarter.
To deal with this problem and get people in its places, McDonald’s is pulling many levers, including:
Driving more customers to its Loyalty program to encourage visits.
Bringing back snacks to its menu at a nationally low price point of $2.99 in July.
Launching its value-added food in September.
Bringing back its popular monopoly game to loyal members on Oct. 6.
In its second conference call, McDonald’s confirmed strategies to take deals and encourage more franchises to accept national prices, a challenge given that franchisees face different labor costs and other costs from the market.
“Wage rates across the US are very different. And so we need to respect that and work with $5 each to come together and do it. But all of these things take a lot of negotiation.
“Targeting the low-income consumer is important as they tend to visit our restaurants more often than middle-income consumers,” Kempkinski said.
That’s especially true for members of the McDonald’s Loyalty Program. Its program has more than 185 million active users in 90 days in 60 global markets, and in the US, visits are greatly increased after a person signs up. On average, McDonald’s visits jump to 26 per year after joining, from 10.5 times before.
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This story was originally reported by Thestreet on Oct 27, 2025, where it appeared first in the restaurant category. Add Thestreet as your favorite source by clicking here.
