McDonald’s has been struggling, with US sales dropping steadily for half a decade. Franchisees are unhappy. Management has shifted. Nothing has immediately righted the ship. Now what’s perhaps America’s most iconic brand sometimes seems as if its time has come and gone. That the trends toward healthy eating, local food sourcing and customer choice are making the McDonald’s business model a relic. But guess what? That’s just in America.
McDonald’s will close 700 McDonald’s restaurants in the US this year, more than it will open, according to AP. It will still have more than 14,000 US locations, twice as many as Burger King — the #2 burger chain. But McDonald’s has more than 35,000 global locations. McDonald’s biggest market going forward is the world, not America.
