McDonald's has suffered its biggest drop in US sales since the height of COVID, a fall that it said was driven by people's concerns over the US economy.
Despite a marketing tie-in with the Minecraft movie and extended price deals, US customers made fewer visits to the burger chain in the first three months of this year compared to a year ago.
Chief executive Chris Kempczinski says customers were grappling with uncertainty.
But he assured investors that the firm could "navigate even the toughest of market conditions.
McDonald's has been working for months to try to reignite enthusiasm among customers after facing a backlash over rising prices, especially among lower-income households.
However, revenue at US McDonald's outlets that have been open for at least a year sank 3.6 percent in the first three months of 2025 compared to a year earlier.
That is the steepest decline in like-for-like sales in the US since the three months to the end of June 2020, when pandemic restrictions were in place.
The surprise drop in sales coincided with a contraction in the US economy, which shrank at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the first three months of 2025, the first quarterly decline in output since 2022.
Reacting to the growth figures, President Trump called for patience, saying he needed "a little bit of time" and described the numbers as a reflection of the "Biden economy", a reference to his predecessor as president.
However, Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said Americans were nervous and cutting back on discretionary spending as a result.
McDonald's figures reflect the first two months of Donald Trump's presidency, with the reporting period ending just before his barrage of tariff announcements on 2nd April.
Dubbed "Liberation Day", that broadside prompted further confusion among many firms and consumers.
[Source: BBC]
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