Earlier this year, I reported on McDonald’s launch of a $3 or less meal deal in an effort to win back its value status, targeting budget-conscious customers.
McDonald’s new “McValue 2.0” meals included:
- The $4 meal deal: Consumers can order breakfast options with a McMuffin, hash browns and coffee.
- The $3 and less: Customers will also find cheaper menus with items like a sausage biscuit or a 4-piece chicken McNuggets. This replaces the buy-one-add-one-for-a-dollar menu launched in 2025.
After years of price increases, last year the fast food giant started pushing on new value deals as a means to attract more customers whose wallets have tightened by inflation.
However, according to its latest earnings call, some of these strategies backfired. Here’s what happened, according to the management.
McDonald’s reports mixed second-quarter financial results
McDonald’s reported mixed second-quarter financial results on August 5, highlighting that the fast food chain’s performance in the U.S. fell short of expectations.
Q2 2026 McDonald’s earnings highlights:
- Revenue was $7.10 billion compared to $6.8 billion in the same period of 2025.
- Operating income was $3.34 billion, versus $3.23 billion in the second quarter of the prior year.
- Net income amounted to $2.37 billion, which compares to $2.25 billion in the same quarter of 2025.
- Diluted earnings per share were $3.38 versus $3.14 in the second quarter of 2025.
Source: McDonald’s official earnings report
McDonald’s CEO says satisfaction scores went down
McDonald’s president, chairman, and chief executive officer, Chris Kempczinski, highlighted the difference in performance across its restaurants, with the best-performing locations delivering strong results with the new everyday affordable price menus.
Kempczinski pointed out that the company needs that same execution across all its restaurants. However, some locations weren’t able to keep up with so many developments.
“Second, our restaurant teams were overwhelmed by too many deployments in the quarter, which led to less efficient restaurant operations. This impacted customer service times, and as service times went up, satisfaction scores went down,” Kempczinski said, according to a transcription of the second-quarter earnings call.
McDonald’s management reveals factors that led to decline in loyal customers visits
CFO Ian Borden explained how management is not satisfied with the company’s U.S. comparable sales growth of 0.8% for the quarter and 2.3% for the first half.
3 factors that negatively impacted customer visits:
- Inconsistent pricing across stores: A large portion of their restaurants simply ignored corporate’s advice and didn’t actually price the items under $3.
- Confusing marketing: The company had too many different advertisements running at the same time. Because of all the noise, customers didn’t even realize the new “10 for under $3” deal existed.
- Removing digital offers and buy one add one for $1 offer: Digital offers are commonly the most appreciated offers by McDonald’s most loyal customers.
Borden further talked about how the chain expanded its McValue program with a new under $3 Everyday Affordable Price, or EDAP, menu, highlighting how these kinds of offerings have been “consistently successful across our top international markets.”
The problem was inconsistency in restaurant-level execution of EDAP menu and low consumer awareness levels.
“At the same time, the business pulled back on digital offers and removed our buy one, add one for $1 feature to offset the investment behind McValue. In combination, all of these factors negatively impacted visits from some of our most loyal customers.”
Kempczinski followed up by highlighting how digital offers are the core of its loyalty program, and “something that’s valued by our most loyal customers.”
The CEO confirmed that “ended up being a bad trade: putting in an EDAP program that didn’t deliver and taking away a lot of digital offers and the buy one, add one program.”
Related: 17-year-old Mexican restaurant chain closes all locations
What’s next for McDonald’s and its loyal customers
Kempczinski noted that they will work on fixing the above-mentioned “bad trade,” but that it requires a lot of work.
Therefore, McDonald’s named the company veteran Skye Anderson as the new President of McDonald’s USA. Management emphasized that her primary directive is to bring operational discipline, fix execution stumbles across domestic restaurants, and ensure tight alignment between corporate and franchisees.
As early as next week, McDonald’s is “launching more national digital flash offers to re-energize our high-frequency customers. In addition, we’re going to target our most loyal users with more personalized digital offerings,” Borden announced.
The company further confirmed during the earnings call that the chain is on its way to 50,000 restaurants under its most aggressive expansion strategy ever.
Moreover, “We’re now close to having all our major markets on one app, one loyalty program, one pricing engine, one HR system, and one finance system,” the CEO said.
