McDonald’s Against The World

McDonald’s has been serving some of America’s favorite food since 1948.  It has been a growing business that has spread throughout the world. With 35,000 restaurants open in 119 countries, McDonald’s is the world’s largest growing chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. During these last few years, McDonald’s has been faced with some obstacles. Locations all over the world have been failing for different reasons.

McDonald’s sales in Europe were deteriorating due to the decreasing of consumer prices across the euro zone. In the Asia-Pacific region, there were scandals that exposed abysmal and unsanitary conditions at the ingredient supplying factories in China and Japan. In the United States however, it is the increased number of competition that has caused the declining of sales at McDonald’s. Although it these restaurants are doing poorly in these regions, smaller places like Australia are doing just fine. “Australia is very small compared to China and McDonald’s does more business in the USA than in the rest of the Western Hemisphere,” as said by Matthew Yglesias in an article on Vox.

One of McDonald’s biggest competitors is Chipotle. Although Chipotle does not nearly have as many restaurants open as McDonald’s does, it guarantees fresher and naturally grown/raised ingredients. Customers are able to see ingredients for themselves on line, with workers cooking all of the ingredients in front of them. “Although supplying chain issues in Asia are fixable, competition is hard to fix and US situation should be terrifying for the company,” says Matthew Yglesias. Executive of McDonald’s, Mike Andres says, “The pace of change outside of McDonald’s has become faster than perhaps the pace of change internally,” in an article on Fortune.

Mike Andres and his boss, CEO of McDonald’s, Donald Thompson, have been trying to come up with different ways to offer healthier options in hope that it will increase the sales of the company in America. This goes to prove that consumers in America are slowly but surely realizing what the difference good food and bad food is. Although Chipotle may not be the healthiest choice, it is still a much healthier and fresher choice than eating at McDonald’s. With options like Sofritas (tofu) for vegetarians, to freshly cooked chicken and beef for the meat lovers, Chipotle is something favorable to many people. People are now recognizing that quality is always better than quantity.

Sources:

Mcwilliams, James. “McDonald’s vs. Chipotle: Does the Big Mac Win?” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 15 June 2010.              Web. 21 Jan. 2015.

Whaba, Phil. “McDonald’s to Cut Menu Items in Bid to Regain ‘burger Leadership’.” Fortune McDonalds to Cut Menu Items in              Bid to Regain Burger Leadership Comments. 10 Dec. 2014. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.

Yglesias, Matthew. “McDonald’s Is Dying in the United States. Thank Chipotle.” Vox. 09 Dec. 2014. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.

Picture 1: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/06/mcdonalds-vs-chipotle-does-the-big-mac-win/58142/

Picture 2: https://vulcanpost.com/3417/mcdonalds-advises-staff-not-to-eat-fast-food-hypocrite-much/