Is McDonald’s Focus on Drinks Killing its Core Business?

Is McDonald’s focus on drinks killing its core business? Has their focus on coffees, smoothies and oatmeal shifted attention from a much needed eye that should be on burger development? That’s what Chicago Business analyst Kate MacArthur has positioned in her latest article. To be fair, the article has no miraculous number crunching that would indicate such a decline in sales, and the article’s main crutch revolves around a research firm that manages virtual portfolios on companies it follows. As it stands, that company is quite bearish on shares of McDonald’s.

The analysis reveals a two-year trend of declining sales at McDonald’s locations that have been open at least 13 months. As a point of devil’s advocacy, I can’t say I completely back what’s being presented in these forecasting figures. At the very least, this article does bring up an interesting discussion point. Is the world’s largest burger chain putting too much focus on products outside of burgers and fries? Will an initial rush of customers to these new products (or lack thereof, according to articles like these) eventually wear thin in the coming years?