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Terrible take. Of course they want middle-income customers, that's a big part of why they raised prices, because they thought middle-income would absorb them. A

Terrible take. Of course they want middle-income customers, that's a big part of why they raised prices, because they thought middle-income would absorb them. And they arent entirely wrong - those drive-thru lines are still miles long at peak times, mostly parents getting an entire family's dinner. However middle-income is still price sensitive and notice when $30 becomes $50+. Executives talk about appealing to "value-oriented" consumers (i.e. almost everybody). "traffic among higher-income customers continues to grow across the fast-food sector, increasing “nearly double digits” in the quarter, he (Kempczinski) said" -https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/05/mcdonalds-losing-low-income-customer/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/05/mcdonalds... It's actually Wendy's right now suffering, vs rivals McD and BK: "Wendy's (WEN) same-restaurant sales, or sales of restaurants open at least 15 months, declined from a year ago for a third straight quarter, while those of rivals McDonald's Corp. (MCD) and Restaurant Brands International Inc.'s (QSR) Burger King increased over the past two quarters." https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20251107156/wendys-is-still-losing-to-rivals-like-mcdonalds-but-not-by-as-much-as-feared https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20251107156/wen...

silisili 11mo ago
It's not that they don't want middle class customers, of course that would be foolish. It's that they don't want to be positioned there. The CEO has made this abundantly clear. Their financial reports are a better source of truth than anecdotes. Q1 was an absolute disaster, Q2 surprisingly OK, Q3 missing expectations but not terrible. This is not where they want to be, regardless of lip service. They will not thrive in this space, as Wendy's has found out. IMO Wendy's was the de facto try 'middle/lower middle class' fast food option.

silisili 11mo ago

It's not that they don't want middle class customers, of course that would be foolish. It's that they don't want to be positioned there. The CEO has made this abundantly clear. Their financial reports are a better source of truth than anecdotes. Q1 was an absolute disaster, Q2 surprisingly OK, Q3 missing expectations but not terrible. This is not where they want to be, regardless of lip service. They will not thrive in this space, as Wendy's has found out. IMO Wendy's was the de facto try 'middle/lower middle class' fast food option.