I wonder if quality plays a part.

Anecdote time:

I'm not a fan of McDonald's food, but one thing I once could count on from McDonald's was pretty much the same quality store to store. And as far as fast food went the employees seemed happy an motivated (as much as they can at a fast food place and noticeably more than other fast food places). That's not the case anymore.

Quality store to store and even the same store at different times now varies wildly in my experience and near me there are several "bad stores" where it's pretty clear nobody (employees) is happy and straight up not trying.

Not passing judgment on employees here (it's up to the company to do their thing to keep quality up), but either way McDnonald's to me just isn't reliable.

Big Mac being tracked as a economic indicator. McD's should watch it, because the price is outpacing wages by a lot.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4119246-the-big-mac-index-m...

The biggest problem McDonald's has been facing is inflation. McDonald's whole business model was predicated on reasonably good food that was delivered fast and cheap. Now the cheap part is off the table, and for a couple of bucks more you can get much better food. To make matters worse, McDonald's import a lot of their beef, and those costs have been affected by the tariffs. That's the vice McDonald's is in.

McDonalds prices are shocking if you haven't been in a while.