The Weird Connection McDonald’s Has to the US Economy

Published: April 10, 2026

By India McCarty

In today’s economy, McDonald’s is scrambling to figure out who their customer is — and how to appeal to all economic demographics.

“When you have roughly 90% of the population that’s coming into a McDonald’s at least once a year, you’ve got to serve everybody — young, old, rich, poor,” the fast food chain’s new CEO, Chris Kempczinski, told the Wall Street Journal.

He explained that he’s trying to appeal to both lower-income buyers and higher-income customers, which explains promotions that range from $1 products to a Valentine’s Day-themed McNuggets-and-caviar giveaway.

Kempczinski acknowledged that McDonald’s “got a little bit offsides on” prices during the pandemic and is now working to fix that.

“Ultimately you end up maybe making more from what we call penny profit…more in absolute dollars, but maybe the percent margin had to shrink,” he explained.

Some of the new changes the CEO is implementing include an under-$3 menu, including a $2.50 McDouble burger for a limited time, as well as a new premium burger, “the Big Arch,” that is aimed at customers looking for something of a higher-quality.

Kempczinski spoke further on this topic in an interview with CNBC, telling the outlet that today’s “two-tier economy” has made the restaurant chain rethink their pricing.

“For our business, which has a significant group of consumers which are in that middle and lower income, we needed to step in,” he said.

These moves come after a report released earlier this year found that McDonald’s “posted a 3% drop in revenue in the first quarter,” per WSJ. “Same-store sales in the U.S. dropped 3.6% from the prior year, the steepest decline since 2020.”

Many people might be unaware of how important McDonald’s is to the U.S. economy; a study by Oxford Economics stated that the fast food chain “has a $73.3 billion impact on the U.S. economy,” supporting 1 million jobs, including 740,000 workers in the chain’s restaurants.

“McDonald’s total economic impact includes a $34.1 billion direct impact on the U.S. gross domestic product, according to the study,” Restaurant Business reported.

As the American economy continues to fluctuate, McDonald’s is one of many companies who are working hard to figure out how best to serve their customers, while still making a profit.

Questions or comments? Please write to us here.