McDonald’s Customer Visits Fall After E. Coli Outbreak
WSJ
Oct 28, 2024
McDonald's suffered a slowdown in business in the wake of the E. coli outbreak tied to onions served on Quarter Pounders.
Customer foot traffic to the chain's U.S. stores declined more than 6% over the three days following the outbreak's announcement on Oct. 22, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to Gordon Haskett Research Advisors. A day earlier, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention flagged that at least one person had died and 49 were sickened in connection with the outbreak.
McDonald’s foot traffic was down nearly 10% on Friday from a year earlier as consumer awareness of the outbreak grew, according to Gordon Haskett’s analysis of location data from Placer.ai.
In four states with reported E. coli cases—Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming—McDonald’s traffic declined more than 17% on Friday from last year, Gordon Haskett said. In Colorado, where authorities have identified the most cases, traffic declined 33%.
McDonald’s spokespeople said last week that it was too early to comment on the outbreak’s impact on foot traffic to its restaurants, and that it was focused on safeguarding public health.
McDonald's shares moved 1.7% higher Monday, having fallen last week in the wake of the CDC announcement. The chain is set to report third-quarter earnings Tuesday.
The Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether slivered onions served on Quarter Pounder hamburgers were the source of the outbreak. McDonald's and food-safety officials have ruled out beef as the source.
The chain anticipates selling Quarter Pounders again in the hundreds of restaurants implicated in the outbreak within a week.
The company said Friday it would stop buying onions from a Colorado facility run by Taylor Farms, the supplier of slivered onions for the affected McDonald’s locations. Taylor recalled yellow onions from the facility last week. It said earlier last week that it hadn’t found any traces of E. coli in tests.
All other menu items, including other hamburgers, are available and safe to consume, McDonald’s said. The company said it is continuing its investigation into the matter and cooperating with public-health investigators.
Permalink: https://gordonhaskett.com/news/15073280