---
title: "Survey: McDonald's' future looks grim"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/e62af069-dd5b-45cb-a150-fe2c537eb1f1
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/survey-mcdonalds-future-looks-grim-1498
category: "Burger"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "Burger"
published: 2015-04-17T20:15:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T13:41:04.202Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/d2af2460af48daa95f37c750761ade191545.jpg
---

# Survey: McDonald's' future looks grim

**TL;DR:** A survey of McDonald's operators found that their outlook on the company's future is the worst it has been in over a decade. The survey included 32 operators who own 215 restaurants, a small percentage of the 3,100 franchisees in the U.S. system.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2015-04-17. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/survey-mcdonalds-future-looks-grim-1498).*

## Story

According to a survey from Janney Capital Markets analyst Mark Kalinowski, McDonald’s' operator outlook is the worst it has been in more than a decade and so is its relationship with franchisees.

The survey paints a harsh picture of McDonald’s' sales before its quarterly earnings report next week and conveys that turnaround efforts have not yet been adopted.

“McDonald’s' system is broken,” one operator said in the survey. “They talk menu reduction to help our people, simplify our menu for customers, but add products to help sales and it does not work. We continue to fall and fail.”

The survey included 32 operators who own 215 restaurants – just a small percentage of the 3,100 franchisees in the U.S. system.

“Approximately 3,100 franchisees own and operate McDonald’s restaurants across the U.S. Less than 1 percent of them were surveyed for this report. We value the feedback from our franchisees and have a solid working relationship with them,” the company said in a statement.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- McDonald's (company)
- franchisee relations (topic)
- sales performance (topic)
- turnaround efforts (topic)
- operator outlook (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/survey-mcdonalds-future-looks-grim-1498). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/e62af069-dd5b-45cb-a150-fe2c537eb1f1).