After More Than a Year of Hurtful Headlines, McDonald's to Stop Reporting Monthly Sales The chain has decided to stop disclosing its sales figures as frequently.
By Kate Taylor
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After months of reporting declining sales, McDonald's has decided to simply keep its mouth shut.
Starting July 1, the fast-food chain will no long report sales on a monthly basis. The move is part of the company's plan to focus "activities and conversations" on longer-term actions.
"Disclosing comparable sales as part of our quarterly reporting is consistent with nearly all retailers and will provide a greater understanding of McDonald's sales results in the context of the Company's overall financial performance…and it will align with the our longer-term view of building shareholder value," CEO Steve Easterbrook said at the Sanford Bernstein analysts conference on Wednesday when the plan was announced.
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McDonald's global same-stores sales have been in decline for 11 straight months. In the company's last reported month, April, global same-store sales decreased 0.6 percent, while U.S. same-store sales fell 2.3 percent.
While McDonald's reasoning for going into stealth mode seems a bit sketchy, it is far from the only company to only report sales on a quarterly basis. Chipotle and Starbucks, two of investors' favorite chains, also only report sales every quarter.
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