Late last month, McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook announced that, as of July 1, the company would end its longstanding policy of reporting monthly sales figures, as a way to shift focus to its longterm turnaround plans. It’s not hard to see why; This month’s numbers, its second-to-last monthly update, according to Easterbrook’s plan, are essentially an advertisement for the company’s decline.
Worldwide sales at stores open at least 13 months were down 0.3% in May. The core US market was down 2.7%. Asia was down 3.2%. Europe, the lone bright spot, was up a mere 2.3%.
The company has been reporting appalling monthly sales numbers for more than a year now (the company doesn’t break out monthly sales for the months in which it reports quarterly earnings, so March, December, September, and July show quarterly sales numbers):
The change in monthly reporting is most likely a way to give Easterbrook’s turnaround plan, which he’s begun to detail, some breathing room to work. Its competitors have set a similar standard; Most of its peers decline to share monthly sales data.