Remember that time when, at the very start of the pandemic, you made pledges to cook elaborate meals at home and in general become a healthier version of you? Apparently, neither do many of us — traffic at fast food chains, and McDonald's (MCD) in particular, is now higher than it was before the pandemic.
According to the most recent foot traffic report from Placer.ai, visits to the Golden Arches are up 5.5% compared to the first week of April in 2019. Visits to all fast food quick-service restaurants, meanwhile, are up 0.9%.
And even as many chains experiment with sitting-space-free restaurants, the numbers do not suggest that we are moving toward ordering exclusively online and enjoying the food outside the restaurants.
Traffic Is Up, Monthly Returning Visitors Are Down
The overarching industry trend is that foot traffic to quick-service restaurants will rise and fall in relation to major COVID-19 waves — in January 2021, visits were down 36.2% for McDonald's and 26.9% for the entire industry — but pick up as soon as a lull in new infections comes.
"Many McDonald's patrons likely prefer to get delivery or to pick up their food and eat elsewhere during Coronavirus outbreaks, and the low visit numbers in early 2021 reflect that," the report's authors write.
"Still, the fact that since 2021, nationwide McDonald’s visit numbers have quickly shot back up every time there is a COVID lull points to the enduring demand for on-premise meal ordering, pick-up, and/or consumption – despite the availability of digital channels."
While McDonald's traffic was also up 1.9% in October 2021, the recent increase is the highest observed so far. Causation is always difficult to infer but, according to the report's authors, the numbers show that many still want to eat their Big Mac onsite despite the availability of pickup, drive-thru and other offsite ordering options.
"The lasting change in visiting hours to McDonald’s is likely due to the dramatic transformation in working patterns since the onset of the pandemic," the report reads.
McDonald's Knows Its Customers Want Healthier
But while foot traffic is on the rise, the number of returning monthly visitors has been on the decrease. At 33.3% in March 2022, the number of people who come down to McDonald's in a second month have been falling since 2017 and are still below the 36.5% seen before the pandemic 2019.
The authors speculate whether increased concern for the health benefits of foods have led many to forgo the high-calorie McDonald's foods that films like "Supersize Me" investigated decades ago.
Indeed, an increasingly more health-conscious consumer — 54% of Americans recently said that they look for more health-focused foods when dining — has been something that McDonald's has now been navigating for decades.
But with recent additions like the McPlant underperforming in many American markets, the answer could lie in any number of other factors: regular fluctuation, pandemic-related changes to dining hours and trends or even menu stagnation as buyers turn to chains whose menus offer more new options.
"Following the short-lived salad shakers in 2000 and introduction of its premium salad line in 2003, McDonald’s stepped up its offering of healthier options across the menu in 2013," the report reads. "But recent attempts at winning over health-conscious consumers, such as adding the McPlant to its line of burgers, has seen mixed results."
