McDonald’s has announced that it will permanently close 200 of its 14,000 U.S. locations this year with over 50% of them being “low-volume restaurants” that operate inside Walmart stores.
McDonald’s said it was already planning on these closings but with the pandemic affecting business overall, it moved ahead with the closings at this time.
“Within a matter of weeks, the McDonald’s system made operational modifications across 30,000 restaurants, while closing and then reopening another 9,000 restaurants,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said during Tuesday’s earnings call. “We introduced new safety procedures in all our restaurants, modified our menus, and developed new contactless ways to serve our customers.”
McDonald’s had reopened 2,000 dining rooms according to social distancing guidelines with reduced seating, but halted that as as coronavirus cases continued to surge in July nationally.
McDonald’s has said it will be delaying dining room re-openings for at least another month.
Dunkin’ has already announced it will be closing 450 locations by the end of 2020 and Starbucks will close up to 400 company-owned locations over the next year and a half.
