Know the other day. I was talking to alpaca and i said to him you you know pack every day when i look at myself in the mirror. I see who's fat dumb ugly and stupid i need you to pay me a compliment boost my self esteem. A little bit.

And what he says back to me is well on the bright side your vision's pretty good you're not too blind in hindsight. I'm blind in my left eye. But nonetheless uh that's not actually what's to blame what is to blame for what i see every day look in the mirror is mcdonald's mcdonald's is to blame for that and it is to blame for the economy. We're going to discuss this here today guys look at the trades.

We're going to talk fast. And doesn't classic are peppa's saying. I'm advised advice and they're experts so please take what i said they're going to solve let's get into it today. I read an interesting article and i know what you're thinking how the heck could mcdonald's have anything to do uh with sort of the state of the economy uh.

But follow the line here all right. There's some meme stuff. There's some legitimate stuff. Mcdonald's customers shrug off higher menu prices as revenue jumps.

Now this is actually pretty peculiar to me and quite interesting uh because when you're thinking of the state of the economy. Maybe the first thing that comes to mind isn't mcdonald's but it is for me particularly. Because walmart had a pretty bad uh expectation shift. So to speak and i want to go over a couple key points.

That i find to be of interest so within this article. There's three things that i'd like to discuss mcdonald's value items. Mcdonald's beat beating expectations right and mcdonald's proving that groceries are squeezing. So let's start off here first with uh.

The value items right mcdonald's value items have seen an increase overall uh in sort of uh buying pressure right. There's more people that are buying uh sort of these these value items instead of combo meals at mcdonald's and this is uh you know for myself personally let me give you a story. Because i i could sort of relate to this uh. It'd be like getting a mcchicken instead of a double quarter pounder meal and myself right i love myself some mickey d's.

I love some mcdank. Some mcdick stood uh. It's one of my go to things when i mean when i'm hungry in the mood. Want something quick and easy right.

But the double quarter pounder has certainly increased in price to the point in which i actually look at some mcchickens and i say you know what these make chickens for a buck. 60 or whatever. They are a piece. They look pretty appealing and i get three or four of those instead walk away just as full as i would have with a double quarter pounder meal.

I think this is a pretty similar situation to what you're seeing in low income cities. And that's a pretty big uh sort of point to make is mcdonald's states that one of the the bigger things they've noticed with these value items. Instead of combo meals is people are buying them less and less the combo meals in uh low income situations right we're talking smaller more frequent price increases and then they go down here even though we're pushing through pricing. The consumer is tolerating.

It well outside of the fact that this is happening. Oh zan noted that some mcdonald's customers particularly those with lower incomes are avoiding combo meals and opting for value items instead. I would assume this is sort of the metric they're using to measure that is low income cities versus high income cities wherever there's mcdonald's located uh that's certainly been sort of an appeal and this brings us sort of into the second point. Which is the mcdonald's beat people are still buying right.

Why is this matter well if you think about the fact that walmart missed on earnings. But mcdonald's beat. They're actually doing uh pretty decent compared to expectations this makes you ask a question. How is mcdonald's raising prices in comparison to the rest of the broad market well hey guess what i've got a little bit of a graphic for you that i can show right mcdonald's proves.

Groceries are squeezing groceries up twelve point two percent year over year. According to this article thanks seven point seven percent. So needless to say to all those people who say mcdonald's why you eat that nonsense dude. Hey listen it's good for the wallet it's it's like a hedge against inflation.

So to speak. Seven point seven percent compared to twelve point two ah that's a that's a pretty pretty tasty deal and uh. I can get some food that i like eating. But nonetheless why even bring this up.

I think that mcdonald's is a sign and an inclination as to what is to come later mcdonald's uh. The restaurant itself when they start missing earnings which i do think is going to happen if you're starting to see less people buy these the combo meals compared to the value meal uh. This is gonna have a pretty huge sort of effect on the economy. And there's a sort of second possibility here.

Which is mcdonald's believe it or not may be one of the things. That holds up the economy. Why well if people keep buying value items. As as compared to the combo meals their their money is probably going to keep going up right sort of two different ways you can look at this which brings me to my final point walmart lowered quarterly and yearly expectations all right why does this matter.

Why why am i comparing walmart to mcdonald's well if they're lowering quarterly and yearly expectations that's a pretty big gap right yearly compared to quarterly is 12 months who would have thought right uh mcdonald's sort of being the hedge against that is a sign it's a sign that people are starting to feel a little bit of pain. You can see the numbers to back it hey and this is the final thing to say right mcdonald's equals groceries. Squeezing long on nah but the the grand takeaway for this right the the very interesting thing what i find to be the most interesting point is just the fact that low income uh. Americans are still spending money they're just going for that value item instead.

Which brings me to believe legitimately that uh americans are still going to spend money in this economy. However they're going to be allocating money in different ways. Which leads me to believe companies like walmart you might see a little bit of a miss a little on expectations on earnings right companies like mcdonald's that offer alternatives to whatever they had prior right. I think they're actually gonna be doing pretty good uh.

So your low cost items. I don't think they're gonna get as beat up as as many would think i think it's more of those luxuries and things that people don't technically need that will be taking a beat down. So i'm not gonna over complicate. It that's what i got i thought i'd introduce that you guys all take it easy appreciate it.