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More Trump Tariffs, McDonald's Strong Report · Bloomberg Intelligence

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
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  Speaker 3: All right, let's go to the topic du jour, and
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: that's about Trump tariffs and how it actually could affect growth.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: For example, we're looking at economists kind of reevaluating the
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  Speaker 3: impact of policies on the US economy and then the sequencing, Right,
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  Speaker 3: if you have tariffs now, but then you have tax
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  Speaker 3: cuts later, what that winds up looking like then for growth?
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  Speaker 3: And the current is Bloomberg's a global economy reporter and
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  Speaker 3: he joins us now from DC. What's the scuttle butt
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  Speaker 3: among economists when it comes to President Trump's tariffs policy.
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  Speaker 1: I think moving faster and expected alex is one way
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  Speaker 1: to think about it. I mean, to be clear, there
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  Speaker 1: is no you know here that the President is either
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  Speaker 1: imposing tariffs or that he believes in tariffs as a
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  Speaker 1: tool of trade policy. But I think there is a
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  Speaker 1: sense of a shock at the pace of the moves.
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  Speaker 1: Remember a couple of things. His trade team isn't actually
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  Speaker 1: a confirmed in office yet it converce actory Howard Lopnik
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  Speaker 1: and Jameson Greers trade represent that of be formally appointed
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  Speaker 1: to their roles there. There was an executive order on
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  Speaker 1: day one of the organization setting out this the remit
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  Speaker 1: for a study in the US trading policy with partners
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  Speaker 1: around the world. But already we've had threats of tariffs
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  Speaker 1: on Columbia, threats of tariff on Mexico and Kinada, actual
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  Speaker 1: tariffs implemented on China ten percent across the board. Also
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  Speaker 1: that's new territory, not just intermediate goods across the board.
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  Speaker 1: And of course now we have the expected announcement of
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  Speaker 1: tariffs and steel aluminium that the President took yesterday, and
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  Speaker 1: the reciprocal tariff idea that he's also flooded, due for
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  Speaker 1: detail again this week. So you know, it's easy to
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  Speaker 1: say this isn't a shock. He spoke about it during
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  Speaker 1: the campaign. But the breath and pace that I think
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  Speaker 1: is catching people off guard.
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  Speaker 4: So initially on Friday morning, when we got the report
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  Speaker 4: from Reuters that Trump was considering reciprocal tariffs that day,
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  Speaker 4: there wasn't really any indication of which country he was
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  Speaker 4: referring to.
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  Speaker 5: How are you all.
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  Speaker 4: Thinking about this whole concept of reciprocal tariffs and what
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  Speaker 4: the implications could be globally.
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  Speaker 1: Well, reciprocal tariff idea is going to be a very
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  Speaker 1: technical one. You know, we really need to see the
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  Speaker 1: exact details of what the President is thinking about. But
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  Speaker 1: the rough analysis from people following this trade expert is
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  Speaker 1: essentially what President is saying is if a the US
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  Speaker 1: puts the tariff on one country's goods of say two percent,
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  Speaker 1: and that country puts a tariff on US goods of
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  Speaker 1: say ten percent, the President wants to.
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  Speaker 6: Level that up to level of playing field.
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  Speaker 1: And I think is that this might be a replacement
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  Speaker 1: to the universal tariff of ten percent that he spoke about.
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  Speaker 1: So different different ideas there in the mix. But again
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  Speaker 1: that's a technical one we're going to have to wait
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  Speaker 1: and see in detail. Where it certainly adds to thee
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  Speaker 1: of more tariffs coming.
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  Speaker 3: So the idea that the tariffs center them cells are
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  Speaker 3: knows surprise, But it's the speed at which President Trump
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  Speaker 3: is mood but moving on tariffs that is a surprise,
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  Speaker 3: which then raises the question of the quote unquote positive
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  Speaker 3: parts of the administration like deregulation and lower corporate taxes
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  Speaker 3: to then offset the hit we might take from tariffs.
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  Speaker 3: What do you guys expect in terms of the speed there.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean to clear to President and his team
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  Speaker 1: say that this trade policy, this hole is trade policy
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  Speaker 1: will drive investment in the US, will bring manufacturing back home,
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  Speaker 1: It will raise revenue for the government, and it will
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  Speaker 1: balance trading books.
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  Speaker 6: With the rest of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Along with, as you say, this deregulation policy, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: making it easier to build things, make it easier to
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  Speaker 1: extract resources and energy from the ground, getting infrastructure projects moving,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, it's kind of a pro business deregularty
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  Speaker 1: attitude writ large. So there is a case that the
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  Speaker 1: new administration is will at least animal spirits. Economists haven't
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  Speaker 1: yet down graded their forecast, right anything like that. You
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  Speaker 1: know that I'm f single out to you experts perform
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  Speaker 1: once back in January. But you know, nonetheless, there's also
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  Speaker 1: feeling that, wait a minute, right now, we seem.
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  Speaker 6: To be at the very least pain stage of this.
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  Speaker 1: We're seeing those spending cuts this federal level of staff
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  Speaker 1: lost staff, job cuts at federal level, the terriffs. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: the sweeteners if you have too wrong in the economy,
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  Speaker 1: that's the deregulation. Just mentioned that the tax cuts that,
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  Speaker 1: of course haven't yet been agreed by Congress. So, you know,
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  Speaker 1: supporters saying, look, this is a big program here, ultimately
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  Speaker 1: will lead to a stronger and faster going economy, but
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  Speaker 1: a lot of skeptics are saying that there's potential for
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  Speaker 1: significant disruption and.
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  Speaker 6: Pain along the way.
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  Speaker 1: Very early saying yet, but certainly plenty of skepticism, unspecoid
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  Speaker 1: support on both sides of this.
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  Speaker 4: So there's a lot of conversation about what tariffs can
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  Speaker 4: mean for different countries across the globe. But if we
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  Speaker 4: were to bring it back to the consumer, how exactly
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  Speaker 4: would that impact the consumer. Would we see countries just
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  Speaker 4: passing off tariff costs onto consumers? What does that look like?
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, it depends on the level of the tier and
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  Speaker 6: depends on the type of goods.
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  Speaker 5: Right.
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  Speaker 1: So, for example, the last trade war between President Trump's
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  Speaker 1: administration in China was mostly intermediate goods that components and
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  Speaker 1: materials that factories are buying off of China, you know,
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  Speaker 1: ultimately didn't have that much of an impact on the
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  Speaker 1: mainStreet inflation this time around the president that's put ten
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  Speaker 1: percent tariffs and all the goods coming out of China
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  Speaker 1: and coming into the US, so that's like consumer goods,
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  Speaker 1: typical household baskets. Similarly, from Mexico, a big portion of
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  Speaker 1: exports from Mexico to the US was on food, food
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  Speaker 1: stuff like fruit and veg and an apparel. So if
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  Speaker 1: you start putting tariffs on those kind of products, then
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  Speaker 1: the question becomes who's going to absorb it. Is the
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  Speaker 1: seller going to cut their prices and absorb that tariff
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  Speaker 1: or will the buy Will the buyer absorbed the tariff
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  Speaker 1: in the US, and or will it be passed along
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  Speaker 1: to consumers? And that's where Commas saying, hang on, some
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  Speaker 1: of this will surely have to plats on the consumers,
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  Speaker 1: and that's why they say in the first round, effect
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  Speaker 1: at least will be inflationary.
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  Speaker 4: Well, and that's the interesting part.
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  Speaker 3: I was talking about this a little earlier with Isabelle
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  Speaker 3: and Nora about commodities, is but commodities are efficient markets,
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  Speaker 3: so they'll just rerate, So the price of the commodity
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  Speaker 3: will rebrate to account for the tax. In order to
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  Speaker 3: have the consumer or the company, whomever's buying it want
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  Speaker 3: to buy it. If I'm buying a coat, that's not
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  Speaker 3: the same thing, Like that's not an efficient market. I'm
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  Speaker 3: just not going to buy the coat. And so there's
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  Speaker 3: different distinctions based on what's actually.
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  Speaker 6: Being taxed, very different distinctions.
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  Speaker 1: And you hear some FED officials make the point that
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  Speaker 1: even if FED officials have different views, like some make
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  Speaker 1: the point it's a one off, we kind of look
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  Speaker 1: through that impact. Others saying, wait a minute, this could
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  Speaker 1: be the kind of start of setting off a longer
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  Speaker 1: term consumer inflation Expectations that University of Michigan surveyed the
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  Speaker 1: end of last week show that consumers.
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  Speaker 6: Are a bit worried about inflation now, especially due to tires.
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  Speaker 6: So it's you know, it's not a very clear cut
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  Speaker 6: impact on this and for either side of the argument.
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  Speaker 1: But remember again there's also a bigger picture of view
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  Speaker 1: that you have those people who argue this will drive
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  Speaker 1: investment and employment, but there are also those who say
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  Speaker 1: will hurt consumer confidence and business confidence because they don't
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  Speaker 1: have certainty, don't know how to invest. So there'll be
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  Speaker 1: a lot of confusion in the meantime on tell this
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  Speaker 1: trade policy to settle down.
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  Speaker 4: So how are other global leaders responding to this? I know,
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  Speaker 4: when I was watching the Super Bowl last night, I
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  Speaker 4: actually saw an ad for from Canada about tariffs, and
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  Speaker 4: I missed that. Really it was super interesting a cowboy hating.
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  Speaker 7: No it was not.
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  Speaker 4: There was no stash flying around, there was no mustaches,
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  Speaker 4: but it was a really interesting ad. And I'm just curious.
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  Speaker 4: What are you all seeing in terms of the response
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  Speaker 4: from other world leaders.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, again early days you get different response
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  Speaker 1: from different capitals. But broadly speaking, when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: merchandise goods trade, a lot of the messaging has been
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  Speaker 1: you know, what do you want us to buy?
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  Speaker 6: We're willing to step up.
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  Speaker 1: Mexico stepped up with putting troops in the border for
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  Speaker 1: that Fentanel and immigration issue, as in Canada, but Canada
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  Speaker 1: has also made clear that you know, they're in the
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  Speaker 1: market to buy US goods. The European Union has said
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  Speaker 1: that they're willing to step up and buy maybe more
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  Speaker 1: US gas or other products you have. Japan here last
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  Speaker 1: week prominent s Orshiba talking about one trillion worth an
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  Speaker 1: investment in the US. And this goes around. If all
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  Speaker 1: of these world leaders make the point. They're willing to
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  Speaker 1: invest in buy goods, but they're also making it clear
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  Speaker 1: that they will retaliate in kind as well if the
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  Speaker 1: US pushes this faith policy too far. China has already
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  Speaker 1: retaliate literally today, those tariffs from China have gone into
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  Speaker 1: fact on agricultural goods, agricultural machinery coming out of the
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  Speaker 1: US into into China. And of course I've got some
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  Speaker 1: anti trust measures going on against some US companies as well.
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  Speaker 1: You have a playbook ready to retaliate if they want to.
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  Speaker 1: Canada head threatend to Italian as in Mexico. So you know,
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  Speaker 1: there's a there's a kind of a play nice we'll
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  Speaker 1: we'll come and see what can we do deal all this,
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  Speaker 1: but if that does mark out, they're willing to respond
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  Speaker 1: as well.
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  Speaker 3: All right, and I really appreciate always the best and
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  Speaker 3: the current Bloomberg Global Economy reporter joining us on Trump
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  Speaker 3: tariffs and what that does to growth.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: You were listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch the
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• 8:59
  Speaker 2: flagship New York station just say Alexa played Bloomberg eleven thirty.
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  Speaker 3: All right, I wanted to get a broader take on
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: the Trump administration and some deeper changes at taking place nationally,
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: particularly when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. Mark Morioll,
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: CEO of a National Urban League, joins us now on
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: this and side note. Mark was mayor of New Orleans
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  Speaker 3: from nineteen ninety four to two thousand and two. Mark,
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: did you watch the Super Bowl?
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  Speaker 4: Were you there?
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  Speaker 6: Hey?
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  Speaker 7: I was there, and I was an Eagles fan because
• 9:30
  Speaker 7: I lived in Philadelphia during my days in college at
• 9:33
  Speaker 7: U Penn.
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: And I tell you what, I didn't expect that outcome.
• 9:38
  Speaker 7: I felt Philadelphia would win, but I thought it was
• 9:40
  Speaker 7: going to be a competitive game all the way down
• 9:42
  Speaker 7: to the end. It wasn't really a competitive game. The
• 9:45
  Speaker 7: Eagles really really dominate.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, they took it.
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  Speaker 5: It was surprising.
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  Speaker 3: It was from somebody who like literally just started to
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: understand football yesterday. I'm actually not kidding.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: I was like, what is this Jeeves?
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  Speaker 6: Huh?
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  Speaker 3: What what is that team? Anyway, side, I'm glad you went.
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  Speaker 3: I'm glad you got to see it. Either way, it
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: was always a fun experience.
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: To watch. Mark.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: You are CEO of the National Urban League. It's the
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: largest historical civil rights and urban advocacy organization in the country.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: What are you guys doing right now to combat sort
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: of anti DEI rhetoric and policy from DC.
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  Speaker 7: So, we are working very hard to get institutions, leaders,
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  Speaker 7: corporations to reaffirm their commitment. Jamie Diamond and JP Morgan
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  Speaker 7: Chase have done so. Roger Bigodell in the National Football
• 10:34
  Speaker 7: League have done so. Companies like Delta and Target, and
• 10:38
  Speaker 7: there's an entire list. Those that have reaffirmed their commitment
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  Speaker 7: may not have gotten as much media attention as those
• 10:45
  Speaker 7: that have walked away. I'm dismayed by those who say
• 10:49
  Speaker 7: they have walked away. What every company in America should
• 10:53
  Speaker 7: be doing is living up to the meaning of the
• 10:57
  Speaker 7: Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four prevents non discrimination,
• 11:03
  Speaker 7: or rather is a non discrimination law which prevents discrimination
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  Speaker 7: based on race, creed.
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  Speaker 5: Color, religion, and national origin.
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  Speaker 7: Many of those who are promoting from behind the scenes
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  Speaker 7: the antide and I movement are trying to roll back
• 11:17
  Speaker 7: progress this nation is made over the last seventy years. Women,
• 11:22
  Speaker 7: African Americans, latinos Asians, indigenous Americans, disabled Americans, LGBTQ Americans
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  Speaker 7: have had a chance over the last seventy years to
• 11:32
  Speaker 7: participate in the mainstream of American life, in jobs and
• 11:37
  Speaker 7: business opportunities, around corporate board tables, in elected office. This
• 11:42
  Speaker 7: is a full scale attack on all of that progress
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  Speaker 7: based on a false and misleading narrative that somehow diversity
• 11:54
  Speaker 7: equity and inclusion promotes quotas and undermines narritive. I take
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  Speaker 7: great exception to that, because what diversity equity inclusion says
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  Speaker 7: is give everyone with merit a chance, not just some,
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  Speaker 7: not just men, not just white men. Give everybody, including
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  Speaker 7: a chance for the opportunities that America represents.
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  Speaker 5: That's what this is all about.
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  Speaker 7: And so we are going to continue to work and
• 12:25
  Speaker 7: fight and advocate for continuation of this country's commitment to
• 12:29
  Speaker 7: equal opportunity.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: Well, market sounds like last week was a really big
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: week for you. You were inducted into the Nola Wall
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: of Walk of Fame on Thursday, and you received a
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: Humanitarian Award the first time a non sports person was
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: chosen for this award at the Super Bowl party on Saturday.
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  Speaker 4: So very big week for you. But back on the
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: notion of companies walking back their commitments. Do you think
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  Speaker 4: this is really just a sigh of relief for companies
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: that weren't necessarily genuine about these commitments, or do you
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: think maybe corporations just want to have the freedom to
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  Speaker 4: make their own decisions without having to necessarily report and
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: be held accountable in those ways.
• 13:05
  Speaker 7: Well, reporting being accountable is what the law requires, It's
• 13:10
  Speaker 7: always required that. That's our system of laws, our systems
• 13:15
  Speaker 7: of the constitution. But I think some companies are frankly
• 13:19
  Speaker 7: being intimidated. There's a behind the scenes ever to intimidate,
• 13:24
  Speaker 7: to deveain, to threaten companies. I heard one story where
• 13:28
  Speaker 7: a company was told that if they did not walk
• 13:30
  Speaker 7: back their Dee and I, this group would launch a
• 13:35
  Speaker 7: social media campaign and show some lewde and lascivious videos
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: that may have taken place at an event that the
• 13:42
  Speaker 7: company co sponsored.
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  Speaker 5: This is what we're faced.
• 13:45
  Speaker 7: We're faced with a smear campaign, a campaign of attacks,
• 13:50
  Speaker 7: a campaign of division, and yes, it is a campaign
• 13:54
  Speaker 7: of hate. Major corporations in America operate under rubric of law.
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  Speaker 7: They follow that law. That law makes things fair and
• 14:04
  Speaker 7: equitable for everyone. All diversity, equity, inclusion is is a
• 14:08
  Speaker 7: program to implement non discrimination laws.
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  Speaker 5: That's what it represents, and this nation cannot walk back.
• 14:17
  Speaker 7: And we are going to battle and fight and work
• 14:20
  Speaker 7: in the courts and in every way, shape or form
• 14:23
  Speaker 7: possible to ensure that this nation remains committed to equal opportunity.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, Mark, it's really good to catch up with you.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: Congratulations on the host of the awards. Congratulations on the
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: Eagles winning as well. Thank you so much for your
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: time today. Mark Mariral joining us their CEO of the
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: National Urban League.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live
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• 14:51
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• 14:54
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• 14:58
  Speaker 4: Today we are joined by Michael Hale, and he is
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: Bloomberg Intelligence senior restaurant and food service analysts here to
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: talk about McDonald's earnings. So we have McDonald's sales that
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: improved on stronger international results. What is your broad read
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: on this, Michael?
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  Speaker 8: You know, the most important piece of the report really
• 15:17
  Speaker 8: is the US recovery post E Coli, and we got
• 15:21
  Speaker 8: some good news on that front. So traffic was actually
• 15:24
  Speaker 8: positive in December, so I think that was much better
• 15:27
  Speaker 8: than anyone had expected. They cited kind of a choppy
• 15:31
  Speaker 8: January here, but the only region is still impacted by
• 15:36
  Speaker 8: E COLI seems to be the Rocky Mountain region where
• 15:39
  Speaker 8: the outbreak occurred. And they expect a full US recovery
• 15:42
  Speaker 8: by the beginning of the second quarter.
• 15:43
  Speaker 6: Which is good news.
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  Speaker 3: What about the rest of the world versus the US,
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: It was the rest of the world that really performed
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: well yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 8: And a big part of that was just lapping like
• 15:55
  Speaker 8: pretty weak year ago results, right, so we wrapped the
• 15:59
  Speaker 8: start of the of the Israel Hamas war, and so
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  Speaker 8: the Middle East was stronger. Countries with large Muslim populations
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  Speaker 8: were also stronger. And then also China lapped a very
• 16:09
  Speaker 8: weak result last year and management cited some stabilization in
• 16:13
  Speaker 8: that market, which is encouraging for them. So the easy
• 16:17
  Speaker 8: comps was what really fueled international sales. You know, we're
• 16:22
  Speaker 8: kind of more bullish on the US moving forward than international,
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: you know, because outside of the Middle East, in China,
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  Speaker 8: Europe we think is going to continue to kind of
• 16:32
  Speaker 8: be an issue for them. The Arizona is experienced it's
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  Speaker 8: seeing much higher inflation than the US, and that's really
• 16:41
  Speaker 8: crimping low income and family spending on the continent.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: Are people still buying the Big Mac?
• 16:48
  Speaker 8: They don't break out Big Mac sales, but they cited
• 16:51
  Speaker 8: pretty strong results out of the Chicken Big Mac, which
• 16:55
  Speaker 8: I was kind of surprised about. You know, my associate
• 16:57
  Speaker 8: tried it, he was not a big fan. But but yeah,
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  Speaker 8: they cited you know, pretty strong results out of the
• 17:04
  Speaker 8: Chicken Big Mac in the United States and other markets.
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  Speaker 8: I think France was who they called out specifically and
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  Speaker 8: to the point where they're going to continue to to
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  Speaker 8: you know, bring it back as a limited time offare
• 17:15
  Speaker 8: in the future.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: So I was actually talking to an IB user, a
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: Bloomberg user about this. Why are McDonald's franchises elsewhere like
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: a rest of world so much better than in the US,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: and that like you can get like super good food
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: that doesn't take like fast food.
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: Why is that?
• 17:34
  Speaker 8: Yeah, Jonathan Farrowe asked me the same thing this morning.
• 17:36
  Speaker 8: He said he wants them all to be like the
• 17:39
  Speaker 8: you know McDonald's in Italy, you know, And the answer
• 17:42
  Speaker 8: I had there was just more discerning tastes.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: Right, that might be it, no, but really, like is
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: it I mean, does it affect margins, Like, what are
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: the margins like in the US versus rest of the world.
• 17:55
  Speaker 8: We don't we don't have that information, you know what
• 17:58
  Speaker 8: I mean. It's a franchise business, right, So you know
• 18:04
  Speaker 8: what I mean, So we don't have a ton of
• 18:06
  Speaker 8: color on all the different franchise markets and what kind
• 18:09
  Speaker 8: of margins they pull in. You know, the US generally
• 18:14
  Speaker 8: is a lower margin for the franchise business, just because
• 18:20
  Speaker 8: they have a lot more franchisees and need a lot
• 18:23
  Speaker 8: more oversight. The international franchise business tends to generate wider margins.
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: So I always used to think about McDonald's is a
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: really cheap place, a discount fast food place, but prices
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: are getting higher. Are we still seeing demand from lower
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: income consumers for the brand?
• 18:42
  Speaker 8: You know, it continues to be the weak spot at
• 18:45
  Speaker 8: McDonald's and for anyone that has a lot of exposure
• 18:48
  Speaker 8: to low income consumers. So the entire QSR space, right,
• 18:51
  Speaker 8: Jack in the Box, Wendy's, Burger King, you know, a
• 18:55
  Speaker 8: lot a lot of chains, you know struggled last year
• 18:58
  Speaker 8: because of their inability to draw low income consumers. You know,
• 19:01
  Speaker 8: they're impacted most by inflation, right, We've had four plus
• 19:06
  Speaker 8: years of restaurant price hikes and higher costs across the board, right,
• 19:11
  Speaker 8: and so you know, chains that are exposed to low
• 19:15
  Speaker 8: income consumers are going to continue to press on value
• 19:17
  Speaker 8: to try to bring them into the fold. You know,
• 19:21
  Speaker 8: it seemed like it didn't seem like restaurants and sales
• 19:25
  Speaker 8: did improve for a quick service in the fourth quarter,
• 19:27
  Speaker 8: and we think a big part of that is just
• 19:29
  Speaker 8: a re establishing of their value proposition.
• 19:31
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 19:32
  Speaker 8: McDonald's early last year got a lot of shade about
• 19:35
  Speaker 8: the eighteen dollars big mac meal in Connecticut, right, and
• 19:38
  Speaker 8: so they decided to push hard on value, and prior
• 19:41
  Speaker 8: to the E Coli outbreak, you know, October had some
• 19:44
  Speaker 8: really good results. They were drawing customers in with that
• 19:47
  Speaker 8: five dollars meal deal, and traffic was positive for the
• 19:50
  Speaker 8: first time during the year. So value pushing on value
• 19:55
  Speaker 8: has been successful for McDonald's. That's not good for their
• 19:58
  Speaker 8: competitors because Donald's has the most scale, right, But we
• 20:02
  Speaker 8: think this is going to continue throughout twenty twenty five
• 20:05
  Speaker 8: in the quick service industry.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: So just to confirm you're seeing, there was a meal
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: that came up to eighteen dollars. You totally missed this.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: She totally missed this one.
• 20:13
  Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, it was one franchisee in Connecticut. Of course
• 20:18
  Speaker 8: it was Connecticut, right, no comment, no, fair enough, fair enough.
• 20:25
  Speaker 8: But he was he was pushing back because he, you know,
• 20:28
  Speaker 8: he was dealing with a lot of inflation and he
• 20:30
  Speaker 8: was just you know, he wanted to make some money
• 20:33
  Speaker 8: on the big mcneilie was trying to make a point in.
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: The frintage specialty.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: Oh wow, so many things I think about on that.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: All right, Michael, thanks a love. Were gonna leave it there.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: Michael Halen, a Bloomberg Intelligence in Your Restaurant and Food
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: Service analyst, joining us on McDonald's.
• 20:47
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• 20:55
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  Speaker 7: M