NOT EXACTLY LOVIN’ IT: McDonalds discounts hurting franchisees.

“We are discounting heavily, against my will, so sales should be up and profits down,” a franchisee wrote in response to a more recent survey by Nomura.

Another wrote: “I am very alarmed about the discounting push. I have never seen the corporation be so aggressive with discounts. The regional marketing teams are adding numerous other discounts to the McPick 2, primarily breakfast items. They are encouraging, quite literally, everything being on sale. This is a very hard cultural adjustment for me.”

Saunders said McDonald’s needed to invest more in automation to lower labor costs and offset the impact of customers buying cheaper food.

“The solution to all of this [is] in more automation — something that McDonald’s has started but is still a long way off perfecting,” Saunders wrote.

The chain seems to be falling into the same permanent discounts trap which has bedeviled Jos A Bank in recent years.