Marketing

A huge percentage of Americans visit McDonald's

Nearly nine out of 10 U.S. households visit the fast-food giant once a year, and other factoids about major restaurant chains from the data firm Numerator.
McDonald's
Nearly nine in 10 U.S. households visited a McDonald's in the last year. | Photo courtesy of McDonald's

Breaking: A lot of people go to McDonald’s. 

How many? Nearly nine out of 10 American households visited the chain at least once over the last year, according to the data firm Numerator

The firm said that 87% of U.S. households visited one of the chain’s locations at least once in the 12 months ended June 30, the highest penetration of any restaurant chain. 

The average McDonald’s customer visited 54 times during that period and spent $461, meaning they didn’t get a whole lot when they did visit.

Here are a few other facts from the data firm: 

Two-thirds of U.S. householdsvisited a Starbucks in the past 12 months. The chain’s customers are more likely to be high-income, urban Gen Xers who dine out four times a week, the firm said. That data makes the chain’s sales struggles this year all the more perplexing, as concepts with higher-income diners have generally outperformed other chains. 

Chipotle’s customers tend to be younger and more diverse. Numerator said that customers of the fast-casual Mexican chain are 43% more likely to be younger “Gen Z” customers. They’re 30% more likely to live in urban areas and are 44% more likely to be Black. 

Subway is big on rural areas. The sandwich giant has more than 20,000 restaurants in the U.S. and while a good number are in urban and suburban areas, it also has its share of locations in smaller towns. As such, its customers are 18% more likely to live in rural areas, according to Numerator. 

Dunkin’ customers are apparently big restaurant customers. The coffee chain’s customers spend 14% of their dollars at restaurants, far more, apparently, than the average consumer. No word on how much of that was actually spent at Dunkin’.  

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