McDonald's strategy appears to be exploitive/corrupt and absurd. The upper management seems to be running it to line their own pockets. The McDonalds have been renovating into "gentrified" joints even with customer service- they doubled the prices but the food is the same trash. Their supply chains in the US are made to offer very low quality food, almost synthetic for the past 25+ years. It is very different from the McDonald's overseas that is much higher quality. Their hamburgers etc in the US don't even taste like real food, like synthetic imitation food or something. McDonalds was worth it when it had a real dollar menu for about 15 + years. This made it so that homeless people could line up to buy a full meal for $2 and they could squat and stink up the bathrooms. So kind of a "soup kitchen" for homeless people, poor people and college students to save money while getting a meal. The dollar menu is really all their 'food product' is actually worth. Burger King in the US is also around as bad. They price themselves somewhat lower. The whopper doesn't taste like real food either.