A McDonald's restaurant has opened across from a sunflower field in Prosper.
Photographer: Jake Dockins/Bloomberg
McDonald’s Quest to Reclaim World’s Biggest Restaurant Title Starts in Texas
The goal is to get to 50,000 locations, a multibillion-dollar effort that’s focused on fast-growing areas in its backyard.
For a brand that’s supposed to be everywhere, McDonald’s has fallen behind. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the once sparse towns north of Dallas, where immaculate strip malls now sit next to sunflower fields.
In the last five years, when some 300,000 people migrated to the area, McDonald’s were few and far between — a notable absence that was playing out in boomtowns nationwide. While the country grew, McDonald’s was shrinking, shuttering hundreds of restaurants as it lost customers to the likes of Chipotle and Shake Shack.