The Reason You Don't See McDonald's Inside Walmart Stores Anymore

I'm at Walmart. I'm at McDonald's. I'm at the combination Walmart and McDonald's.

Oftentimes, when two corporate giants team up, it spells something bad for the working-class consumer. However, happily, the Walmart-McDonald's partnership of the mid-90s was a delicious exception. In fact, for a few decades, it ruled. Scaled-down Mickey D's eateries began cropping up inside of supercenters nationwide. Shoppers could stock up on a week's worth of groceries at America's largest grocery chain, then sit down for a Big Mac and a McFlurry without having to move their car. It seemed like a match made in heaven for two low-budget, value-centric concepts, and at its peak, around 1,000 U.S. Walmart stores had a McDonald's, reports USA Today. Fast-forward to 2012, however, and that figure dropped to less than 900 restaurants, then about 500 at the beginning of 2020.

Enter: the COVID-19 pandemic. McDonald's announced plans to permanently close 200 U.S. locations, more than half of which were restaurants located inside Walmart stores. At the time, nearly 14,000 Walmarts in America had a McDonald's. Importantly, even before the pandemic, says McDonald's (via FOX Business), sales at restaurant locations inside Walmarts had already been on a steady downtrend, and closures were imminent. Over time, fast-food competitors like Taco Bell, Domino's, Subway, Burger King, Charleys Cheesesteaks, and the once-bankrupt pizza buffet chain Mr. Gatti's have filled in the empty spaces. As of April 2021, roughly 150 Walmart-McDonald's combos in the country remain, reports CNBC.

Post-pandemic, many of the shopping innovations that kept consumers in their houses have remained. Third-party food delivery apps make ordering McDonald's takeout ultra-accessible, and curbside grocery pickup negates the need to physically enter a Walmart at all. Recently, Walmart surprised shoppers by moving the poke bowl chain Uncle Sharkii into several former McDonald's spaces. This health-conscious concept might be an effort to incentivize a different demographic of consumers to get out of their cars and walk inside the store; impulse buys are a major part of any grocery store's revenue. During a 2024 earnings call, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey shared, "Pickup and delivery for Walmart U.S. has been a key source of growth and share gains among upper-income households," (per TheStreet).

Some foodies look back on Walmart McDonald's as a symbol of simpler, slower times, when shoppers were invited to linger at the grocery store. A Reddit thread recounts, "Every [Walmart] where I lived used to have a McD's like 15 years ago, and then they all vanished." Others chime in, "Remember when Walmart used to have McDonald's, at the back of the store? It was literally cheese, butter, milk, McDonald's, laundry detergent." Elsewhere online, a Facebook post notes that many Canada Walmarts still have McDonald's. But, for U.S. shoppers, the tone is one of resigned nostalgia: "I can still smell it. [W]hen Walmart was an enjoyable place to be instead of the grey barren hellscape it is today."