McDonald's to require masks at all US restaurant locations

Editorial

Starbucks says business 'steadily recovering' as stores reopen

Starbucks Corp's business is "steadily recovering" worldwide as most of the coffee chain's stores have reopened with the easing of coronavirus-led restrictions.

Shares of the Seattle-based company rose about 6.5% in extended trading after it said it would return to profitability in the current quarter on improving sales and margins.

Comparable store sales fell 40% globally and 41% in the Americas for Starbucks' third quarter ended June 28. This was less than analysts' forecast for declines of 42.05% and 42.82% respectively, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Starbucks, like many restaurants and coffee chains, took a big hit from governmentimposed measures to curb the locations to wear face coverings when entering its U.S. restaurants as the number of new virus cases continue to surge in many states.

The move, announced is in effect from Aug. 1.

McDonald's Corp. Joins a parade of companies issuing mask mandates for its customers or so, including Walmart, Target, and Kohl's. Starbucks also recently issued — Nivedita Balu and Hilary Russ pandemic, prompting it to rely more on delivery and drivethru services to make up for lost business.

More people used the chain's drive-thru and delivery options to buy coffee and food, with mobile orders rising 6 percentage points from a year ago to make up 22% of total transactions in the quarter.

Starbucks plans to deploy new handheld point-of-sale devices for employees to take orders in drive-thru lines to speed service. It will also roll out curbside pickup and a new plant-based protein box. "Our recovery strategy is working," said Chief Executive Kevin Johnson said during a call with investors. "We have future-proofed our business model and reinforced our a mask mandate for customers who visit its company-owned locations in the U.S.

Chicago-based McDonald's said that 82% of its restaurants are in states or localities that require facial coverings for both employees and customers. But it said it is "important we protect the safety of all employees and customers," according to a joint statement from McDonald's USA President Joe Erlinger and Mark Salebra, chair of the

balance sheet to enable us to play offense."

About 97% of global Starbucks-operated locations are now open. This includes 99% of outlets in China and 96% of stores in the United States, which started the quarter with less than half of locations open.

For its full fiscal year, which ends in September, Starbucks expects global same-store sales to be 12-17% lower. Comparable sales in China should see a substantial recovery by December and

McDonald's to require masks at all US restaurant

McDonald's says it will be requiring customers

U.S. sales expected are to

National Franchise Leadership Alliance.

Erlinger and Salebra also said that in cases where customers decline to wear masks, it will "put in place additional procedures to take care of them in a friendly, recover by March 2021. Ninety-day active U.S. members in the Starbucks Rewards loyalty program dropped 5% year over year to 16.3 million as customers used it less often because of temporary store closures.

Excluding one-time items, the company lost 46 cents per share in the quarter, but that was better than analysts' expectations of a 59 cent pershare loss.

Total net revenue slumped about 38% to $4.22 billion, but still beat the average analyst estimate of $4.07 billion.

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McDonald's said it will delay the re-opening of its dining rooms for another 30 days. It is also adding protective panels in the back and front of restaurants to help with social distancing.