McDonald's Advises Franchisees Of Bag Supply Shortage, Encourages Use Of Trays

McDonald’s Corp. MCD is advising restaurant owners to serve meals on trays to customers dining inside as the fast-food chain is facing a bag supply shortage.

What happened: McDonald’s told owners in a late-July message that limited bag supplies have been impacting the industry as a whole, and encouraged workers to transition to the use of trays. Almost 81% of restaurant business in the 12 months ending June 30 was made up of take-out orders, that's up 18% compared with the prior year’s period, according to the NPD Group, a consumer-research firm.

Many customers have been asking for Big Macs, McNuggets and fries to be packaged in bags, even when dining inside the restaurant. McDonald's noted that it has been difficult to return to the use of trays “because we haven’t done it in so long,” according to report fom the Wall Street Journal.

The company says the limited supply of bags has had a minimal impact on its restaurants. McDonald’s has also told franchisees the chain will be limiting its purchases of straws after suppliers experienced a shortage due to a dropoff in labor and a limited supply of resin.

What’s next: McDonald’s says it is confident that customers will not experience a disruption of service as the company closely monitors the situation. Prices at its U.S. restaurants have risen by about 6% from the same period a year ago due to labor shortages and the increasing cost of food supplies.