Their moat is only for people who feel like eating a McDonald’s. That’s what the article is saying - when analysed they don’t actually have much of a moat because there are so many other options and competitors including cooking at home. Yet they still survive and look as if they have a moat. A moat for McDonald’s would be if their customers ate there every day or even every meal, and few people actually do that.

Corals has no moat. The foo business is notoriously competitive with thin margins.

If that’s what Ai looks like they are in trouble.

McDonald has a giant moat: Consistency I can pop into any McDonald across the world and be 99.9% sure that the meal will be clean and taste like what I except McDonald to taste. I don’t love fast food but I’ve been to a lot of them, across a wide enough range of country , to say that every other fast food chain struggles hard with that.

Again that’s the point - the moat exists if you feel like a McDonald’s, because you know what you’re getting and they are pretty good at delivering on that. But if you’re hungry now and feel like a burger you’re probably not likely to walk 30 minutes across a city to go to a McDonald’s if you’re already standing outside a burger or pizza place that looks alright.

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Going back to my original point, kids don’t eat McDonald’s for every meal, or even 10% of their meals.

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