Is McDonald\u2019s leaving California? Rumor explained McDonald’sAmid the rise of fast food prices across the US, there have been some rumors that California will be saying goodbye to The Golden Arches for good. Though, it\u2019s not true. Several online sources reported on this, leaving fast food fans in The Golden State distraught and fearing that they\u2019d have to say farewell to the Big Mac once and for all. First of all, no, McDonald\u2019s is not closing in California. There is currently no evidence that even one store is closing in the state. So, where did this rumor come from? Fast food prices are rising across the US, so much so that McDonalds\u2019 CEO had to respond to the fact that some branches were charging $18 for a Big Mac. On top of that, the minimum wage for fast food workers went up to $20 per hour in California, which put even more pressure on franchisees to make ends meet. The tensions are high in the fast food world, especially in California, and it wasn\u2019t just McDonald\u2019s that was hit by closure rumors \u2013 Chili\u2019s and Fuddruckers each had to make statements debunking rumors. \u201cMcDonald\u2019s leaving California\u201d began trending on Google at the start of June, and there are YouTube videos speculating about this massive blow to California, some gaining over 500,000 views in a day. There are a slew of articles reporting about the struggles that franchisees are facing, but it was MSN, Microsoft\u2019s news aggregator, who posted an article suggesting that the chain might close. \u201cMcDonald\u2019s on the verge of CLOSING in California After $20 Minimum Wage\u201d has since been taken down. The article posted on MSN came from a site called United Library and was written by Tony Bonnai. The talented Mr Bonnai writes around 20 articles a day, some within minutes of each other. And as it turns out \u2013 Mr Bonnai is actually an AI-generated journalist. A quick Google search only shows his articles, and his articles look to be \u2018clickbait\u2019 that has been AI-generated from an accumulation of other news sources. SFGATE reported: \u201cHis author photo appears nowhere else on the web. TrueMedia, a tool for fighting A.I.-manipulated content, rated Bonnani\u2019s headshot as \u201chighly suspicious\u201d for use of generative AI.\u201d So, although United Library and Tony Bonnai didn\u2019t start the rumor, they certainly made it look like a legit enough issue that news platforms were reporting on it. Yes, McDonald\u2019s franchisees are struggling at the minute amid unprecedented inflation in the fast food industry, but McDonald\u2019s has not announced that they are closing any of their stores. In fact, it announced that it would be releasing a $5 value meal to help customers get their favorite food for less. Other food chains, like Red Lobster, have filed for bankruptcy and publically announced the closure of a hefty amount of their stores, but McDonald\u2019s is still going strong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is McDonald\u2019s leaving California? Rumor explained McDonald’sAmid the rise of fast food prices across the US, there have been some rumors that California will be saying goodbye to The Golden Arches for good. Though, it\u2019s not true. Several online sources reported on this, leaving fast food fans in The Golden State distraught and fearing that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}