By Thomas Paulson, Head of Market Insights McDonald’s US “comp-sales” declined -3.6%, or roughly -2.6% excluding Leap Day. The -2.6% figure was below expectations (+0.7%) and Advan’s estimate* (-1.2% +/-0.8%) – as such, something in the “environment” changed (that’s why you have errors in forecasts such as this that are based upon-ML). Advan also shows that McDonald’s traffic decelerated further (-20 bps) and that average check also softened. We’ve been writing about the weak year-to-date trend for the limited-serve industry and put out stories on misses by Chipotle and Domino’s .