McDonald’s says ‘pressures’ straining customers — and it could get worse

McDonald’s is warning of the “pressures” of inflation and high gas prices disproportionately hitting its low-income customers. And it could get worse.

The world’s biggest burger chain posted U.S. same‑store sales growth of 3.9 per cent in the first quarter, missing analyst expectations of a 4.2 per cent increase.

“I think probably it’s fair to say that (the macro-economic environment) it’s certainly not improving, and it may be getting a little bit worse,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said in an earnings call on Thursday.

Read more to find out how the war in Iran is straining McDonald’s customers.

Twice as many millennials live with parents than boomers at their age

The numbers confirm it: far more millennials live with their parents than the baby boomer generation did at their age, a new Statistics Canada study shows.

Housing affordability has been on the decline in Canada since 2011, a Wednesday study — titled ‘Millennials in the Canadian housing market’ — shows.

In 2021, 16.3 per cent of millennials between the ages of 25 and 39 were living with at least one parent.

This figure is almost twice the proportion of baby boomers (8.2 per cent) living with their parents in 1991, when they were in the same age range. When Gen X Canadians were in that age range, in 2006, that figure was 12.2 per cent.

Read more to find out how millennials are being priced out of the housing market.

Gen Z Canadians plan to save or invest tax refund this year: survey

Canadians across the country will be receiving their tax refund this month, but most younger Canadians are using it to save rather than splurging this spring, data from TD Bank shows.

Nearly half (47 per cent) of Canadians expecting a refund this year say they will save the money for a rainy day, rather than splurge it on discretionary spending, a TD survey released Monday shows.

For Gen Z Canadians, that number has more than doubled from 30 per cent in 2025 to 63 per cent this year, data show.

Gen Z Canadians are also more than twice as likely to invest this year (33 per cent) compared to last year (15 per cent) and also more likely than this year’s national average (25 per cent).

Read more to find out why Gen Z is skipping the spring splurge.