They've global procurement, the franchise model means the franchisee shoulders a lot of costs, they own the land the restaurant is on in 50%+ of the locations, and they own the technology system that underpins their app + ordering.
It's a massive moat.
Anybody can open a franchise restaurant business, of course not initially having the margins of a well established international behemoth.
A moat is what ASML has, having achieved something others spent many years failing.
A moat is what NVIDIA has with CUDA, against which so much software is written.
Land is the classic cornered resource. Again a source of durable profits. You can’t open up a franchise restaurant on land owned by McDonalds; the profits from traffic earned in that location are not accessible to you.
CUDA is not a moat because it happens to be unique. CUDA provides a moat for NVIDIA due to the high switching costs and network effects it provides.
McDonalds to my knowledge does not have any network effects dynamics going on however they have entrenched switching cost mechanisms in the form of loyalty rewards programs.
If you think McDonalds has no moat you’re dreaming.
I don't think the land of McDonalds is a moat. A factor increasing profit, sure. But anybody can by land across the street immediately, only needs money.
Even with infinite money, it is questionable when and if you can cross the moats of ASML and NVIDIA.
It gives McDonalds a lot of intrinsic value. It’s definitely a core part of their business. But it doesn’t prevent people from going to Burger King.
For example, in Paris they have two restaurants on Avenue des Champs-Élysées. While there's a Burger King right around the corner (Rue de la Boétie), a lot of hungry tourists will simply not walk in front of it.
People know McDonald's. They don't know your random new chain.
This is called a moat.
It would be a moat if something prevented others from establishing their brand in the same fashion, which we can see is not the case from the multitude of other successful international fast food brands.