You decide to make a pit stop for somefriesand McNuggets.

However, as soon as you pull up to those glowing golden arches, you realize thatMcDonald’sis closed.

To 24 hours or not to 24 hoursthat’s the question.

Mcdonald’s open 24 hours

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Why are some McDonald’s restaurants open 24 hours and others aren’t?

If your local Mickey D’sisopen 24 hours, that’s also a strategic business decision.

That’s a lesson the fast-food giant learned in the early 2000s.

Mcdonald’s franchise restaurant

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And until the late 1990s, it worked.

And then the company reached a saturation point.

While overall revenue kept climbing, the new sites stole customers from existing locations.

Margins and same-store sales slid into 2002.”

As a result, McDonald’s had to switch things up.

Instead of going bigger, they decided to go longer.

“People’s days are longer,” John Glass, a restaurant analyst with CIBC Worldwide, toldBloomberg.

“So are McDonald’s restaurant hours.

This is a natural evolution to capture more business.”

“There are so many customers out there all times of the day,” Heubner toldBloomberg.

“We have to be out there, too.”

So, how many McDonald’s are open 24 hours?

By 2007, nearly 40 percent of McDonald’s were operating nonstop,Bloombergreported.

That’s a big jump from the 0.5 percent that were open 24/7 in 2002.

Other customers have shared similar stories aboutMcDonald’s hourson Reddit.

But that’s not always the case.

And sometimes, “open 24 hours” only means “partially open” for McDonald’s.