McDonald's is now facing a string of issues nowadays:

Last week, employees were on strike, asking for better wages.

The company also faces financial woes as competition gets tougher and Americans pinch their pennies.

The latest controversy about the company is about their franchisees. The franchisees complained about the higher rent, remodeling and training fees that McDonald's was charging.

Franchisees which comprised 90% of all McDonald's branches in the US, were more likely to not open new restaurants nor improve their services including their training and technologies. This set-up entailed a much bigger problem since today's customers were after advancements and facelifts that a franchisee cannot afford with the huge costs McDonald's was going to charge.

In an interview by Leslie Patton, a franchisee mentioned that (McDonald's is)"doing everything they can to shift costs to operators," relating it to the recent financial problems the company has and that charging their bottom line would be the fiscal solution.

 The franchisee also mentioned that McDonald's "isn't as profitable as it used to be" with over $600,000 to remodel a shop and $1 million to build a new store (figures from Heather Oldani, McDonald's spokesperson).

With all the problems McDonald's franchisees are facing, they gathered in a Stockton meeting to discuss further options with other franchisers and how to make the costs go down because the operators would certainly not be able to flourish in that set-up that McDonald's proposes.

A letter from a store owner reinforced the notion that all is not well between the store owners and top management as to how McDonald's is going to be run. A portion of that letter said "Many of you have said that you don't feel that the top management understands the economic pressures that we face,"

McDonald's was quick to reply with it's spokesperson, Heather Oldani. She replied in an e-mail that the company and its management are "continuing to work together with McDonald's owner/operators and our supplier partners to ensure that our restaurants are providing a great experience to our customers, which involves investments in training and technology."