McPasta

The Ungolden Arches' sorry financials certainly helps explain a story that left me scratching my head when I heard it: McDonald's plans to go Italian. The big burger joint has a joint venture deal with Fazoli's, a chain that runs 400 shops.

Contrary to what the fat police say, McDonald's just can't force any junk on the public. You gotta believe McD's would love to find a way to migrate some lighter fare onto their menu, although maybe they are shooting for an alfredo that makes a Big Mac look like a Snackwell.

Comments

[Jim]

Personally, I don't think the problem with McDonald's is the high fat food - it just plain sucks! They don't toast the buns anymore, and it's been years since I've heard word of any fast food place that had 'USDA Grade A beef'. My guess is that what they serve is a step up from dog food, just the legal minimum of what they can sell for human consumption. Also, many of the stores are dirty and smelly.

Continuing price pressures and a tight labor market have hurt them, to be sure, but at the same time 'boutique' fast food chains have been making money hand over fist selling better quality food at higher prices. Who would have imagined 15 years ago that you could sell coffee for $2-$3 a cup with no free refills? Apparently Starbucks did.

I think McDonalds mostly stays in business because of stressed-out working parents that find it an easy and convenient way to feed their kids quickly and inexpensively, and anyone who's been around young children knows they can live on a diet of prepackaged macaroni & cheese, peanut butter and hot dogs and they just absorb all other necessary nutrients right from the air. That's their true target market right now; why else would every single establishment have a 'Playplace'?

[Ray tumbleson]

Please use larger type for your blog; the current one is hard to read.

[Anonymous]

Please use larger type for your blog; the current one is hard to read.