Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times
Darlene Colon, 19, of Brooklyn dined on items from the Dollar Menu at the McDonald's restaurant in Union Square Tuesday.
Posted on 04/19/2006 6:44:12 AM PDT by dennisw
On a recent afternoon at McDonald's in Union Square in Manhattan, Chris Rivera and Shamell Jackson reviewed the menu, which includes a variety of healthy options, including salad and fruit. Then they each ordered the usual: two McChicken sandwiches from the Dollar Menu, fries and a McFlurry shake.
The two 15-year-olds, like many of their classmates at the nearby Washington Irving High School, go to McDonald's often. And it is customers like Mr. Jackson and Ms. Rivera, consistently ordering the cheaper and more fattening items on the menu, who have fueled a remarkable resurgence at McDonald's.
The enormous success of the Dollar Menu, where all items cost $1, has helped stimulate 36 consecutive months of sales growth at stores open at least a year. In three years, revenue has increased by 33 percent and its shares have rocketed 170 percent, a remarkable turnaround for a company that only four years ago seemed to be going nowhere.
McDonald's has attracted considerable attention in the last few years for introducing to its menu healthy food items like salads and fruit. Yet its turnaround has come not from greater sales of healthy foods but from selling more fast-food basics, like double cheeseburgers and fried chicken sandwiches, from the Dollar Menu.
While that may have helped many low-income customers save money, there could be a heavy health cost. McDonald's has marketed the Dollar Menu to teenagers, young adults and minorities who are already plagued with an especially high incidence of obesity and related health problems like diabetes.
McDonald's says it seeks to provide options for its customers, at both low and higher prices. "We're proud of the choices we offer customers," People can make the decisions about how to eat for themselves."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It's darn time the government puts McDonalds out of business. Imagine selling items people want to buy!!!
Why, it's as bad as Walmart!!!
Yes, a side salad, and a dubious at beast claim of healthy "parfait".
Nothing against McD's but the dollar menu is not designed for healthy eating habbits.
Cheap food yea, but not healthy eating habbits.
Now ever since mcdonalds went to the new way they make burgers.. holding the parts in bins and assembling them at the last second their food has gone to pot, not that it was great to begin with.
But even I occassionally get a hankering for a double cheeseburger... but I tell em, cook it fresh, I'll wait.
Show me a grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato and diet mayo for $1.00 and I will be impressed.
add a whole wheat bun and i'll buy it.
Bawahahhha...I was thinking the same thing! Great freepers minds think alike!
Every day starting at around 11:30 cars line up in queu at the local McDonald's for lunch...and almost all of'em are ordering off of the dollar menu. It was a brilliant move by MickeyDs.
So she's demanding that McDonalds do the parenting she failed to do?
Nah, PETA should put them out of business. Their sign says they have sold 99 billion burgers. That's what? About a half dozen cows they have caused to be slaughtered?
I haven't eaten a McD's sandwich in over 4 years, and I doubt I ever will again. They just taste awful.
Thank G-d for In-'N-Out!!! Real stuff like it has always been.
Yeah...but they have a right to sell it, and if it works for them...more power to'em. It's good for the economy.
Agreed--I'm not arguing that point. In fact, I like their fries--if they're fresh.
I just don't understand why people would choose to eat the rest of the menu. :)
The McDonald's near us is filthy. Food everywhere on the tables, the floor. The glass hasn't been washed in years.
The morons they hire can't speak english, move like mud flowing uphill, and look unwashed and dirty. I hears the manager the other day yelling at them saying they were "...shi*ty workers." God only knows how the food is prepared. Gross!
Cheap and addictive.
A quarter pounder with cheese...may not be the best burger in the world, but it is tasty enough to be mildly addictive.
MuckDonalds is a superb example of Darwinism at work - anyone stupid enough to eat their chemical food substitute is doing the rest of us a favour by reducing their lifespan. . . .
You need to speak up.
I was traveling one day, and stopped at a Jack in the Box. the place was a mess (not filthy, just no one had taken the time since they opened to go out and wipe off the tables, sweep the floors, or empty the trash containers).
I called for the manager before I ordered. I pointed to a sign with an 800 number to the corporate headquarters. I told him the place was a mess, was he going to get someone out here and clean up or should I call that 800 number and ask them to send someeone to do it.
Within seconds several workers from the back managed to appear and get the place into some sort of order.
One reason fast food places succeed over mom and pop diners is that you know what to expect, and their is a certain level of cleanliness about them. When you find one that does not meet your expectations you can either whine or call them on it.
Oh, I just ordered coffee. I did not trust them not to "get even" with me through my food.
Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times
Darlene Colon, 19, of Brooklyn dined on items from the Dollar Menu at the McDonald's restaurant in Union Square Tuesday.
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