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This summer, thousands of fast food workers around the nation walked off the job, demanding to be paid $15 per hour for work that traditionally pays about half that. As Wendy's striker Kaye Smith told NY1 recently, "I have to live with my mom ... because I wouldn't be able to support myself on $7.25, you know?" We can debate whether her living arrangements are Wendy's responsibility any more than they are that of New York's landlords or grocers. Either way, Smith's is a novel concept of unskilled jobs in America. Fast food wages have never been expected to support...

Taco Bell says it’s expanding its small test of waffle tacos, as it prepares to take its breakfast menu national sometime next year. The fast-food chain says the waffle taco, which includes scrambled eggs, sausage and a side of syrup, was the top seller during breakfast hours at the five Southern California restaurants where they were tested earlier this year. Now the company wants to see how it would fare on a bigger scale; the waffle tacos and a full breakfast menu will be expanded to about 100 restaurants in Fresno, Calif.; Omaha, Neb.; and Chattanooga, Tenn., starting Thursday.....

Thousands of urban fast-food workers across America walked off the job last week to stage protests for higher wages. They want a minimum of $15, or about twice the current minimum wage, and a whopping $6 higher than President Obama’s suggested $9. Unions and their allies are marketing their efforts as a grassroots push to secure a living wage, but such ongoing one-day strikes are backed by Big Labor, which has an ulterior motive. With union membership dramatically on the decline nationwide, labor leaders are seeking new members wherever they can. Fast-food workers aren’t unionized, partially because the high turnover...

The Huffington Post reports that McDonald’s could double its workers wages by raising the price of a Big Mac by 68 cents. It went large on the Internet on Tuesday. Unfortunately, what it originally claimed was a study by a University of Kansas researcher turns out to be something—a term paper, maybe?—given to Huffington Post by a KU undergrad. And there are serious problems with it. The correction on its provenance came too late, though: it’s all over the internets: McDonald’s can afford to pay its workers a living wage without sacrificing any of its low menu prices, according to...

So I guess going to a New York McDonald’s isn’t a good idea right now. Videographer and conservative blogger Adam Sharp of SharpElbows.net attended one such demonstration and interviewed an SEIU member, easily identifiable as such by his purple shirt. When asked whether the union member supported the $15 per hour wage increase the McDonald’s workers were demanding, he admitted, “I’m not sure.” He also said he was there to show his support for the workers rather than the company and expressed a fear that, “if they’re [the McDonald’s employees] pissed off, they could be doing something to that food.”...

Activists are pushing for an hourly wage of $15 and the ability to organize. Cinnamon Tigner, an employee there who took part in the protest instead of working Tuesday, described the work as "modern day slavery" "I love my job, I love what I do," she told Patch by phone, but Tigner said she felt disrespected by restaurant management who she said act like they have power over employees.

Is McDonald’s McDouble cheeseburger (two patties, one slice of cheese, costs about $1) the “cheapest, most nutritious and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history”? It would appear that way, according to arguments explained by New York Post columnist Kyle Smith. “It has 390 calories. It contains 23g, or half a daily serving, of protein, plus 7% of daily fiber, 20% of daily calcium and so on,” Smith writes. “Also, you can get it in 14,000 locations in the US and it usually costs $1,” he adds, referring to the cheeseburger as “one of the unsung wonders of...

(Newser) – Fast-food workers want to make a "living wage" of $15 an hour. Chains say they'd have to jack up prices if that ever happened. But just how high? Turns out, not as high as you might think, at least according to a University of Kansas researcher. He found that if McDonald's immediately doubled the wages of all its workers (including the $9 million CEO), it would have to raise the price of a Big Mac 68 cents, from $3.99 to $4.67, reports the Huffington Post. Items on the Dollar Menu technically wouldn't qualify anymore, but that hike...

EAST ST. LOUIS, IL (KTVI) – The morning shift at a Metro-East McDonald’s started Tuesday with protests and a heavy police presence. The crowd gathered and almost immediately started chanting: “We can’t survive on 8-25!” Both the driving rain and the predawn darkness were not enough to keep striking workers off the McDonald`s parking lot on 25th and State Streets in East St. Louis. Just in time for the 6 a.m. breakfast rush, workers demanded a pay increase to $15 an hour. That would be up from the Illinois state minimum wage of $8.25. “I’m barely making it, barely” said...

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver Speaking at a podium set up on the Troost sidewalk, Terrance Wise, who works two part-time jobs at a Burger King and Pizza Hut, said the rally was organized because “these billion-dollar companies aren’t magically going to make our lives better overnight.” Nationally, protest organizers are calling for pay of $15 an hour, which would be more than double the current federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. . . U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who spoke at the Kansas City rally, said it was unlikely that the current Congress will vote to raise the minimum wage, but...

Nancy Pelosi recently spoke publicly on the need for a minimum wage increase. After that, at a recent rally, Obama called for an increase in the minimum wage. During this time, liberal pundits seemed to echo these sentiments. Trying to stoke the base? And then - behold - the rallies demanding an increase in the minimum wage at fast food restaurants are called for. Astroturf? Secondly, is this Union-backed and conducted to take attention off how disastrous Obamacare is to unions and how it has divided big unions in the U.S., many of whose leaders appear to have publicly expressed...

Fast food is all about convenience and affordability. But there are ways you can make a trip to the local McDonald’s or Burger King feel like a VIP experience. Two Reddit forums revealed tips from fast food employees and savvy customers. We pulled out the best tricks that could enhance your next dining experience. From customizing your Taco Bell order to getting a cheaper “Big Mac,” these tips could change your fast food orders forever...

NEW YORK — KFC is tossing out the chicken bones and the quaint image of founder Col. Harland Sanders as it gets ready to test a slightly more upmarket restaurant. The fried chicken chain says it’s opening a location called “KFC eleven” early next month near its headquarters in Louisville, Ky., that will serve flatbreads with toppings, rice bowls, salads and only boneless pieces of its Original Recipe chicken.

Just when the Wendy’s in Brandon was getting the most publicity it has had in years, its burger buzz was killed. The Huffington Post created a sensation when it released a story Tuesday about the T-Rex Burger, a nine-patty monstrosity priced at $21.99 that was only being sold at the Brandon restaurant. The burgers were born after a fictional ad appeared in an edition of Sports Illustrated magazine nine years ago. Customers started requesting the artery-clogger and Wendy’s management had obliged almost daily for the past nine years — despite the fact it was not actually listed on the menu....

Church’s Chicken is introducing a new barbecue-style chicken dish called Texas Chicken as the company launches a new advertising campaign. “Texas is the birthplace of Church’s Chicken and our chicken has been at the center of our culture since day one,” says Rob Crews, chief marketing officer for Church’s. “Our product innovation team developed a whole new way to enjoy Church’s with a new menu item that pays tribute to Church’s Texas roots and some of the best barbecue in Texas.” Texas Chicken is available for a limited time through July 28 at participating restaurants. The price for a half...

Bloomberg so cannot be posted but here is the link>>>http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-29/how-fast-food-eaters-split-along-ethnic-lines 

Last year Burger King’s Summertime Menu included a Bacon Sundae but they seem intent on topping that this year with the introduction of the Burger King Rib Sandwich. An obvious copy of the popular McDonald’s McRib Sandwich, the Burger King version will be available starting May 21st through the end of the summer along with the return of a line of Memphis Pulled Pork Sandwiches and Sweet Potato Fries. The Burger King Rib Sandwich was tested in Shreveport, Louisiana and did very well there. Let’s not forget Burger King also had those Fire Grilled bone in Ribs a few years...

McDonald's is cutting the Angus burger from its menu. The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company had said earlier this year that it was evaluating whether to continue selling the Angus Third Pounders, which were introduced in 2009 and are among the chain's priciest items. The company also said at the time that it was it was cutting Chicken Selects and Fruit & Walnut Salad.

McDonald’s managed to eke out a higher profit for its first quarter even as the world’s biggest hamburger chain failed to lift sales with its Dollar Menu. The company said Friday that an important sales measurement fell 1 percent during the period and warned that it’s expected to dip again in April. That marked the first quarterly decline in a decade in sales at restaurants open at least 13 months and underscored the troubles the company has been facing. As Burger King and Wendy’s have stepped up their marketing over the past year or so, McDonald’s has responded by aggressively...

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Fast food giant attributes its woes to less-than-cheerful employees (Newser) – McDonald's is attributing its recent struggles to the less-than-sunny dispositions of the teenagers taking your order. "Service is broken," declared a slide in a webcast for franchise owners last month. Customer complaints have been rising, executives told the franchisees, with "rude or unprofessional employees" topping the list, the Wall Street Journal reports. About 1 in 5 complaints related to friendliness, while others were about speed of service. One study last year gave McDonald's one of the worst drive-thru service times in the business, and the second-worst friendliness rating,...

A father who was trying to eat with his family at Burger King was able to defeat an armed robber by pulling his own weapon and shooting at him, Miami police said. It was at the height of lunch time, about 1 p.m., when a would-be robber walked into a Burger King, flashed his gun at one of the family diners, and demanded the diner fork over money and valuables, police said in a CBS report. The robber was exiting when the father, who feared for his and his family’s life, CBS said, took out his own gun and shot...

As low-wage food service workers demand a doubling of their pay, an uncurious journalist never wonders how people who earn $7.25 per hour were able to organize a “nationwide” strike replete with crisply-printed protest signs. For that matter, the dullard scribe doesn’t indicate whether “nationwide” connotes thousands of people in hundreds of locations or a dozen folks on two street corners. Bad journalism is defined most often by what it lacks, rather than what it states. Incompetence, or conscious manipulation, are found in the question unasked, the fact unmentioned, the absence of context. The passive reader will never notice. Reporting...

The director of nutrition for McDonald’s is insisting that the menu offered at the fast food chain is healthy. Speaking about the launch of the new McWrap, Dr Cindy Goody said healthy eating is a top priority at the franchise. McDonald’s Corp. has been stepping up the pace of its new menu offerings as it struggles to grow sales in the challenging economy. Last year, the company ousted the head of its U.S. division after a monthly sales figure fell for the first time in nearly a decade. …

For much of the past year, analysts have claimed that a host of political factors are inhibiting hiring – regulation, the fiscal cliff, the sequester, the debt ceiling, the re-election of a Socialist. But there’s another force at work—more powerful, more ubiquitous, and arguably more delicious: the Doritos Taco Loco. The neon-orange, meat-filled miracle taco, wrapped in a Nacho Cheese Dorito shell, was Taco Bell’s biggest hit of 2012, with 375 million sold, or roughly one million a day. It was largely responsible for the chain’s incredible growth, outpacing not just KFC and Pizza Hut, but even McDonald’s. “It has...

As Wendy’s Co. continues its effort to modernize restaurants, up to 130 U.S. restaurants could be closed in the coming year because they are not making enough money to be worthy of being remodeled or rebuilt. The news came yesterday as the Dublin-based company announced earnings for the fourth quarter and full year. Wendy’s is beginning the third year of its Image Activation program to raze, rebuild or remodel nearly half of its 600 company-owned stores by the end of 2015. So far, the Dublin-based fast-food restaurant has rebuilt 58 company-owned stores since 2011, and it plans to rebuild or...

NEW YORK (AP) — McDonald's is getting rid of its Chicken Selects and Fruit & Walnut Salad and considering cutting Angus burgers as it tries to freshen up its menu with more limited-time items. The world's biggest hamburger chain recently introduced Fish McBites and is planning a new McWrap chicken sandwich that will be larger than its Snack Wraps.

The price of many fast food items would tick up slightly if one assemblyman's bill makes it through the Nevada Legislature. Democratic Las Vegas Assemblyman Harvey Munford introduced Assembly Bill 122 during the floor session Thursday. The bill proposes a 5-cent tax, paid by the customer, for each item over 500 calories. Munford says he hopes the tax would deter people from eating out so frequently. He adds that the revenue would be directed to helping hospitals and improving Nevada's education system.

(Reuters) - McDonald's Corp (MCD) said on Friday that January sales at established restaurants around the world fell 1.9 percent, a steeper decline than expected as fast-food chains fight for diners. McDonald's warned last month that same-restaurant sales would be down. Analysts polled by Consensus Metrix had expected a decline of 1.1 percent. Shares of McDonald's, which had fallen earlier in the week, slipped 3 cents to $94.60 in premarket trading. McDonald's expected sales and profit growth to be under pressure in the near term, as diners spend cautiously due to lackluster economic growth in most major markets. At the...

Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy’s controversial comments on “biblical” marriage last summer and the uproar that followed didn’t dampen the Atlanta company’s annual sales. The fast food giant, the nation’s second-largest chicken chain, ended 2012 with $4.6 billion in sales — up 14 percent from $4.1 billion a year earlier. The company also opened 96 news stores, four more than the year before. ***** Advocates of a boycott and business experts said numbers don’t show the full picture. The unseen damage, they said, was to the company’s reputation and, potentially, to its ability to grow in cities with large gay populations...

A Pennsylvania man with a life-long passion for fast food got a whopper of a funeral when his procession made one last visit to a drive-thru Burger King. Marking 88-year-old David S. Kime Jr.'s love of the popular restaurant chain, family and friends picked up 40 Whopper Jr. burgers on the way to the cemetery - including one they buried with him. Described by relatives as a man who 'lived by his own rules', his daughter, Linda Phiel said, 'His version of eating healthy was the lettuce on the Whopper Jr.' She added that since his wife, Grace, died 25-years-ago,...

NEW YORK, - The U.S. restaurant chain Subway said this week its Footlong brand is the name of a sandwich line, not a guarantee each sandwich is a foot long. The chain said on its Australian Facebook page there is no guarantee each footlong sub would measure 12 inches. "Subway Footlong is a registered trademark as a descriptive name for the sub sold in Subway Restaurants and not intended to be a measurement of length," the statement said. ABC News said a tempest started brewing when an Australian teenager went online to state he had measured a sandwich he had...

Liberal celebrities are piling on the Wendy's fast food chain, facts and economic realities be darned. Dan Savage, Nathan Fillion and Sarah Silverman are tweeting for others to join their Wendy's boycott after news leaked that the hamburger chain will be slashing some workers' hours due to restrictions placed upon them by ObamaCare. Too bad the trio didn't read the fine print - or look beyond standard far-left outlets like ThinkProgress. The worker cuts in question are only applicable to a handful of Wendy's outlets, not the whole chain itself.

McDonald’s franchisees have indicated that they're willing to promote products for $1 — but no cheaper — as the brand makes its first moves toward a new value-heavy marketing strategy to turn around faltering sales. In an email from Fred Huebner, chair of McDonald’s Operators National Advertising Fund, or OPNAD, obtained by Nation’s Restaurant News, the brand indicated that two “value plan energizers” to be put in place for late 2012 and early next year are Snack Size Fish McBites and the Grilled Onion Cheddar Burger, which will debut on the Dollar Menu with national ads beginning in late December....

Hundreds of fast food workers at New York City branches of McDonald's, Burger King and other big-name chains have staged a walk out in protest of low wages. The strike, organised by pressure group New York Communities for Change (NYCC), was part of an attempt to gain union recognition for staff at fast food outlets in the city. "So many people in our neighbourhoods work at fast food restaurants and make poverty wages so low people can't put food on the table, put clothes on their kids' back or even afford the train ride to work." The group staged a...

New Obamacare regulations will force pizza chains like Domino's to post up to 34 million nutrition signs in its stores -- one for every pizza combination the company makes. The rules require fast food and grocery stores that have more than 20 stores to require labels for each product they produce. Jenny Fouracre-Petko, the legislative director for Domino’s, said mandated signs will cost Domino’s nearly $5,000 per store. Even worse, the cost will get passed down to the consumer, many of whom will never see the signs since “10 percent of pizza customers never enter a Domino’s store” because they...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Pamela Waldron makes $7.75 an hour as a cashier at the KFC in New York's Penn Station, where she has worked for eight years. That's just 50 cents above the New York state minimum wage. The 26-year old nursing student, and mother of two, says she has asked for a raise but her pleas have gone unheeded for weeks. Finally, on Thursday, around lunchtime she joined a protest of about 40 fast food workers who walked out of their shifts, carrying placards and shouting slogans to bring attention to their cause of fighting for higher wages...

The gap between rich and poor is well illustrated by the large multi-billion dollar corporations employing thousands of low-wage workers. With the Great Recession over, not only are many of these companies now hitting record profits, but their executive pay remains spectacularly high. Meanwhile, according to a report released by the National Employment Law Project, the current federal minimum wage the workers are often paid, is worth 30% less than it was in 1968 in terms of purchasing power. Two-thirds of low-wage workers — those that are paid less than $10 an hour — are employed by large corporations with...

McDonald's Corp. says a key sales figure fell in October, marking the first monthly drop in nearly a decade for the world's biggest hamburger chain. The company, says global sales at restaurants open at least a year fell 1.8 percent for the month. The last time the figure dropped was in 2003. The figure is a key metric because it strips out the impact of newly opened and closed locations. The fast-food chain says the figure fell 2.2 percent in both the U.S. and Europe. In the region encompassing Asia, the Middle East and Africa, it dropped 2.4 percent. After...

Two ladies got a surprise chance to chat with Gov Romney at lunch and they shared their fries with him. <

McDonald's restaurants across the country will soon get a new menu addition: The number of calories in the chain's burgers and fries. The world's biggest hamburger chain said Wednesday that it will post calorie information on restaurant and drive-thru menus nationwide starting Monday. The move comes ahead of a regulation that could require major chains to post the information as early as next year. "We want to voluntarily do this," said Jan Fields, president of McDonald's USA. "We believe it will help educate customers." In cities such as New York and Philadelphia where posting calorie information is already required, however,...

Chance to relax in clean surroundings over a meal out is worth the gambleBaghdad's embattled residents can finally get their milkshakes, chili-cheese dogs and buckets of crispy fried chicken. Original recipe or extra spicy, of course. A wave of new American-style restaurants is spreading across the Iraqi capital, enticing customers hungry for alternatives to traditional offerings like lamb kebabs and fire-roasted carp. Iraqi entrepreneurs and investors from nearby countries, not big multinational chains, are driving the food craze. They see Iraq as an untapped market of increasingly adventurous eaters where competition is low and the potential returns are high.

Stopped by the newly opened Chick-Fil-A in San Jose, CA. Business was steady at 11:30 and line was just out the door. No protestors. Got my lunch is less than 10 minutes. Staff was truely up-beat and excited about serving the public. Will be back next week.

BOONE, NC (WBTV/WIS) - The owner of the largest Wendy's restaurants franchise in the world showed his support for competitor Chick-fil-a with a message on some signs in the Carolinas. WBTV has learned of at least one Wendy's sign in Columbia, South Carolina that read "We stand with Chick-fil-A" on Wednesday morning. A couple of hours later, that sign was taken down.

Chicagoans hungry to flip the bird to Rahm, nicely Some of you asked just what the scene’s like on Chick-fil-A appreciation day in Chicago, home to #ChicagoValues, and the city at the heart of the controversy over Chick-fil-A after our mayor congratulated an alderman in shutting the company out of opening a second location within the city limits.The line at 12:10pm extended down the city block from the entrance, full of Chicagoans who, it would seem, don’t share Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s definition of “Chicago Values.�One woman and her friend took up a collection at their office to buy bags of...

The mayor of Boston is vowing to block Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant in the city after the company's president spoke out publicly against gay marriage. Mayor Thomas Menino told the Boston Herald on Thursday that he doesn't want a business in the city "that discriminates against a population." Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press this week that his privately owned company is "guilty as charged" in support of what he called the biblical definition of the family. The fast-food chicken sandwich chain later said that it strives to "treat every person with honor, dignity and respect --...

Chick-fil-A took a stand on gay marriage this week—a trend that may be due to pressure from gay right's advocates. Pressure from gay right’s advocates may have led the top official fast-food chain Chick-fil-A—which has a location in Murrieta—to take a public position on same-sex marriage. This week Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy said his privately-owned company is against gay unions. Chad Griffin, president of the gay right’s non-profit Human Rights Campaign, said in a released statement Thursday that Chick-fil-A "has finally come clean" after hiding in the closet. “Chick-fil-A is headed by a man who is proud of his company’s...

Fast food chain Chick-Fil-A has been accused of being anti-gay for supporting organizations such as Focus on the Family, which oppose gay marriage. Company president Dan Cathy said this week that his company is “guilty as charged.” In an interview with the Baptist Press, Cathy said Chick-Fil-A is “very much supportive of the family - the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”

Dan Cathy, the president and chief operating officer of popular fast food chain Chick-fil-A, said in a radio interview this week that legalizing same-sex marriage is “inviting God’s judgment on our nation.” Appearing on “The Ken Coleman Show,” Cathy spoke of his company’s pride in its socially conservative character, but then offered an assessment of same-sex marriage that might lose the chain a few customers. “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,’” said Cathy.

We've all heard fast food horror stories, like someone finding a finger in chili, or a bug in their salad. But those situations are rare, and they hardly ever happen in Utah. Jason Garfield’s story changes all that. "You know that game you play as a kid what's grosser than gross? Well, you find a glove in your burrito and the gross part is it's after it's 90 percent gone," Garfield said. That’s how he felt the morning he pulled a piece of latex glove from the Carl’s Jr. Breakfast burrito he bought at the Midvale location. "I was eating...