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Along with the Big Breakfast and Big Macs, McDonald’s Corp. has 50,000 new jobs on its national menu today.
Fifteen-hundred of those jobs are being offered in the Chicago area. Jobs to be offered in the U.S. range from restaurant crew to salaried management. Get the full story »
A lawsuit that seeks to stop McDonald’s from selling Happy Meals should be dismissed because parents can always prohibit their children from consuming the food, the hamburger giant said in a court filing on Monday.
The lawsuit claims McDonald’s unfairly uses toys to lure children into its restaurants. The plaintiff, Monet Parham — a Sacramento, Calif. mother of two — claims the company’s advertising violates California consumer protection laws. Get the full story »
Attorneys this week dropped a lawsuit that alleged that Taco Bell’s beef was mostly not beef, both sides of the once-contentious legal battle said.
Alabama-based law firm Beasley Allen brought the class-action lawsuit in January and claimed that lab tests had shown that the eatery’s beef was actually only 35 percent beef. The plaintiffs said they wanted the fast food restaurant to stop referring to its products as beef. Get the full story »
A busy morning at the Dunkin' Donuts franchise in the village of Posen. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Tribune)
Dunkin’ Brands Inc. has hired J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Barclays PLC to lead an initial public offering of its Dunkin’ Donuts unit this summer, CNBC’s Kate Kelly reported Thursday, without citing sources.
The IPO would seek to raise between $500 million and $700 million, she said. Get the full story »
Coffee cups at the McDonald's restaurant at Fullerton & Central in Chicago. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
Fickle coffee drinkers are most loyal to a purveyor better known for burgers, a new study found. Coffee customers of McDonald’s Corp., said they were more loyal to the home of the Big Mac than those who frequent Starbucks Corp. and Dunkin’ Donuts in a study by market research firm CustomersDNA LLC.
The as-yet unpublished study involved 15,000 fast-food customers who were asked about their coffee and breakfast-buying habits, only 29 percent of McDonald’s customers said they go to a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee or breakfast in a given month. Get the full story »
Wendy's natural-cut fries debuted in November. (Wendy's/Arby's)
Wendy’s/Arby’s Group Inc. is standing up to its biggest burger rival, McDonald’s Corp., by putting its marketing dollars toward gaining more french fry market share. By changing its recipe to differ more from McDonald’s french fries, Wendy’s is choosing to compete by being unique, rather than solely by trying to be better.
“French fries are a significant part of our menu,” said Ken Calwell, Wendy’s chief marketing officer. “And it’s so hard to have something unique and different, that still tastes good, in the fast-food industry. So, we see the new fries as a huge opportunity for us.” Get the full story »
Ronald McDonald slaps first graders' hands as they head to lunch at Dawes Elementary School in Evanston in 2008. (Heather Stone/Chicago Tribune)
McDonald’s Corp. is putting its long-time character Ronald McDonald back on television and bolstering his web presence, resetting its sights on younger consumers after its recent push to target adults with specialty coffee and smoothies.
The new commercials starting Wednesday, starring McDonald’s mascot of 48 years, encourage kids to go to HappyMeal.com, with parents’ permission, to play games and create photos with Ronald. Get the full story »
A child eating fries from a McDonald's Happy Meal at Navy Pier, July 7, 2010. (William DeShazer/Chicago Tribune)
A New York City councilman is planning to introduce legislation to ban McDonald’s fast food meals unless they meet certain nutritional standards.
Councilman Leroy Comrie of Queens plans to announce the legislation at a press event at 11 a.m. CST, according to his chief of staff. The proposed bill would make it illegal to distribute toys, games, trading cards or admission tickets along with any meal for children unless they have less than 500 calories, 600 mg of sodium and 35 percent of calories from fat, excluding nuts, seeds and nut butters. Get the full story »
A Sbarro Inc. employee serves patrons at a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. (Reuters_
Pizza chain Sbarro Inc. said Monday it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under a plan that would remove more than half of the company’s total debt. Get the full story »
To nab the attention of top-flight job candidates, McDonald’s is tackling the image of a “McJob” with a weeks-long advertising and public-relations campaign leading up to April 19, when McDonald’s Corp. plans to hire 50,000 store-level employees.
A Dunkin' Donuts in Posen, Ill. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
Private equity-backed Dunkin’ Brands Inc. is considering an initial public offering of about $500 million in the second half of 2011, sources familiar with the situation said.
The IPO could be as large as $750 million, one of the sources said. Two or the sources said that there is disagreement among the sponsors over the company’s valuation. All of the sources said the discussions are preliminary and could change. Get the full story »
McDonald’s Corp. has been forced to step up imports to Japan of items like sauces, oil and lettuce by between 10 percent and 20 percent to counter supply-chain disruptions and damage from the earthquake and resulting tsunami. Get the full story »
From the Chicago Sun-Times | Palatine’s Joe D’Amico on Sunday completed the Los Angeles marathon with a personal best time after eating nothing but McDonald’s fast food for a month. D’Amico said he was not trying to make a political statement and did it because he loves McDonald’s and running and wanted to combine the two.Get the full story>>
A woman sued McDonald’s Corp , Friday, saying she was injured after chewing on a “large shard of glass” inside her spicy McChicken sandwich.
Vjollca Lecaj said she suffered severe and permanent oral injuries, as well as “great pain and anguish,” after biting into and chewing the glass last Aug. 5 at a McDonald’s in Oak Lawn, Illinois, near Chicago. Get the full story »
McDonald’s reported a stronger-than-expected sales rebound in January in Europe, its biggest market for revenue, sending its shares up nearly 3 percent in midday trading.
Sales at restaurants in Europe open at least 13 months jumped 7 percent last month, well above the 3.7 percent analysts had expected.
This was also a significant improvement from December, when sales in Europe fell 0.5 percent, rattling investors who worry that austerity measures will cut into spending in the region. Get the full story »
