Shelly Banjo, Columnist

McDonald's Shows Cheap Beats Hip

The chain's turnaround simply took getting back to basics.

April 25, 2017 at 6:32 PM UTC

Shelly Banjo leads the global business team for Bloomberg News in New York. A former New York bureau chief and senior tech writer, she’s covered business, finance and economics for two decades.

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Remember how diners were going to shun fast food at the likes of McDonald's Corp. in favor of healthier fare at, say, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.?

It turns out the calculus around consumer eating habits is far simpler: A lot of people still just care about getting a quick meal that fills them up, as cheaply as possible. When McDonald's tried to go the other way, getting rid of its value menu and offering healthy salads, customers stopped coming.