McDonald’s still on top in recession

McDonald’s is one of the few food retailers bucking the global downturn, with a reported 4.3% rise in sales in the month of July alone, according to the New York Post.  Their success is apparently down to their McCafes – I’m sure many of you will have already noticed that these McCafes are fairly prominently displayed in their outlets over here.

There’s a reason why McDonald’s is a global behemoth: they are excellent at responding to consumer trends.  When Super Size Me came out, McDonalds stopped encouraging customers to order a larger meal, and added more salads and ‘healthy’ options to their menus.  Over the last few years, they’ve added cafes to capitalise on coffee culture (although their coffee stinks). And now that we’re all stony broke, they’re emphasising the cheapness of their food with their euro menu.

I rarely eat in McDonald’s: not because I’m a fancy epicure or anything, but because fast food places so often serve up complete muck, and fail to live up to the guilty pleasure expectation that we have of them.  What do you think? Do you find yourself frequenting McDonald’s more these days?