AUGUSTA, Ga.—More than 100 items crowd the menus at Dee and Christine Crawford's five McDonald's restaurants, ranging from familiar Egg McMuffins to newfangled fruit smoothies. The family franchisees recently added oatmeal and caramel-mocha beverages. Next up for consideration: frozen strawberry lemonade.
In certain restaurants around the country, McDonald's Corp. is testing flatbread sandwiches and "garden" snack wraps—chicken and vegetables wrapped in a tortilla.
"Change is a part of our business, to keep up with customer demands, and there have been a lot of changes," says Dee Crawford.
Though McDonald's is practically synonymous with burgers, the chain's appetite for change has helped make it the nation's best-performing restaurant company during the economic downturn. Since early 2003, the company has posted 30 straight quarters of same-store sales increases. During the worst trenches of recession, in mid-2008, global same-store sales at McDonald's rose by 6.1%.
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