McDonald's is cutting its Fruit & Walnut Salad and Chicken Selects from the menu, a spokeswoman said on Friday.
After years of outperforming its rivals, McDonald's has been struggling as competitors including Burger King and Wendy's step up their marketing and menu offerings.
"As always, we are constantly evolving our menu and listening to our customers to meet their changing needs," McDonald’s Director of Media Relations Danya Proud said in a statement.
What Ms. Proud meant was, “After decades of being able to sell anything and everything to hungry, indiscriminate Americans, we’re now finding that people aren’t keen on spending their hard-earned cash on a few ounces of sliced apples and a grape. Still other people say they won’t even come into McDonald’s anymore because they prefer to eat ‘healthier.’ Where do they get such ideas? Who doesn’t think of wholesome, nutritious dining when they think of McDonald’s? We got rid of that scary-ass clown, what more do they want?”
McDonald's global restaurant sales recently fell, in October and again in January, for the first time in almost ten years. The company has warned that it expects sales and profit growth to continue to be under pressure as diners spend cautiously due to a lackluster economy. That, and more consumers becoming aware of an epidemic of obesity in America and the adverse health effects of the greasy, salty sludge they’ve been putting into their bodies.
The company's CEO Don Thompson, who took over the top spot last summer, has said the company has a strong menu of new items to lure consumers back into the Golden Arches. The world's biggest hamburger chain recently introduced Fish McBites and is planning a new McWrap chicken sandwich.
“Honestly,” said another McDonald’s executive, requesting anonymity, “If it’s got a ‘Mc-' in front of it, I’d eat it, wouldn’t you?”