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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - When Americans line up for salad, you know there must be something special about it. That's exactly what's happening at the hot new restaurant chain Sweetgreen. It is already being dubbed the "next Chipotle." Sweetgreen was founded in 2007 by three Georgetown University friends who had a simple vision: make healthy food yummy, affordable and fun. "Healthy food shouldn't just be for the top 1%," Jonathan Neman, one of the co-founders, told CNNMoney. He studied abroad in Australia and was frustrated when he returned to the U.S. and felt his affordable meal options were limited. Just...

In what could be a first for a global fast food outlet, Burger King is making a bold proclamation in support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community with the launch of a specially packaged burger. The "Be Your Way" project was created at a Burger King franchise in San Francisco, where a limited edition "Proud Whopper" sandwich was added to the menu to coincide with the city's annual pride festivities. According to press materials, guests who ordered the "Proud Whopper" found that the sandwich was the same as a classic Whooper, but came wrapped in a rainbow-colored...

Chick-fil-A is America's favorite restaurant. American Customer Satisfaction Index’s 2015 Restaurant Survey named Chick-fil-A the most-loved restaurant in America. The company scored an 86 out of a possible 100 points in customer satisfaction, beating Chipotle and Panera Bread. Chick-fil-A's secret? Having the perfect blend of great food and excellent customer service. Fast casual companies like Chick-fil-A are successful because they, "typically offer better ingredients, freshness, and more developed décor," according to the report. Chick-fil-A not only beat all other chains in customer satisfaction, but it also took ACSI's top rating in dining experience as well. The criteria evaluated for this...

This is exactly what the left pushed for… Fast food chains were never meant to be a place for someone to raise a family of 6, they were to be part time positions with some full-time advancements. Mostly the fast food restaurants were for school aged kids to learn how to interact with people, with a job, to offer spending money, and to begin responsibility learning for their future.

Taco Bell is being accused of promoting "rape culture" by Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr users because of their sauce packets. The sauce packets at Taco Bell have included messages for years, including phrases such as, "Will you marry me." However, other phrases, such as "You know you want me," are raising the eyebrows of some social media users. While most people assumed that the sauce packet is referring to the sauce itself, a number of people are accusing the fast food chain of perpetrating "rape culture." Here are just a few examples:

<p>SUBSCRIBE NEWSLETTERS FEEDBACK PRIVACY POLICY YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS TERMS OF USE AD CHOICES Ad Choices RSS TIME APPS TIME FOR KIDS ADVERTISING REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS SITE MAP HELP CUSTOMER SERVICE © 2015 TIME INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.</p> <p>Subway is joining the growing list of companies that plan to drop artificial ingredients from their menu items. The sandwich chain plans to remove artificial flavors, colors and preservatives from its food in North America by 2017, according to the Associated Press.</p>

These are dark days for KFC's once-dominant chicken empire. After five years of crumbling sales, the extra crispy mega-chain, which in 2012 lost its throne as America's top chicken seller to Chick-fil-A, now makes less money than eateries half its size, like Applebee's and Panera Bread. Now, 75 years after "Colonel" Harland Sanders first served his original recipe at a six-seat dining table in rural Kentucky, the chain is betting $185 million on a massive, bizarre turnaround campaign in hopes of winning a seat again at the fast-food table. The chain is blasting out TV ads, offering new Southern-style grub...

CHANNELVIEW, Texas – The pregnant Popeyes manager, who was fired less than 36 hours after a robbery, has been offered her job back. Marissa Holcomb, who is a mother of three with a fourth child on the way, had a meeting with Z & H Foods owner Amin Dhanani on Wednesday, a day after our original story aired of her firing. "He just apologized and pretty much offered me if I wanted to go back to his business and work there again," she said. Holcomb says she was originally terminated because she refused to pay back money that was stolen...

DETROIT (WWJ) – After McDonald’s announced a $1 an hour raise, increased vacation time and educational benefits for employees in its non-franchise stores, local cashiers and cooks marched to one of the company’s restaurants Thursday. And it wasn’t to offer thanks. Dozens of protesters burst into the McDonald’s on W. McNichols and Livernois Thursday to have their voices heard, demanding raises to boost them to $15 an hour....

A much-hailed law that restricted the opening of new stand-alone fast-food restaurants in one of the poorest sections of Los Angeles did not curb obesity or improve diets, a new study found. City lawmakers passed the zoning ordinance in 2008 that limited the opening or expansion of fast-food outlets in a 32-square-mile area south of Interstate 10 that struggles with high obesity rates and other health problems. The law, believed to be the first effort of its kind by a major city to improve public health, did not ban new eateries in strip malls. The research by the Rand Corp....

McDonald's MCD +0.6% worldwide sales fell a more than expected 1.7% in February, marking nine consecutive months of declines. This comes a week after new CEO Steve Easterbrook assumed the top job. Easterbrook, who has said he considers himself an ‘internal activist,’ is faced with reviving the lagging sales that cost previous CEO Don Thompson his job. U.S. sales fell 4%, as the fast food giant continues to face heavy competition from fast casual chains like Chipotle and Panera. “Consumer needs and preferences have changed,” said the company in a statement. “McDonald’s current performance reflects the urgent need to evolve...

BRIDGING a gap in the market between fast-food joints and full-service restaurants, fast-casual chains such as Shake Shack, Nando’s chicken restaurants and Chipotle Mexican Grill are enjoying success across the world. The combined sales of American fast-casual outlets rose by 10.5% last year, compared with 6.1% for fast-food chains, according to Mintel, a market-research firm. There are four main reasons why these outlets have been winning customers. First, they promise “fresh” food, meaning at the very least not frozen. Chipotle also says it uses, where possible, meat from animals raised without hormones or antibiotics, and organic and locally grown vegetables....

Amid a tumultuous past year for McDonald's, the world's biggest restaurant chain's CEO Don Thompson is retiring after two years on the job, effective March 1. The fast food is also getting a new CFO. The restaurant's Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer Steve Easterbrook will replace Thompson, who is a 25-year veteran of the company, the company announced on Wednesday. Previously, Easterbrook served as president of McDonald's Europe and led the chain's "efforts to elevate its marketing, advance menu innovation, and create an infrastructure for its digital initiatives," it said in a release. The company's CFO Pete...

Venezuelans not 'lovin' it' as McDonald's fries go scarce CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan fast-food lovers are mourning the disappearance of McDonald's golden staple: the french fry. A recent shortage at the U.S. fast food chain comes as socialist Venezuela grapples with shortfalls of basic goods ranging from medicines to flour due to strict currency controls that stymie imports. McDonald's restaurants are coping by replacing the spuds with salad or local fare such as fried yuca or "arepa" corn pancakes - but Golden Arches fans are none too happy about the new meal. "Hamburgers don't go with arepas and this salad...

For people who dislike and misunderstand capitalism (or free markets, or laissez-faire, or economic liberalism, or whatever you want to call it), the governing principle of market competition is the “Walmart effect.” According to this model of how the economy works — a model with very little basis in reality, but never mind that — big companies such as Walmart muscle into a market or a territory, use advantages of scale and predatory pricing (“predatory” here meaning “saving consumers money at the expense of relatively well-off business owners”) to drive out so-called mom-and-pop operations, lower workers’ wages, and then...

It turns out that people aren't eating as many McHamburgers as they used to, which is a big problem if your business is all about slinging meat. So McDonald's is hoping the novelty of its "Create Your Taste" ordering kiosks will lure some customers back in. The machines will be installed in 2,000 of its US outlets by the end of 2015.

Police in Iowa say they arrested a man Tuesday after he used a McDonald’s McChicken sandwich to assault his pregnant wife. According to the Des Moines Register, 21-year-old Marvin Tramaine Hill told police that he threw the McChicken sandwich at his wife “because he doesn’t like them.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved Idaho-based J.R. Simplot Co.'s new genetically modified potato. But one of the company's oldest business partners — McDonald's — hasn't. The fast-food giant says it doesn't use genetically modified potatoes, the Idaho Statesman reported. "McDonald's USA does not source GMO potatoes, nor do we have current plans to change our sourcing practices," the company said in a statement.

Two Philly women were upset when they missed the breakfast cutoff at a local McDonalds. The women tore up the place and beat a patron with a broomstick. (Warning on Language and Violence)video at page Having crawled out of bed just a bit too late, two women were recently caught on tape throwing a super-sized adult hissy-fit because they’d been told that they missed the McDonald’s breakfast time. When a man stepped in to tell the woman to relax, they went berserk. As reported by My Fox Philadelphia, the incident took place in a Philadelphia McDonald’s, where an onlooker decided...

"With or without help from Congress, I'm not done making real change for the American people," the president wrote in a new email, just three days after a similar email from the Democratic National Committee.