McDonald's cuts Angus burgers from menu

[alp227]

Source: AP

McDonald's is cutting the Angus burger from its menu.

The Oak Brook, Ill.-based chain had said earlier this year that it was evaluating whether to continue selling the Angus Third Pounders, which were introduced in 2009. The company also said at the time that it was it was cutting Chicken Selects and Fruit & Walnut Salad.

The changes come as McDonald's looks to keep up with shifting tastes, even as it underscores the affordability of its food. Notably, the Angus burgers were among the chain's priciest items.

At a time when the restaurant industry is barely growing, McDonald's has been playing up its Dollar Menu in ads to boost sales and steal customers away from competitors. Even if that hurts profit margins, executives say the strategy is critical to gaining market share and ensuring the long-term health of the company.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/05/09/mcdonalds-angus-burgers/2144785/

[Pab Sungenis]

1. The Angus burgers were terrible.

I'm surprised they lasted this long.

[CreekDog]

9. well, they may be bad, but thanks to preservatives, they don't get worse

[heliarc]

2. "long term health"

I love the quote "ensuring the long-term health of the company"

dog whistle if I ever heard one. They aren't really ensuring anyone else's long-term health... that's for sure.

[Shivering Jemmy]

6. Why should the be?

Their business is selling bad food. It's what their customers want.

[mysuzuki2]

3. They still had those?

Who knew?

[House of Roberts]

4. Is the price of beef rising

as a result of last summer's record drought? It was predicted.

[SeattleVet]

32. You can usually tell when the price of beef has gone up and the price of pork has gone down...

they re-introduce the McRib.

[Nikia]

5. I actually liked these burgers

They were pretty good for a McDonald's burger. Of course if McDonald's wasn't the only drive thru restaurant in town, I might not eat any of their food anyway. I much rather have a Burger King Whopper or Wendy's burger, but those aren't options in my town.

[SoapBox]

10. Ducking the slings and arrows...

agreed.

Mind you, I had a very few over those years but liked them compared to the other stuff.

I know, I know...just stay away from their horrible food but sometimes when it was either
them or NOTHING, I had to have something.

[CatWoman]

7. even their oatmeal is unhealthy

[tularetom]

8. I didn't even know McDonalds sold an "Angus Burger"

I buy 'em in the frozen food case at costco for about a buck apiece and nuke them for 90 seconds or so and they're pretty damn good.

Now that I think about it, I haven't patronized McDonalds in probably ten years.

Ever since they opened In-N-Out Burger close by.

[FrodosPet]

24. You MICROWAVE burgers?

Maybe you know something I don't, but that does not seem to be the way to make a tasty burger. For example, I can't imagine Big Kahuna Burger using a microwave.

[jberryhill]

27. Going from frozen to edible by microwaving?

Have you ever played around with a meat thermometer?

Take them all out and grill them. Then you can microwave them later.

[tularetom]

39. They're fully cooked

If you have a 1100 watt microwave they heat up nicely in a minute and a half.

[juajen]

41. I also love them.

You can add onions to them before microwaving them, and lettus and tomato afterwards, if you like; but I love them just like they are. Very fast and no mess. Great convenience, but I do wonder if they lose some in nutrition. I also microwave Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches. I am weary of cooking. I can't even figure out how many meals I have cooked over the past 50 years. It adds up, and, frankly, I am tired of cooking. I also eat fresh vegetables, but I need more room in my freezer.

[question everything]

11. Was willing to give it a try

a couple of years ago when spouse wanted McRib. Tasted like crap.

Hard to me to imagine that in the 70s, when McDonald's came to campus, I could have devoured Big Macs every day, if I so chose.

Since then, I would give it a try once a decade, still tastes like crap.

[RebelOne]

12. I have not eaten anything from McDonald's in about 30 years.

I am a vegetarian now, but even in my meat-eating years, I would never eat a McDonald's or Burger King burger. It was nothing but pure junk food.

[csziggy]

40. It's been close to that for me, too

Last time was when my sister dumped her two sons on me with instructions to feed them McD's for lunch.

Several years before that I swore I'd never go to McD's again when we were in line (for 15 minutes) when they stopped serving breakfast and they were throwing away their breakfast sandwiches rather than selling them to people who had been waiting to order one. No big loss as far as pseudo-food goes, but it pissed me off that they couldn't serve them to the next few people who had been waiting so long.

[JI7]

13. why is it so difficult for them to offer breakfast all day ?

jack in the box does plus they have things like those cheap tacos, the rice bowls, egg rolls etc.

[harmonicon]

44. Marketing, I would guess.

When I was on tour with my band, I could say to my band mate, "if you're good and get up now, we can have McDonald's breakfast" on the road.

[Douglas Carpenter]

14. lets see it was 15 cents for a cheeseburger, 10 cents for french fries and 10 cents for a coke

or if you wanted to go gourmet instead of the coke you could get a strawberry milkshake for 25 cents - and have a complete meal with something from every food group for a staggering 45 cents.

I guess they changed the menu and raised the prices? It's been awhile.

[Paulie]

16. Been a while?

Didn't they invent color tv soon after?

[Tab]

36. As they raised their prices

they did a thing where you could get a whole "meal", pay a dollar, and still get change back.

There was either a jingle to go with it, or at least some kind of marketing saying, but I can't recall what it was.

[eggplant]

15. Actually, the new mcwraps (not the best name) are quite tasty.

Not necessarily healthy for you, but for fast food, it's quite good.

[Paulie]

17. I like the container more than the contents

Very nifty invention. Too bad they could add a bit more flavor to the wrap. Like Swiss or sharp cheddar cheese.

[eggplant]

21. They started offering upgrades to their egg mcmuffins

Egg white only and cheddar instead of American. I tried the cheddar upgrade and it was definitely an improvement, even at 30 cents.

I agree that the mcwrap packages are well done. I really like the ranch version with grilled chicken. The veggies are nice and crunchy and the thing is pretty filling without the bloaty feel of a burger.

Of course, their evil 2 pies for a buck deal always gets me. The strawberry cream pie (really more of a strawberry cheese Danish in pie form) cannot be resisted once you try it. Beware! Beware!

[olddots]

18. Hope they keep the Fungus Burger on the menu

times are getting tougher than tough .

[Tab]

19. Tried them once

Not particularly interesting - seemed like a thicker version of their regular version, but at twice the cost. At that price, we're inching into Five Guys territory, which blows a McD's Angus away.

[eggplant]

22. I swear, Five Guys must be owned by a bunch of nefarious cardiologists trying to drum up business.

I limit myself to once a year and even then, I'm practically in a coma for a few hours afterwards. Oy.

[Tab]

35. Yeah, and the Heart Attack Grill

(no kidding: http://www.heartattackgrill.com/) must be own by a bunch of funeral home directors.

[lupulin]

20. Think I tried it once.

Their regular burgers seem very gritty. The angus burger was OK.
I generally only eat there while road tripping as i can count on them having hot tea (an amazing number of fast food places cannot produce hot water and provide tea bags) and great french fries. Everything else I generally avoid.

[Ash_F]

23. A few years ago, I bit into a McDonald's burger that tasted suspiciously like how a barn smells...

...haven't been back since.

[joshcryer]

25. Damn, I used to get those when I got the buy 1 get 1 free mailer.

Only time I figured they were worth it but damn were they good.

[jberryhill]

26. I thought they were just removing the "g"

[chknltl]

29. .

My not-suppressed-enough inner Beavis n Butthead salutes you.

[Rhiannon12866]

30. That brings me back, LOL

When I was in college, there was a nearby restaurant called The Black Angus. I never ate there, but I remember that the "G" fell off the sign and whenever anyone's parents came to visit, we'd cringe if they drove by it, hoped they wouldn't notice. Guess we were still silly kids...

[delrem]

28. babyfood. instant gratification.

The McDonalds that opened up across the street from me several years ago is going strong with lineups all day long, and gawd help me I've gone in there and bought their pablum several times.

We all have to know about the aftertaste. Right?

I don't mind too much. The McD's stands out as a standard of bad taste surrounded by a superstore that sells everything at humungous retail markup and zero care for the local farmers and producers, and several condos aimed at young folk who don't give a damn about actual value for $$$ but like the artsy location. They don't notice the McD's downstairs. Meanwhile in the same several block area there're 3 diners serving "American/Canadian", "middle eastern", and "vietnamese" foods for more or less the same prices, but generally giving a much better deal. Then there are the more upscale joints focusing on breads, or esp. Chinese esoterica but also foods of other cultures, where pride is of the essence.

One thing you can't say about a Mac burger, or Wendy burger etc., is that "pride" has anything to do with it.

[tofuandbeer]

31. I haven't been to McDonalds since the late 80's...

my friend and I noticed we always felt sick after eating a Big Mac, so I stopped buying their "food."
Haven't missed it.

[MADem]

33. The idiots need to put a soy/veggie burger on the menu, like in UK. nt

[drynberg]

34. So, it's the " ensuring the long-term health of the company" that shelves the Angus Burger

How 'bout the long-term health of customers? If the customer is ill or dead, they ain't eatin' no more burgers...or is this too fine a point? Seen the prices at MickeyDs Lately...Let's face it, Mickey deals in death (grisly death of steers, then even grislier for eaters of this high fat, high salt, high sugar fare) Even their salads are lethal...so, Angus ain't the prime concern nor the Big Picture in my humble opinion.

[laundry_queen]

38. Compared to a lot of other restaurants (the sit down kind)

McDonalds isn't that bad. I compared a big mac meal to a meal in a local sit down restaurant (a chain, so there was nutritional info on the website) and the McDonald's meal had half the calories and fat as the sit down restaurant.

That said, eating out in general is bad for your health. I know someone who worked at a slaughter house that processed beef for McDonald's and he said it's one of the few fast food places he will eat, so I do eat at McDonalds - generally once every month or 2. It's people who eat fast food several times a week that are the ones in trouble. And people who eat out anywhere are in as much trouble as those who eat fast food.

[harmonicon]

45. It's half the calories and fat because it's half the food.

At most diners, a burger is going to be at least 1/4 pound, but quite likely more.

[longship]

37. In the top of the news, "Ronald McDonald McChoked to McDeath today on an McAngusburger." nt

[felix_numinous]

42. I wish they would cut the sodium instead

--it's the high content that prevents me from ever indulging. ....I know I have no business eating this stuff, but the sodium swells me up and I feel like I'm gonna croak. I agree cardiologists must be investing in fast food franchises.. 1000mg in one item alone? Whoa Nellie!!! And forget KFC

I googled 'sodium intolerance' yesterday, and know I'm not alone...

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=sodium+intolerance&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

http://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-salt-shockers
Now I know why I haven't been able to eat -cereals- either...wow.

http://www.iksi.org/patients/education/sodium-content-common-fast-foods/

[Freddie Stubbs]

43. Charles Ramsey is reportedly inconsolable