Value meals helped turn around McDonald’s US sales in the third quarter, but that recovery could be dented in the final months of the year by an E coli outbreak tied to the company’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers.
US same-store sales — or sales at stores open at least a year — rose 0.3% in the July-September period, the company said Tuesday. McDonald’s launched a $5 value meal in late June after a disappointing second quarter, and it said the deal drew lower-income consumers back to the store and improved customers’ value perceptions.
