The company tried to lure back customers with cheaper food options, but recent scandals could reverse the gains made with those value meals.
WASHINGTON — Value meals helped turn around McDonald’s U.S. sales in the third quarter with customers smarting from higher prices all over, 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.
U.S. 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 value message resonated with consumers.
The $5 deal was so successful that McDonald’s recently extended it to December at most of its U.S. stores.
But last week, a crisis hit. McDonald’s pulled Quarter Pounders off the menu at around 3,000 stores after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that the …