12 dramatic changes McDonald's made this year

McDonald's axed the Deluxe Quarter Pounder burger, six chicken sandwiches, and the honey mustard and chipotle barbecue snack wraps, Bloomberg reported.

Critics say McDonald's bloated menu has dramatically slowed down customer service.

The menu has grown 42.4% in the past seven years, to 121 items from 85 items in 2007, according to The Wall Street Journal.

McDonald's added a Sirloin Third Pounder to the menu, with patties that weigh about 1.3 ounces more than the Quarter Pounder.

The limited-time sandwich costs $4.99 in most markets, the AP reports.

The burgers come with lettuce and tomato, bacon, and cheese, or Steakhouse style, which has grilled mushrooms, onions, white cheddar cheese, and peppercorn sauce.

The new sandwich is the biggest burger on McDonald's menu since 2013, when the chain retired the Angus Third Pounders following a four-year run.

McDonald's started offering delivery in parts of New York City.

The service is initially available only to customers in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan.

McDonald's is working with the delivery service Postmates to transport the food, and some of the 88 restaurants involved in the test will offer delivery 24 hours a day.

Customers can order anything from the menu except for ice cream cones.

McDonald's is simplifying its drive-through menu boards to speed up customer service.

The company told franchisees during a webcast that it would start displaying only top-selling items on outdoor menus, the Wall Street Journal reported.

McDonald's has been criticized for its long drive-through waits.

The chain's average drive-through wait is currently three minutes and 9.5 seconds, which is the longest average wait time in at least 15 years, according to a study by QSR Magazine.

McDonald's started testing an all-day breakfast menu last month in San Diego, and recently revealed that it would be expanding the test to Nashville.

Customers have been begging the burger chain for years to offer its McMuffins, McGriddles, and other signature breakfast items all day long.

On weekdays, McDonald's stops serving breakfast at 10:30 a.m. in most markets.

The company has previously said it doesn't serve 24-hour breakfast because its grills aren't big enough to handle both breakfast and lunch items.

"It comes down to the sheer size of kitchen grills," the company says on its website. "They simply don't have the room for all of our menu options at one time — especially considering we use our grill to prepare many items on our breakfast menu."

McDonald's is testing kale as an ingredient in breakfast bowls that will be served in nine southern California locations.

Kale is also being used in three salads at McDonald’s in Canada, according to Janney Capital Markets

The addition of kale to McDonald's menu comes as a surprise, considering the chain's anti-kale sentiment in an ad that the company released earlier this year.

The ad shows close-up shots of a Big Mac and pokes fun at foodies and vegetarians.

"You can’t get juiciness like this from soy or quinoa," the ad's narrator chides. "Nor will this ever be kale," he adds as the camera zooms in on the lettuce in a Big Mac sandwich.

McDonald's has been rolling out upgrades to its chicken over the last couple months in an attempt to better compete with rivals like Chick-fil-A.

The company announced plans to phase out the use of human antibiotics in its chicken by 2017. The chain is also removing a number of hard-to-pronounce ingredients from the grilled chicken used for sandwiches and wraps, and renaming it "Artisan Grilled Chicken."

Additionally, the company is testing a more upscale fried chicken recipe, according to investment firm Janney Capital Markets.

The new Buttermilk Crispy Chicken "is made with real buttermilk and will be cooked in the same fryer as McDonald’s other fried chicken menu items including Chicken McNuggets," the company says.

"All of this fits in with McDonald’s attempts to improve itself – to be essentially a better McDonald’s than it has been as of late," Janney Capital Markets analyst Mark Kalinowski wrote in a recent research note.

The company has brought back Premium Chicken Selects, which cost $2.99 for a three-piece order, compared with $1.99 for a four-piece Chicken McNugget order.

The Premium Chicken Selects are made from whole pieces of chicken tenderloin that are breaded and fried, whereas McNuggets are made from ground chicken meat.

McDonald's is rolling out customizable burger options in its US restaurants that enable customers to build their own sandwiches from a list of premium ingredients, including guacamole and jalapeno.

McDonald's announced that it would be raising wages by more than 10%, but the increase applies to only a fraction of its workers.

The changes do not impact franchisee-owned restaurants, which account for 90% of the more than 14,000 McDonald's locations in the US. That means that just 10% of employees will see a pay bump.

McDonald's is adding more mid-priced sandwiches, including a McChicken sandwich with leaf lettuce and tomato and a double burger with leaf lettuce and tomato, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The sandwiches will sell for roughly $1.50, about 30¢ more than similar sandwiches the company currently offers.

The new sandwiches should please franchisees who have complained that there are too many items on the menu at the high end and low end of the pricing structure and not enough mid-priced items, The Journal notes.

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