McDonald’s is competing directly with Starbucks

McDonald’s has been a surprising come-back stock over the last year as Steve Easterbrook took over as CEO in 2015 and has worked to turn the behemoth fast food chain around. McDonald’s has put a lot of companies in its crosshairs while on this turnaround mission, but one of the most important ones may be Starbucks. McDonald’s Japan recently launched pumpkin-chocolate French fries. But other than that delicious sounding autumn mashup — that takes a page out of Starbucks’ pumpkin-everything playbook — here are three ways McDonald’s is competing directly with the coffee company. McDonald’s first started its McCafé line in 1993, and customers can now find separate coffee shop-like counters in many of McDonald’s newer or renovated stores around the world. This past December, McDonald’s opened its first stand-alone McCafé in Toronto. More