"I suspect the key differentiating factor for most customers switching to "fast casual" is simply the taste." There's also an industry wide framing effect. I

"I suspect the key differentiating factor for most customers switching to "fast casual" is simply the taste." There's also an industry wide framing effect. I don't eat much fast food, but there's no way to force me to spend $5 at McDonalds for McD quality level of food, when I can spend a mere $6 at the almost neighboring Culvers for something at least twice as tasty. As a marketing framing technique it works across all categories, price sodium fat carbs simple calories, why spend them, whatever "they" are for you, at Mc Lowest Common Denominator when something far better at a minimal cost delta exists right around the corner? This market positioning seems to be impacting McDonalds recent sales figures. Being in the market position of "almost as expensive as the really good stuff, but not nearly as tasty" isn't a good spot. Then there are geographic pressures. If McD is dead to me if there's something better nearby, that limits their success to one horse farming towns in the middle of nowhere, which eventually "ruralizes" the brand and makes it repellent to urban yuppies. The biggest problem urban yuppies have with walmart is poor rural people shop there, as an example. Its just a bad position for McD to be in, all around.