QUOTED: a McDonald’s honcho reflects on the new, breezier atmosphere at his restaurants

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You walk into a McDonald’s, you see laptops. You never used to see that.

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— John Betts, CEO of McDonald’s Canada, talking to the Toronto Star’s Francine Kopun about some of the ways the fast food giant has moved in on turf traditionally owned by other chains. The most recent example? McCafé Real Fruit Smoothies, which rolled out to 925 locations across Canada yesterday, about a year after Tim Hortons launched its own smoothie line. Over the past eight years, McDonald’s has been rebranding away from its plastic-and-primary-colour past to a more Valium-tinged Starbucks-esque world of muted colours and Wi-Fi. Of course, that’s not exactly the vibe you’d get if you dropped in at the location at, say, Queen and Church. [Toronto Star]