Coffee fuels McDonald’s sales increase

Consumer spending and confidence may be waning, but people still need that jolt of morning caffeine to wash down an egg sandwich.

McDonald’s Corp.’s big push on coffee and new breakfast items in its U.S. restaurants contributed to a double-digit jump in same-store sales last month, accompanying even stronger growth in Europe, the company said Monday.

The world’s biggest fast-food chain reported that sales from its outlets open at least 13 months climbed 11.7 percent over a year earlier – evidence that the economic slowdown hasn’t dealt it the blow that some investors had earlier feared.

While its new specialty coffees won’t be available in all its U.S. restaurants until next year, analysts said they have heard positive feedback on how the products are faring in the 1,000-plus McDonald’s where they are served. In the meantime, the company said the premium roast coffee it rolled out two years ago helped fuel U.S. same-store sales growth of 8.3 percent in February.

“BMW will spend $750 million to expand its South Carolina production facility and create 500 jobs, doubling its U.S. manufacturing operations, the company said Monday.

The German automaker will add 1.2 million square feet of production space, and construction of new paint shop facilities already has begun, said Frank-Peter Arndt, a BMW board member in charge of global production.

Arndt said the company will add a new generation of its X3 sport utility vehicle to the site, making the plant the exclusive source for the X3 and X5 SUV as well as the X6 sports coupe unveiled earlier this year at the Detroit auto show. The announcement comes about two weeks after BMW said it plans to cut 5,000 jobs in Germany and 600 elsewhere, or 7.5 percent of its work force over two years.

“Computers that run the Linux operating system instead of Microsoft Corp.‘s Windows didn’t attract enough attention from Wal-Mart customers, and the chain has stopped selling them in stores, a spokeswoman said Monday.

“This really wasn’t what our customers were looking for,” said Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien.

To test demand for systems with the open-source operating system, Wal-Mart stocked the $199 “Green gPC,” made by Everex of Taiwan, in about 600 stores starting late in October.

Walmart.com, the chain’s e-commerce site, had sold Linux-based computers before and will continue selling the gPC.

This was the first time they appeared on retail shelves.

Wal-Mart sold out the in-store gPC inventory but decided not to restock, O’Brien said.