Fast food companies operate on a so-called “barbell menu ” a system in which there are a large amount of high-priced items and low-priced items with only a few in the middle. We see plenty of premium menu options better ingredients and more inventive recipes advertised these days; the McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) Angus burgers and Premium chicken sandwiches are good examples of the push towards more sophisticated flavors in fast food restaurants.   To balance this out there are value menus. Beginning as far back as 1989 most fast-food chains have at some point advertised entire sections of their menu ...