McDonald’s Gets Into Wal-Mart, Home Depot Acts:...

McDonald’s Gets Into Wal-Mart, Home Depot Acts: McDonald’s Corp. is shopping for customers inside some of the nation’s biggest retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc. And why not, since 75% of McDonald’s diners decide to eat at its restaurants less than five minutes in advance? “They want to be the first sign you see when you get hungry,” said Dennis Lombardi, an analyst at Chicago-based market researcher Technomics Inc. McDonald’s already has more than 1,000 so-called satellite restaurants inside Wal-Mart and Home Depot stores, as well as in Amoco Corp. and Chevron Corp. gas stations and in airports, train stations and shopping malls. Although still a small fraction of its almost 18,000 restaurants, the satellites account for a growing proportion of McDonald’s new stores in the U.S.