$5 Meal Deal and $1 Add-Ons Aim to Entice Price-Sensitive Patrons
McDonald’s bold plan for enticing its budget-conscious American customers to return – the McValue platform – will debut on Jan. 7. The star of the McValue lineup, the popular $5 meal deal, will stick around through at least next summer. In addition, McDonald’s will present Buy One, Add One for $1 options at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The McDonald’s initiative could come as customers feel a bit richer: Federal Reserve actions have clamped down on rising consumer prices, according to a mid-November analysis from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency stated that in October, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 0.2%, seasonally adjusted; that index increased 2.6% during the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The Fed’s target is approximately 2% annual inflation.
A Goal of Growth
With the economy calming instead of churning as it has for the past few years, McDonald’s hopes to rebound. Customers bolted the brand as the average prices of its food and beverages ballooned some 40% since 2019 because of increased operating expenses, CNN reported.
David Henkes, a senior principal at the food industry research firm Technomic, told CNN the McValue initiative will reinforce “the broader image of McDonald’s as a value-oriented brand.” He added that “restaurant traffic remains challenged, and this really represents a line of thinking that value will continue to be important to the consumer for the foreseeable future. … McDonald’s really sees opportunity in doubling down in its focus on budget-oriented consumers.”
McDonald’s Value Deals
Introduced June 25 of this year, the McDonald’s $5 meal deal originally was envisioned as a monthlong offer, but it already has been extended a couple of times. CBS News noted that the deal features a McDouble or a McChicken sandwich, small fries, a four-piece McNuggets and a small soda.
Consumers will be able to customize their own value deals through the Buy One, Add One for $1 option, Good Morning America noted in its announcement of the McValue initiative. Fox News drills down into the Buy One, Add One deal as follows:
- At breakfast, customers can choose from the Sausage McMuffin, sausage biscuit, sausage burrito and hash browns for their $1 add-on.
- Lunch and dinner options are the six-piece Chicken McNuggets, a double cheeseburger and the McChicken sandwich.
Also as part of the McValue platform, individual restaurants may offer their own promotions, available on a store-by-store basis. Those might be a free large order of French fries with a minimum $1 order when you download the app, USA Today reported.
What McDonald’s Execs Say
“When it comes to value, we know there’s no one-size-fits-all. We’ve worked closely with our franchisees to create a new platform that will let our customers define value on their own terms,” McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger said in a Restaurant Business article. “From deals on their personal go-to order to universal favorites like the $5 Meal Deal, we’re excited to give fans more ways to save every time they visit one of our restaurants.”
Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden had indicated during McDonald’s October earnings call that a “more holistic U.S. value platform” would arrive next year. The U.S. wing of the company followed the lead of McDonald’s value programs like McSmart in Germany and France, and the Savers Menu in the U.K. CEO Chris Kempczinski described the U.S. version as a “branded platform that can house all of these various individual value components.”
Current Struggles
QSR Magazine reported that McDonald’s restaurants posted a disappointing traffic total for the third quarter, but that it picked up by late September. McDonald’s hopes to boost fourth-quarter performance with the McRib and digital purchases – using “the full resources of McDonald’s to bear to re-engage customers,” according to the magazine’s report. The company has aggressively wooed consumers who use its mobile app, with deals such as 20% off orders, Restaurant Business stated.
The chain had made some financial progress before a widely publicized E. coli outbreak in October caused a sales dip. McDonald’s has said it will invest $100 million in marketing and other assistance to franchises hit hardest by that health scare.
The Chicago-based fast-food corporation has over 13,500 restaurants in the United States, and most of them are operated by franchisees. McDonald’s was founded in 1954 by Ray Kroc and now has more than 35,000 restaurants operating in 100-plus countries.
