Recommended Posts

Since McDonald?s (MCD) launched the Dollar Menu nationally in 2002, it has grown to about 13 percent of sales?a whole lot of McDoubles and Sausage Biscuits. But the menu is no longer working for the burger chain, so it?s rebranding it as the ?Dollar Menu & More? with $1 and $2 sandwiches and even some items at $5. It?s more like a neighborhood dollar store now: the name refers to the starting price.

The idea is to promote value at additional price tiers. Hey, maybe packaging a $2 sandwich on the menu will make it seem like a better deal. McDonald?s CEO Don Thompson explained during an earnings call on Monday that the menu ?gives customers a value ladder of sorts, so that based upon their discretionary spending, they have multiple offers at McDonald?s.? He emphasized that $1 items will remain?it?s still critical to retain customers?and that the chain is not abandoning the old Dollar Menu concept but helping it evolve.

The Dollar Menu & More is already being tested in five U.S. markets, Bloomberg News reported last month. All restaurants will offer Dollar Menu & More starting Nov. 4, and advertising for the menu will launch Nov. 11.

Emphasizing price tiers diverges somewhat from McDonald?s ?high-low? strategy that focused on value products like the $1 McChicken on one end and premium products like McWraps and Mighty Wings on the other. (The wings haven?t performed as well as the chain had hoped.) ?We have to be able to balance both of those two ends of the barbell, if you will. And also I would say we also have to fill in what?s in between. That?s the reason for Dollar Menu & More, when we talk about $2 price points with sandwiches that have a few additional things to offer than our base value Dollar Menu offerings do,? Thompson said on Monday?s call.

Adjusted for inflation, a dollar bill in 2002 is the equivalent of $1.30 today, making the economics of the Dollar Menu challenging for already strained franchisees. ?This is one of the ways that we can maintain the Dollar Menu in the face of rising commodities and labor pressures,? Thompson explained, ?but also get a little bit more margin basis on some of the products at $2 and some of the products at higher price points from there and the franchisees support this.?

That raises another point in favor of the higher-priced menu: As seductive as the $1 price point might be, one day it will be impossible to sell a burger for so little. The new menu will help customers become accustomed to seeing the higher prices at low-end of the menu. :huh:

source

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I almost never buy any 'food' from these places that is over a dollar... so soon I'll be forced to just buy better food in the same price range.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

That raises another point in favor of the higher-priced menu: As seductive as the $1 price point might be, one day it will be impossible to sell a burger for so little. The new menu will help customers become accustomed to seeing the higher prices at low-end of the menu.

 

I guess before long we'll be seeing the $10 Value Meal?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess before long we'll be seeing the $10 Value Meal?

Burger kind. Adds up. Sonic, yesterday went to sonic my wife and I, since we rarely go. Got two burgers. Tots drinks. Onion rings. $18. I was like "holy ######!" I don't know how people can do that every day or week

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Burger kind. Adds up. Sonic, yesterday went to sonic my wife and I, since we rarely go. Got two burgers. Tots drinks. Onion rings. $18. I was like "holy ****!" I don't know how people can do that every day or week

 

I hear ya. My wife and I rarely go out now for the same reason. And yet we have friends that eat out all the time and I wonder "how you you all afford that?" 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ I get tired of the panhandlers at our local McDee's.

 

And after they pester you for a 'dollar', I see them come back with 5 or 10 bucks worth of food. :huh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Burger kind. Adds up. Sonic, yesterday went to sonic my wife and I, since we rarely go. Got two burgers. Tots drinks. Onion rings. $18. I was like "holy ****!" I don't know how people can do that every day or week

What in the world did you order to get that high? My family owns a sonic franchise, and out here you can get two of the Super sonic burger meals with rings and tots large size for $15 The average "large" mean is around $6.39, your franchisers must want higher profit margins

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What in the world did you order to get that high? My family owns a sonic franchise, and out here you can get two of the Super sonic burger meals with rings and tots large size for $15 The average "large" mean is around $6.39, your franchisers must want higher profit margins

How big are the meals? if they are small then $15 is crazy, but if they are large then maybe $15 would be acceptable but include free drink refills unless you already do that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is a "sausage biscuit" ??? We don't have them in MaccyD's in the UK.

th?id=H.4742594268956559&pid=15.1&H=150&

It's just a flour & water baked biscuit [maybe buttered top], cut in two, with a cooked pork sausage patty, sometimes with egg and/or cheese.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

th?id=H.4742594268956559&pid=15.1&H=150&

It's just a flour & water baked biscuit [maybe buttered top], cut in two, with a cooked pork sausage patty, sometimes with egg and/or cheese.

we don't have this in canada either, looks almost the same as the egg mcmuffin...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How big are the meals? if they are small then $15 is crazy, but if they are large then maybe $15 would be acceptable but include free drink refills unless you already do that.

 

A Super Sonic Cheese burger is bigger then McDonalds sandwiches, and has way more flavor.. a large fry or Tots is pretty big, but not as big as a mcdonalds large fry... large drinks are larger then mcdonalds large drinks.. so technically you get more food, with a better taste.. similar meals at McDonalds would cost me $13ish so the price difference isn't that much

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ Exactly the same.

 

One has egg, the other doesn't. correction -- McMuffin uses Canadian bacon.

 

Holy heart attack -- the sausage biscuit has Sodium 1080mg !!!

 

http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/full_menu/breakfast.html

 

I never eat the breakfast sandwiches.

ours are different up here then what is linked in your pic

 

http://www.mcdonalds.ca/content/dam/Canada/en/product_pages/breakfast/hero/hero_bacon-egg-mcmuffin.png

 

the picture shows it with special size bacon, but what i mean is different is the top and bottom part.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shouldn't it be the "Dollar & More Menu"

 

I know that both are correct, but to be more truthful(from a corporation - yeah right :D )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shouldn't it be the "Dollar & More Menu"

 

I know that both are correct, but to be more truthful(from a corporation - yeah right :D )

Should name it 'value menu'.

 

I can just hear the complaints now --- "It says Dollar menu !".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A Super Sonic Cheese burger is bigger then McDonalds sandwiches, and has way more flavor.. a large fry or Tots is pretty big, but not as big as a mcdonalds large fry... large drinks are larger then mcdonalds large drinks.. so technically you get more food, with a better taste.. similar meals at McDonalds would cost me $13ish so the price difference isn't that much

 

Sonic does have much better food (at least in my area, sounds like in your's too). It's worth the money to me. McDonald's food has almost no taste.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is why I order Jimmy John's instead.

 

 

Jimmy Johns is pricey too.

 

$5 bucks for a SLIM 1 (Bread, Ham, 1 piece of cheese)?  Yikes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jimmy Johns is pricey too.

 

$5 bucks for a SLIM 1 (Bread, Ham, 1 piece of cheese)?  Yikes.

 

I go for the Turkey Tom for 5.75

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.