The weather has abated here in the World’s Coldest National Capital and folks are getting out to feed their fast Food Food cravings after a week of downright arctic temperatures that kept many housebound. At the same time, the Holiday drought of fast Food News has come to a merciful end…
Arby’s new Buffalo Chicken Tenders: A logical extension of its menu
after buying Buffalo Wild Wings…
Ferrero scoops up Nestlè for (US)$2.8 billion
European Chocolatier Ferrero, maker of Nutella, has bought Nestlè’s US confectionery division. It was thought that Hershey’s, Nestlè’s biggest U.S. competitor on the candy business, would make a bid, but they apparently did not. Ferrero is said to have been craving a bigger chunk of the U.S. market, and buying Nestlè’s will be a good way to swoop in and run with it, with a whole family of established brands and a manufacturing and distribution infrastructure in place. We’ll have to wait to see what Nestlè products disappear and which Ferrero ones appear as a result of the merger.
Doritos Blaze launches – coming in hot!
Doritos has launched yet another Hot Tortilla Chip which their literature claims is ‘like licking a volcano’. What more can you say? Doritos Blaze is said to deliver ‘complex flavor and heat that builds as you crunch’. It’s all part of a campaign to amp up the heat’, Dortitos says. And we can expect more new Hot Chip flavours to hit the market soon. I, for one will be avoiding Blaze and its siblings. My mouth is still tender after that nasty practical joke played on me lover the Holiday break with tame Nachos and wild Hot Sauce.
Arby’s launches Buffalo Tenders
Arby’s is starting to follow through on its new Chicken emphasis, the inevitable result of its acquisition late last year of the Buffalo Wild Wings chain. You can get a tray of three or five ‘Prime-Cut Chicken Tenders’, tossed with spicy Buffalo Sauce, and served it with Ranch Dressing on the side for dipping. They look nice in their official portrait, but I’ll be eager to see if they look as nice – and as large – in real life…
OREOs ‘Cookie Club’ Box comes via subscription
OREOs, the Cookie brand that started and continues to lead the ‘new flavours’ crusade in the sweets aisle, has launched a new way to get them. The OREOs ‘Cookie Club’ Box is available by subscription at Amazon. You get a new box each month, which contains two flavours of OREOS (full sized bags) plus an OREO-themed ‘gift’. Those may include Hats, tshirts, games and other booty. You can subscribe for 3, 6, 9 or i2 months at a rate that works out to about (US)$20 per box. Doing the math, I see that you’d be paying around (US)$10 for the OREOs and ‘gift’ plus another (US)$10 for delivery. But you’ll never be out of OREOs when the craving hits!
Dunkin’ Donuts to trim menu by 10 per cent
Dunkins is cutting a whole pile of menu items, starting on the East Coast and moving across the country my March. Among the items being removed are: Smoothies, afternoon Sandwiches, the Big N’ Toasted, the Angus Steak & Egg breakfast Sandwich, Flatbread items, some previously optional Muffins, Bagels and Cream Cheese, and Peach, Caramel, and Mocha Coffee Shots. I see it as another player in a crowded market niche shedding menu items that don’t address its core business – in this case, Coffee and Pastries – in an attempt to gird or the coming Fast Food shakeout…
And that’s the cream of the creme, so to speak…
See you back here next Saturday for another Fast Food Roundup!
~ Maggie J.