McDonalds Szechuan Sauce - © 2018 McDonalds

Fast Food Week!

Time again to run down the the top stories from the Fast Food sector over this past week… Taco Bell is powering along as usual in the wake of the loss of their hot-shot CEO, KFC is facing another UK shortage, and Dunkin’s is hijacking Girl Scout Cookie Month’s hyper-hype…

Pizza Hut NFL - © 2018 Pizza HutPizza Hut has been appointed the Official Pizza of the NFL, replacing Papa John’s.

Taco Bell brings back a fan favourite…

The Bell may have lost its hot-shot, innovative CEO to Chipotle, but it hasn’t lost its mojo. The Bell is bringing back the Naked Egg Taco for a limited time. Because you, the fans, demanded it. You can have yours with either Bacon or Sausage, and all NETs come stuffed with seasoned Potatoes, melted Cheddar, and Nacho Cheese Sauce.

…And introduces something brand new in Taco shells

The Toasted Cheese Chalupa shell has crispy Aged Cheddar on the outside. It comes in two versions. The Breakfast Chalupa features with Scrambled Eggs, Bacon or Sausage, and Nacho Cheese Sauce. For lunch and supper, you get Ground Beef, Fried Potatoes and Sauce. For a limited time only in a narrow test market in Virginia. Sorry, everybody else…

KFC UK crippled by Gravy shortage

No sooner had the KFC chain across the UK got our from under its recent historic Chicken shortage, than it has been hit by a Gravy Shortage! No, Really. This time, though none of the almost 900 KFC stores in the UK have had to close, but some have been forced to offer a limited menu until the shortage is resolved. It’s another manifestation of the supplier change-over that resulted in the Chicken shortage last month.

Pizza Hut to replace Papa John’s as official Pizza of the NFL

Remember the scandal surrounding Papa John’s sponsorship of the NFL? Pap John’s founder and CEO John Schnatter stepped down after a major brou-ha-ha erupted when he blamed the ‘take a knee’ controversy for costing his in-stadium locations to lose money. Not only that, but his statement got him an unwanted ‘support’ from a prominent white supremacist group. Now, Pizza Hut has been named the new official Pizza of the NFL. But Papa John’s will continue its local-level partnerships with 22 NFL teams in a role that, as a company statement says, will maintain a “presence in broadcast and digital media and key personalities in the sport.”

Starbuck’s UK brings in Cup Tax in effort to go Green

In the UK, Starbuck’s previously tried giving patrons a small discount for bringing in their own reusable cups, to reduce the amount of waste generated by paper cups. But that hasn’t worked. So now they’re switchng from  the Carrot to the Stick, charging a 5-pence ((US)$0.07) per cup take-out cup tax to  discourage waste. The high-end Coffee chain will also ramp up marketing of its own reusable mugs, which are currently being sold for just 1 Euro ((US)$1.23) each, as a promotion in support of its ‘Go Green’ thrust.

Dunkin’s débuts new Girl Scout Cookie flavour Coffees

It’s true. And at the height of Cookie Sales Season. You can get three flavours: Thin Mint, Coconut Caramel, or Peanut Butter Cookie. A new special Doughnut is also being rolled out (pun intended) this month: The Mint Brownie Donut features Minty Brownie filling and Green Frosting, and Brownie Bites on top. Another move to leverage the popularity of Cookie Sales Month. And no word from Dunkin’s that it will donate even part of the profits from its sales…

McDonald’s is missing some Sauce – and it’s showing up on E-bay!

It appears that McD’s Mulan Szechuan Sauce will be back for an even more limited time that we thought. Cases of 250 Sauce packets are showing up on websites such as E-bay with reserve prices of (US)$100 to (US)$1,000 per case. Phew! I guess that kind of cash would be sufficient motivation to turn a loyal employee into a Black Marketeer… But it also means that the rest of us will have fewer opportunities to get the coveted Hot Sauce over its current limited-time run. McD’s has not said if it’s investigating, but it should be able to catch the miscreants simply by tracing them through their e-Bay accounts, or just placing winning bids and confronting the sellers. At this point, they don’t even know if the bad guys are actual McD’s employees or third-party opportunists.

And that’s the skinny…

…On what makes us fat for this week. We’ll be keeping an eye peeled, especially, for updates on the McD’s Sriracha Sauce story…

~ Maggie J.