You’d think any attempt to lower food prices – even Fast Food menu prices – would be met with pos-itive reviews. But McDonald’s new McValue Menu is getting serious backlash from fans. It’s all about ‘the good old days’, and 99-cent burgers…
The McValue Menu covers all the day-parts: Breakfast, lunch and supper. But fans are having trouble applying the term ‘value’ to the selections. Individual items are all under $3. And meal deals start at $4 ($1 more in Canada). But that doesn’t impress some folks…
The online community speaks out
One Redditor characterized the new menu as ‘scammy‘: “Anyone remember when McDoubles used to be 99 cents? It was only 10 years ago…”
Alas… The moderator of the thread re-moved the post before I got to read it. Seems to me someone with admin priv-ileges has a pro-McDonald’s bias. I make the observation solely to highlight the apparent infringement of the posters free speech rights…
“In what world is $7.00 for a McDouble ‘McValue meal’ with SMALL DRINK AND FRIES any value at all?” one X user asked. “That is 89 cents worth of food.”
“Price gouging pushed me to Burger King,” wrote another Redditor. “No breakfast sandwich should be more than $3.”
There are some, however, who say that complaining about the McValue Menu is pointless…
“The word scammed is entirely overused,” wrote one commenter. “Remember when scam meant someone lost their house or life savings? Now people say it when a cheeseburger is $1 more.”
“A pound of ground beef costs $3.99 here in California,” one Redditor offered, suggesting making your own burger could save you significantly more than the McValue Menu. “Just some food for thought.”
What were they expecting?
I don’t know what McFans were expecting from the McValue Menu. But a return to the prices of yest-eryear was never in the books. Fast Food chains are bending over backwards to offer items at the lowest possible prices just to retain the fans they have. Convincing fans of competing brans to defect is just a pipe dream in the current market.
The Fast Food sector – especially the ‘Burger’ niche – has fallen on desperate times. The players are grasping at straws, adding menu items they see as emerging winners. This year, it’s new beverages, particularly in the ‘refresher’ category. And perhaps more significantly, they’re starting to explore new territory, with protein-enhanced products and other ‘better for you’ products.
My take
There is hope on the horizon for less expensive beef. The US Department of Justice has launched a full-scale investigation in claims of anti-trust activity among the nation’s top beef producers and processors. But when price relief may come remains hazy. It could be months, or even years.
In the meantime, I venture to predict that, no matter what happens with the DOJ investigation, we’ll never see $0.99 burgers again. Not even sliders. That’s just economic reality…
~ Maggie J.