{"id":128849,"date":"2025-09-03T04:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T04:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/128849\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T04:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T04:26:09","slug":"coming-price-cuts-at-mcdonalds-may-signal-a-broader-fast-food-price-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/128849\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming price cuts at McDonald’s may signal a broader fast food price war"},"content":{"rendered":"

McDonald\u2019s is cutting prices on some combo meals to woo back customers<\/a> who\u2019ve been turned off by the rising costs of grabbing a fast food meal. <\/p>\n

The price drop may induce its rivals, who have run into some of the same pricing issues, to follow. <\/p>\n

Starting Sept. 8, McDonald\u2019s will offer Extra Value Meals, which combine select entr\u00e9es like a Big Mac, an Egg McMuffin or a McCrispy sandwich with medium fries or hash browns and a drink. Prices will vary by location, but McDonald\u2019s said Extra Value Meals will cost 15% less than ordering each of those items separately.<\/p>\n

To kick off the promotion, McDonald\u2019s will offer an $8 Big Mac meal or a $5 Sausage McMuffin meal for a limited time in most of the country. Customers in California, Alaska, Hawaii and Guam will have to pay $1 more for those meals.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s for years has seen a steady decline<\/a> in visits from customers in the U.S. who have household incomes of less than $45,000 per year. CEO Chris Kempczinski said those consumers, and others, no longer see McDonald\u2019s as a good value.<\/p>\n

At a McDonald\u2019s near the company\u2019s Chicago headquarters, for example, a 10-piece Chicken McNugget meal costs $10.39.<\/p>\n

Higher prices have been been a drag on sales. McDonald\u2019s same-store sales \u2013 or sales at stores open at least a year \u2013 grew 2.5% in the April-June period<\/a>, but that was mostly because of higher prices. Fast food visits by lower-income consumers dropped by double-digit percentages industrywide in the second quarter, McDonald\u2019s said.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, too often, if you\u2019re that consumer, you\u2019re driving up to the restaurant and you\u2019re seeing combo meals priced over $10,\u201d Kempczinski said during a conference call with investors in August. \u201cThat absolutely is shaping value perceptions in a negative way. So we\u2019ve got to get that fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s job has been made harder by prices that can vary widely around the country. In May 2024, after a post on X about a Big Mac meal in Connecticut that cost $18<\/a> went viral, McDonald\u2019s called it an \u201cexception\u201d and noted that franchisees set prices for nearly all U.S. restaurants.<\/p>\n

The company also blames higher costs. The average price of its menu items rose 40% between 2019 and 2024, McDonald\u2019s said, to account for a 40% increase in the cost of labor, packaging and food.<\/p>\n

But within a month, McDonald\u2019s introduced a $5 Meal Deal<\/a>, which combined a McDouble burger or a McChicken sandwich with small fries and a small drink. That deal proved so popular it was extended through this summer.<\/p>\n

In January, McDonald\u2019s added another promotion<\/a>, letting customers buy a limited number of items for $1 if they bought one full-priced item. Those deals will remain alongside the Extra Value Menu for now, McDonald\u2019s said.<\/p>\n

Other chains are also seeking to grab the attention of potential customers. In late August, Domino\u2019s launched its Best Deal Ever promotion, offering any pizza with any toppings for $9.99.<\/p>\n

Overall U.S. fast food customer traffic fell nearly 1% in the second quarter, according to Revenue Management Solutions, a consulting company. The company said price increases were sharply lower than previous quarters, suggesting that chains are already offering more deals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McDonald\u2019s is cutting prices on some combo meals to woo back customers who\u2019ve been turned off by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,157,81805,793,5630,5629,5843,795],"class_list":{"0":"post-128849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chris-kempczinski","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-il-state-wire","13":"tag-illinois","14":"tag-mcdonalds-corp","15":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}