McDonald’s rolled out a new value menu Tuesday, but the chain may have also served customers a side of disappointment by ending a popular deal program.
The new value menu, announced last month, features a range of breakfast, lunch and dinner items priced under $3, in what the company said is an effort to give customers more flexible options.
However, the new value menu program does away with its buy-one, add-one-for-$1 option, which previously let customers add a second item for $1 when they purchased a full-priced item of equal or lesser value. Therefore, whether the change actually saves money depends on how and where customers order, with experts noting that the menu’s value can vary by location, even within the same market.
Some customers may also be less impressed, as certain items included in the new under-$3 deals were already being sold at similar price points in their local markets, according to fourth-quarter data from Technomic, which tracks menu pricing, Fast Company reports.
“McDonald’s is always experimenting with the architecture of their value offerings,” Heather Nelson, senior director of syndicated research at Technomic, told the outlet. “As a marketing tactic, this is designed to draw more attention to the value they were providing.”
Earlier this month, a McDonald’s spokesperson said the updated McValue menu is designed to better reflect what customers want — more flexibility in how they choose their meals — when asked how it stacks up against the previous version in terms of savings.
When asked earlier this month about how the updated McValue menu compares in terms of savings, a McDonald’s spokesperson told Fast Company: “The Under $3 Menu delivers on what [customers have] told us matters most: consistently great prices on their favorite items and the freedom to order what they want, when they want – no bundling required. Alongside other everyday value offerings like Meal Deals, customers now have more options to choose from – whether they’re looking for a quick snack or a complete meal.”
The new McValue menu keeps the $5 Meal Deal, introduced in 2024 amid inflation-driven price hikes that made headlines. However, the McDouble version of the deal now costs $6, a price that many locations were already charging due to higher operating costs in different markets, Fast Company reports.
It also introduces the $4 Breakfast Meal Deal, which lets customers choose a Sausage McMuffin or Sausage Biscuit, served with hash browns and a small McCafé Premium Roast Coffee.
The Independent has contacted McDonald’s for comment.
