Dive Brief:
- McDonald’s will launch its McValue menu on Jan. 7. That menu will include the $5 Meal Deal, exclusive in-app offers, local food and drink deals and a Buy One, Add One deal for $1, the company said in a press release Friday.
- The fast food giant said the $5 Meal Deal, which helped drive traffic during Q3, has been extended into summer 2025. That offer includes a choice of McDouble or McChicken sandwich, small fries, four-piece Chicken McNuggets and a small drink.
- McDonald’s execs said the chain’s nationwide menu platform in 2025 will improve its value proposition after it saw Q2 2024 sales slide. The chain also said it will lean into its value messaging to help recover from an E. coli outbreak tied to slivered onions in Quarter Pounders, which hurt consumer traffic.
Dive Insight:
Having a clear value platform aims to improve customer perception of affordability at the chain, which has dwindled in recent years. Earlier this year, a LendingTree report revealed that 62% of Americans were eating fast food less frequently due to rising prices. In late spring, McDonald’s disputed claims that its prices were up 100% and said that prices rose slower than the rate of inflation.
McDonald’s worked closely with franchisees to create the McValue platform with a variety of different offers to let “customers define value on their own terms,” Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said in a statement.
Items from both breakfast and lunch/dinner are eligible for the Buy One, Add One for $1 deal, per the press release. The breakfast items are a Sausage McMuffin, sausage biscuit, sausage burrito and hashbrowns. The lunch/dinner items are a six-piece Chicken McNuggets, double cheeseburger, McChicken and small fries.
The chain previously offered value deals on a fragmented, local level and needed a nationwide platform that would create a unified message. But the McValue menu still allows franchisees the flexibility to include their own deals.
“As local small business owners, my fellow franchisees and I are always listening to what our customers want from their neighborhood McDonald's,” Cory Watson, McDonald's owner/operator and National Value Chair for 2025, said in a statement. “We're committed to continuing to serve up great local deals — from special discount pricing on fan-favorite a-la-carte items to unique meal bundles.”
Other chains, including Popeyes and Papa Johns said they would offer more value items in 2025 as well following disappointing Q3 results. The chains saw same-store sales decline amid the heavily discounted environment and lacked compelling offers to attract price-sensitive customers.
