RUGGED! McDonald's $5 Meal Deal May be DOA
Passing the Buck Burger
In response to consumers wising up to their "greedflation," some big businesses are lowering prices. Most significantly, McDonald's announced a $5 meal deal rolling out in late June 2024.
If it seems like one of the largest companies in the world is finally admitting to what many have been saying all along (including us), don't tap dance with Ronald McDonald just yet.
The corporate entity that is McDonald's plans to pass the expense of the $5 meal deal to its franchisees to cover the bills from this PR stunt.
From a May 21, 2024, article at CNBC:
An independent advocacy group of McDonald’s franchisees is weighing in on the company’s upcoming value meal promotion, cheering affordability for the consumer, but pushing for future contributions from the company to make the discounted offering sustainable for operators in the long run.
“The fact remains that in order to provide the consumer with more affordable options, they must be affordable for the owner/operators. McDonald’s vast resources and financial investment are essential to any sustainable affordable strategy,” the board of the National Owners Association wrote in a letter to membership.
The letter calls the McDonald’s business model a “penny profit business, with 10-15% margins,” and says “There simply is not enough profit to discount 30% for this model to be sustainable. It necessitates a financial contribution by McDonald’s.”
In other words, franchisees can't afford to take the burden of this $5 meal deal. Since 90% of McDonald's are independently owned and operated franchises (according to its own website), it means this financially unsustainable model may well be dead on arrival.
What this essentially does is shift the "greedflation" from the consumer to the franchisees. And before anyone jumps on those profit margins as proof this is all due solely to inflation, McDonald's prices are so gouged that places like Chili's are moving to take a bite out of the burger clown's lunch. When you're getting flanked by friggin' Chili's, something is wrong.
So? Why Should Anyone Care?
Maybe you eat at McDonald's, and maybe you don't, but if you're a consumer in the United States, you're part of the game. You absorbed price increases across the board, and you got little to show for it.
Writer's Block Coffee sells coffee at cost (with free U.S. shipping) not because it's financially popular to do. We do it to be a part of a consumer-centric movement against the corporate chicanery you've put up with for too long.
You don't even need to buy our coffee to be a part of this movement, either. All you need to do is refuse to play along. Stick with small, independent businesses that don't go out of their way to screw their customers and their partners.
Join us!