McDonald's is giving its value menu another shakeup on Monday

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN
New York (CNN) — McDonald’s latest attempt to bring back cost-conscious customers rolls out Monday with a slate of new deals.
The fast food chain is reintroducing “Extra Value Meals,” a discount menu category McDonald’s eliminated in 2019. It’s returning this week with eight new meal deals that include several of McDonald’s well-known items—including the Big Mac, Chicken McNuggets, Egg McMuffin and Quarter Pounder—plus a beverage and a side.
The new menu is expected to last until the end of the year. Prices vary depending on location, but McDonald’s said the combination deals will save customers as much as 15% compared to buying each item individually.
The revived “Extra Value Meals” are just the latest in McDonald’s recent attempts to repair perception that it’s gotten too expensive.
The inflation crisis that followed the pandemic altered many customers’ views of McDonald’s — from a cheap place to get a quick meal to a pricey fast food restaurant that barely undercuts sit-down restaurant alternatives like Applebee’s or Chili’s, with the latter thriving over the past few years.
For more than a year, McDonald’s has rolled out deals and discounts in an effort to reverse traffic declines and lure back low-income customers.
Last summer, for example, McDonald’s introduced a $5 value meal that has become a mainstay on its menu. In January the chain expanded that value deal to include a “buy one, get one for $1” discount.
But results have been mixed. McDonald’s posted two consecutive quarters of profit declines earlier this year before turning positive in August — thanks in part because of a massive marketing campaign tied to a “A Minecraft Movie” and new chicken strips.
In that same earnings call, CEO Chris Kempczinski said “consumers’ value perceptions are most influenced by our core menu pricing,” a nod to complaints from some customers that the chain has become unaffordable over the past several years.
Visits from low-income consumers “once again declined by double digits versus the prior-year period,” Kempczinski said last month, but purchases from middle-income consumers have recently improved.
Kempczinski also said value-minded consumers are “too often” seeing combination meals that cost more than $10, and that is “shaping value perceptions in a negative way.”
The Extra Value Meals relaunch is clearly aimed at that challenge. In addition to those eight deals, McDonald’s is also offering a Sausage McMuffin with Egg meal deal, which includes hash browns and a small coffee for $5, and an $8 Big Mac with medium fries and medium soft drink for a limited time.
Raymond James said in an analyst note that it expects the deals to “move the needle and to likely be felt across the restaurant industry” given McDonald’s dominance, perhaps setting off another wave of deals among its competitors.
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