The once illustrious fast-food staple has lost its luster as menu prices increase and chains turn toward new types of deals.
The once illustrious fast-food staple has lost its luster as menu prices increase and chains turn toward new types of deals to win over budget shoppers.
The beginning of the end was 2013, when McDonald’s killed its famous Dollar Menu. While the economics of the menu didn’t make sense, as the chain was losing money by selling certain items for $1, the loss of the menu damaged McDonald’s. Traffic dropped, with executives admitting in 2017 that they needed to come up with a new value strategy.
In late 2017, there seemed to be hope for a dollar menu renaissance. McDonald’s introduced the $1 $2 $3 — a three-tiered value menu that was reminiscent of the Dollar Menu’s former glory. More significantly, Taco Bell made a major push to highlight its Dollar Cravings Menu, a menu in which everything actually cost a dollar.
Read more: Taco Bell and McDonald’s are gearing up for a cutthroat battle of the fast-food dollar menus
One year later, the dollar menu’s rebirth seems to have actually been the nail in the coffin.
