McDonald’s CEO said combo meals at one of the world’s largest fast food chains were too expensive earlier this year, teeing up a rollout of cheaper deals for cash-strapped customers. But online, consumers aren’t biting.
Earlier this month, McDonald’s promoted a limited-time $8 10-piece chicken McNugget value meal for November.
But under the company’s Nov. 14 X post marketing the deal, many promised not to eat at the chain due to reasons ranging from price inflation and perceived lower quality to long drive-through wait times.
“Since when is $8 a good price for 10 little nuggets, a hand full of fries and a drink?” one commenter said.
The company responded to a number of these complaints in the post’s thread, asking users to send their contact information in a direct message to sort out their complaints, but the post racked up hundreds of unhappy reviews.
McDonald’s declined to provide a statement to Fortune’s request for comment, but CEO Chris Kempczinski said in the company’s third-quarter earnings call that, this year, the fast-food chain’s leadership heard customers’ affordability concerns “loud and clear.”
“In September we reintroduced Extra Value Meals, or EVMs, with a nationally advertised $5 Sausage McMuffin with Egg meal, and an $8 Big Mac meal. And for the month of November, we’re back with a $5 Sausage, Egg and Cheese McGriddles meal, and an $8 10-piece Chicken McNuggets meal,” Kempczinski said on the call.
The reintroduction of EVMs help customers save 15% as opposed to ordering a-la-carte for its top eight best-sellers, including the Big Mac Meal, the 10-piece McNuggets Meal, and the Egg McMuffin Meal, the company confirmed.
But still, customers have complained the 10-piece meal is too expensive for what it’s worth. The backlash comes as the company tries to revive its image of affordability as price hikes have hit its menu in the past couple of years.
Last year, the company was criticized for its price inflation since 2019, even drawing rebukes from House Republicans in an X post that claimed, under then-President Joe Biden, prices for medium fries surged 167.6% and 103.5% for a Big Mac meal.
McDonald’s refuted claims that its prices doubled, saying the average price of the company’s menu items increased about 40% in the time period, attributing most of it to “the increase of costs to run restaurants, which have gone up.” These costs include hiking restaurant worker salaries up to 40% and increased costs of food and paper, according to the company.
Over the past couple of years, McDonald’s has been criticized online by value-conscious customers for its prices. An X post displaying a $18 Big Mac combo meal went viral in 2023, spurring debate that the chain had become too expensive. This post also elicited a response from McDonald’s USA president, Joe Erlinger, who claimed the meal was an “exception” and that the chain’s prices have not outpaced inflation.
Earlier this year, Kempczinski acknowledged combo meals priced over $10 were “negatively shaping value perceptions.”
During the company’s second-quarter earnings call, he told investors that the “single biggest driver” of what shapes a consumer’s overall perception of McDonald’s value is the menu board.
“We’ve got to get that fixed,” he said.
In May, Kempczinski said the company’s U.S. first-quarter traffic this year from low-income consumers declined by “nearly double digits,” and middle-income consumer traffic fell by almost the same amount.
He said that these consumers “in particular, are being weighted down by the cumulative impact of inflation and heightened anxiety about the economic outlook.”
Despite the backlash, the company’s global comparable sales increased 3.6% in the third quarter—and its U.S. sales increased 2.4%.
“We’re fueling momentum by delivering everyday value and affordability, menu innovation, and compelling marketing that continue to bring customers through our doors,” Kempczinski said in McDonald’s third-quarter earnings release.
