Fast food steps up value menus By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
Cheap eats are back.
After two years of touting better-for-you foods and premium pricier products, the $120 billion fast-food world is entering 2006 with a new message: value.
Wendy's is pushing its Super Value Menu with new ads and steeper discounts. Burger King is testing a new value menu. Even McDonald's is running more value-menu ads.
This is more than a winter response to slow sales. It's also about their customers' economic stress. "When folks have to pay more than $2 a gallon for gas, the money has to come from somewhere," says Keith Sirois, CEO of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants.
Consumers also are paying record winter heating bills, shrinking funds for treats such as trips to a restaurant - even the fast-food joint.
"High energy prices are stretching consumers thin," says Sherri Daye Scott, editor of QSR, a fast-food trade publication. There's a "negative consumer perception" about the economy, she says.
Fast food is fast to respond:
•Wendy's. The chain just added a 99-cent Junior BBQ Cheeseburger and has a 99-cent chicken sandwich on tap next month. It's reverting to its former Super Value Menu and reducing all value-menu prices to 99 cents. "The move is the right one for us, given the economic challenges many consumers face with lingering high fuel costs," spokesman Bob Bertini says.
•Taco Bell. Ads for the Mexican fast-food chain focus on its Big Bell Value Menu, and it just added a new 99-cent Cheesy Bean & Rice Burrito to the value menu. "Consumers tend to be more value sensitive following the holidays," spokesman Rob Poetsch says.
•Burger King. After testing a new value menu - already in 1,800 of its 7,600 U.S. restaurants - for more than a year, Burger King plans to introduce the value menu in all locations well before the end of the first quarter, spokeswoman Edna Johnson says. Among the items tested: $1 Whopper Jr.
•McDonald's. The fast-food kingpin is airing national value-menu ads this month focusing on its $1 Double Cheeseburger. "This is not about after-holiday spending," spokesman Bill Whitman says. "It's about keeping our value strategy top of mind."
•Jack in the Box. Ads are promoting its two-tacos-for-99-cents value-menu special. The tough economy makes it "important to remind consumers of the value of our fast food," says Michelle Vespa, director of menu marketing.
•KFC. The chicken chain is goosing its 99-cent Snacker promotion this month, spokeswoman Laurie Schalow says.
•Checkers. The burger chain is promoting three 99-cent Unbelieve-a-burgers. "Heating bills are up," Sirois says. "It's in our best interest to come out with value."
