McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski warned of a “two-tier economy” as the fast-food giant brought back its Extra Value Meals this week in hopes of capturing budget-conscious consumers.
Kempczinski made the remark during an appearance on CNBC as McDonald’s announced it will offer eight meal bundles at breakfast, lunch and dinner, each costing 15% less than buying the items separately.
“Particularly, with middle- and lower-income consumers, they’re feeling under a lot of pressure right now. I think there is a lot of commentary about what’s the state of the economy, how is it doing and what we see is it’s really kind of a two-tier economy,” Kempczinski said.
“If you are upper-income, earning over $100,000, things are good. Stock markets are near all-time highs, you are feeling quite confident about things, you are seeing international travel – all those barometers of upper-income consumers are doing quite well. What we see with middle and lower-income consumers is actually a different story,” he continued.
MCDONALD’S BRINGS BACK EXTRA VALUE MEALS TO LURE BUDGET-CONSCIOUS CUSTOMERS
“It’s that consumer is under a lot of pressure in our industry, traffic for lower-income consumers is down double digits, and it’s because people are either choosing to skip a meal – we are seeing breakfast, people are actually skipping breakfast – or they are choosing to just eat at home,” Kempczinski added. “And so for our business, which has a significant group of consumers which are in that middle and lower-income, we needed to step in with something like what we are doing here.”
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCD | MCDONALD’S CORP. | 317.86 | +1.46 | +0.46% |
The eight Value Meals include: Sausage McMuffin with Egg; Sausage Egg & Cheese McGriddle; Egg McMuffin; Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit; Big Mac; 10-piece Chicken McNuggets; any variety of Quarter Pounder burger (original, bacon or deluxe); and any variety of McCrispy Sandwich (original, deluxe or spicy deluxe).
MCDONALD’S NEW ADULT HAPPY MEAL BRINGS BACK NOSTALGIC CHARACTERS
McDonald’s is immediately offering Extra Value Meals for an even deeper discount: a $5 Sausage McMuffin with Egg meal or an $8 Big Mac meal, followed by more offers in November.
“We have – we call it value ladders. So there will be something that would be an entry price point for someone who is looking for something that maybe they only have a few dollars in their pocket. So what can I buy for a few dollars in my pocket? And then we try to offer more premium items as well for somebody who may be able to spend more money,” Kempczinski told CNBC.
“This isn’t like what we saw in the Great Recession where everybody was trading down. Right now, again, if you are upper income, you are feeling pretty good about things, and so we are not seeing as pronounced a trade-down effect this time around,” he also said.
FOX Business’ Daniella Genovese contributed to this report.
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