Fast Food Meal Deals Are Back. But Are They Actually a Good Value?

After nearly four years of price hikes and customer complaints about those price hikes, many of the country’s largest fast food chains are finally bringing back the meal deal in response to slumping sales. For those of us who were convinced that COVID killed the dollar menu, this moment of economic uncertainty could officially usher back in a new era of cheap drive-thru eats.

As with many things in fast food, it all started with McDonald’s. In just five years, the average price of an item on the chain’s menu has risen more than 40 percent, according to its CEO, a change that many consumers found completely untenable. The chain’s sales growth slowed, store traffic declined, and McDonald’s executives had to admit that those impacts were a direct result of the price hikes it had instituted over the last five years.

And what did McDonald’s do to combat these slumping sales? It brought back a $5 meal deal, consisting of a double cheeseburger or a McChicken sandwich, small french fries, four-piece chicken nuggets, and a small soft drink. Originally advertised as a month-long special, the deal led to an immediate bump in McDonald’s sales, and as of late June, it’ll be sticking around for at least another month.

McDonald’s isn’t the only fast food chain getting back into the deals game, either. In May, Burger King launched its own $5 meal deal, while chains like Sonic and Del Taco introduced robust $1.99 menus full of cheap burgers, nachos, and fries. Even Starbucks has introduced its first-ever breakfast deals, in which budget-conscious diners can score a latte and a breakfast sandwich for around $5. It’s hard to see these price slashing measures as anything other than a direct response to consumers who have complained for years about the rising prices of fast food, but it’s also a very clear indicator of the capitalist reality that these businesses have no interest in keeping prices low until their bottom line begins to suffer.

Since even before 2020, when supply chain shortages and other COVID-related factors drove up operating costs, fast food executives have been figuratively rubbing their hands together like cartoon villains, looking to extract every possible dollar from diners who patronized their drive-thrus. But as customers were forced to pay upwards of $10 for a pretty mediocre meal, many fast food fans just started eating at home. Perhaps not surprisingly, sales of frozen food have risen dramatically during this time, up at least $10 billion over the last three years.

Fast food has, over the past couple of years, really fucked up its value proposition. It used to be that you could hit a Taco Bell drive-thru at 2 a.m. and fill a bag with burritos, tacos, and those weird crunchy cinnamon things for around $10. Now, ten bucks will get you two tacos and a Baja Blast, and consumers are not idiots — it’s very easy to notice that you’re getting much less for your money than you used to. Pair that with an overall feeling from diners that fast food quality has declined as companies look to cut costs, and it’s clear that the current state of “bad food, high prices” is not exactly the smartest business strategy.

What is smart, though, is tricking consumers into thinking they’re getting a good deal when they’re not, something that fast food companies are really good at. Often, “value meal” pricing isn’t actually cheaper, it’s just packaged to make it more appealing to the consumer. McDonald’s has even said as much: “This new deal is more about value perception,” McDonald’s CEO Joe Erlinger wrote in a letter earlier this year. “[We’re] seeking to change the media narrative around McDonald’s recent price hikes.” If changing the narrative gets people back in the drive-thru again, especially if prices don’t actually go down that much, it’s an obvious win for McDonald’s.

Whether or not these meal deals actually make fast food feel “worth it” again — the tiny chicken nuggets in the Wendy’s 4 for $4 deal are a hilariously obvious victim of “shrinkflation” — remains to be seen. Lower prices benefit consumers, sure, but they also benefit companies, and you can bet that’s what fast food executives care about most.