Can Chicken Big Mac Save McDonald’s Sales?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Oct 10, 6:40AM EDT

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McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD | MCD Price Prediction) stock has far underperformed the S&P 500 this year.
The fast-food giant has rolled out its newest attempt to supercharge sales: the Chicken Big Mac.
Also: Dividend legends to hold forever.

The $5 Meal Deal did too little to boost McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) sales enough to impress investors. The aim was to attract value-minded customers who thought McDonald’s had become too expensive. A four-piece McNuggets, small fries, soft drink, and a McChicken or McDouble for $5 did lift sales some. The fast-food company extended the deal until the end of the year.

But McDonald’s needed more. Its stock is up 2% this year, while the S&P 500 is 20% higher. McDonald’s has rolled out its newest attempt to supercharge sales: the Chicken Big Mac.

With two juicy chicken patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, and pickles on a sesame seed bun, McDonald’s might steal some customers from Chick-fil-A and several other chains with chicken products. McDonald’s already has Chicken Nuggets and McCrispy chicken sandwiches. Perhaps they sell well enough that McDonald’s wants another chicken offering. For now, the rollout of the sandwich has not gone nationwide. According to USA Today, it was tested in London first, then brought to Miami in 2022.

What irks investors is that McDonald’s is not growing anymore. In the most recent quarter, revenue fell 1% to $6.5 billion. Same-store sales worldwide dropped 1%, and they dropped by about the same number in the United States.

Chris Kempczinski, the board chair and CEO, said he had new weapons to increase sales when he commented on earrings. One was chicken products. Kempczinski gets to prove his point when third-quarter earnings are released. The effects of the Chicken Big Mac won’t show up until the fourth quarter.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.