The fate of the $1 double cheeseburger seems sealed. McDonald’s has already announced that it will be looking for ways to cut costs or increase revenue from the popular dollar menu item – even if it means taking the double cheeseburger off the menu completely. Now the Wall Street Journal says that McDonald’s is testing different versions of the burger, and that it may lose some or all of its cheese.
In an interview, Don Thompson, president of McDonald’s U.S. business, said the company has tested ways to make the burger less expensive to make. Some restaurants are selling it with one slice of cheese instead of two, and billing it as a “double hamburger with cheese.” Others are offering a double hamburger without cheese. Some are selling the traditional double cheeseburger at prices ranging from $1.09 to $1.19.
Will you eat a cheeseless Double Cheeseburger?
McDonald’s Tests Changes
In $1 Burger As Costs Rise [WSJ] (Thanks, Orlando!)
(Photo: Paxton Holley )
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McDonald’s corporate restaurants sell the Double cheeseburger for $1. Franchisees are free to set the price at whatever point they want (usually $2 or $2.29). Many people order them and pay the price they’re told when they expect them to be $1, but I actually had it explained to me when I questioned my bill, once upon a time.
Anyway, McDonald’s cheese is completely disgusting and I order everything I can without it, so I’d be very happy to see a Double Hamburger for $1.
I’m happy without cheese, make it a Double Hamburger
Double cheeseburger is now $1.29 at the McDonald’s in Madisonville, TN. McChicken is $1.29 too.
@howie_in_az:
Lots of people are allergic to soy- how to solve that problem?
@GMFish: It doesn’t say “these things were profitable” it says their sales drove the turnaround. Read the article where it says two girls come in and buy icecream and fries to go with their burgers. Both are highly profitable items that cost McDonalds little to produce. Nowhere does it say that a double cheeseburger is profitable, not in a single one of the quotes you’ve made. The closest the article says is “revenue” from the double cheeseburger, which still isn’t profit.
I wonder if I could pay them Tuesday for a Double Cheeseburger today.
@Applekid: WIN!
I figured the .99 was too good to last. I’d go for the .99 double burger, then charge .15 per slice of cheese. Thus a $1.30 double cheeseburger.
Wasn’t McDonald’s, long ago, the chain that advertised “change back from your dollar?” Assuming you ordered a hamburger, fries, and a Coke, that is. And it was more than 30 years ago. But still.
Not to be a dick, GMFish, but since you were, I will:
What, do you not know the difference between revenues and profits? Here’s a hint, profit is whats leftover after you take cost of goods sold out of the gross reciepts.
coren:
Let me back up a bit. Someone posted the myth that the McDonalds Dollar Menus is a loss leader. I can understand why someone would think that because a double cheese burger for a buck is pretty cheap. But because I’ve read the newspaper every day since high school back in the 70s, I pick up weird bits and pieces of news that other people might miss. Once such bit was the profitably of the Dollar Menu.
Remembering that story I googled it and quickly found an article saying exactly that, the Dollar Menu, in and of itself, is profitable. (That’s what “turning around a company” means. It means the company goes from not being profitable to being profitable. I thought everyone knew that, but apparently some people more ignorant than others.)
For some reason you want to deny that. I’m not entirely sure why your unsupported belief that McDonalds sells loss leaders makes you happy, but it apparently fills you with great joy.
Because I would never want to interfere with a person’s happiness, and because it never makes sense to argue with a dogmatist, I’ll drop out of this pointless argument with you. Be happy!
@fostina1:
Have you been to Wendy’s lately ? The chicken and burgers on the 99 cent value menu are like 50% smaller. They are on the road to Krystallization (making tiny burgers Kystal Burger size).
I thought it was one Wendy’s so I tried another, same thing. Its been over 6 months now since I went to Wendy’s. At least admit you shrunk your food.
@GMfish
Dude, you continue to miss the point: virtually every meat bearing item on the dollar menu is a loss-leader. Even if you were to only count the food costs of the burger (and not the proper overhead applications, bags, wrappers, etc), the burger itself doesn’t draw profit. It does, however, mean more people buy more stuff they otherwise might skimp on.
@ekthesy:
An extra .25 cents can make a huge difference. Took at 20 oz coke bottles. The extra .25 cents is hurting them and 20 oz sales are dropping. I have not bought a 20 oz in 2 years since the price increase.
I enjoyed ordering 3 double cheese burgers back in the day. If the cost goes up .25 per sandwich that difference plus the tax is almost as much as an additional burger, small fry, or small drink.
I’ll stick to Fazolli’s with the free unlimited breadsticks. Who knows how long that will last.
One of my biggest pet peeves has to do with cheese on hamburgers. Way back when, you used to have to ask for cheese, and they added about a dime to the price. Somewhere along the way, they made cheese standard, and now you must request no cheese, and they do not reduce the price. So in effect, I subsidize all the cheese-eaters. Even worse, about one out four times when I order no cheese, I still get a cheeseburger.
If you need to cut costs, McDonalds, how about charging extra for cheese!
What about Big Kahuna? Isn’t that a hawaiian joint? I hear they got a tasty burger
Cheese has calories, right? Take off the second slice of cheese, call it the “new, improved, reduced-calorie Double Cheeseburger” and pretend it’s healthy. Most McDonald’s customers would fall for that.
@GMFish: The Dollar menu has more than things like the double cheeseburger. One of them is the dollar soda, another is the dollar fry. McDonalds makes a killing on those. Parfaits are pretty damn cheap for them to make too. The article says the turnaround was caused by the dollar menu, which features the double cheeseburger, yes. I know that means it increased profits – I never said otherwise, but hey, build yourself up a straw man to throw some insults at. But the article doesn’t say those were profitable items. It says they drove the turnaround. And that’s not necessarily from direct profits (which the article doesn’t discuss, it discusses revenue…400 double burgers at a buck apiece, versus 80 salads at 4 bucks apiece. The doublecheeseburger brings in 400 bucks, but maybe that’s at a 5 cent loss per burger, whereas the salad brings in 320 bucks, even if it’s only a one cent profit per salad, it’s more profitable than the burger). Maybe people who buy that burger are more likely to buy a drink, which McDonalds makes a killing on, or fries, or whatever. That doesn’t make the double cheeseburger a profitable item, especially not over two years since that article came out.
“Diet” Double Cheeseburger
@riverstyxxx: LOL!!
It used to be a loss leader: [www.marketwatch.com]
@stevegoz: Yay for subsidized industries, right?
I’d think that McDonalds would either buy in bulk or manufacture it themselves. Either way they wouldn’t be paying anywhere near what mere mortals pay for things.
Is there someone out there that works at McDonald’s?
Do you have access to the waste sheet?
That’s the amount that’s lost when a sandwich has to be tossed away because it either sat out too long or was incorrectly made & the customer returned it to have them make it correctly.
That happens all the time with me as I order the double hamburger & they almost always bring to me with cheese!
If so, what’s the waste price of the double cheeseburger?
I did see the waste sheet about 18 months ago at a McDonald’s, but the only one I could read was the Big Mac.
The menu price of a Big Mac at that time was $2.49, but the waste sheet listed its value at 51¢.
Since the double cheeseburger is a Big Mac without the lettuce, middle bun or special sauce, its waste value will be much lower than a Big Mac, even with inflation!
@Greasy Thumb Guzik:
Dang it Greasy Thumb Guzik. Now you got me hankerin’ for a Big Mac.
@BrianDaBrain: BrianDaBRAIN doesn’t realize that while McDonald’s “the Corporation” may be making windfall profits, there Owner/Operators are not, and they have to make price increases so that when the cost of goods needed to make the food goes up they still have some money left over to pay their franchising fees (which also adjust over time), and other required franchising payments.
@Greasy Thumb Guzik: The food cost of a double cheese burger is about $0.48, the problem is you haven’t accounted for a lot of other things that go into that burger actually reaching the customer. When you throw all that in, having a double cheeseburger on the menu becomes a nightmare. In addition, if the majority of your customers buy solely from the $1 menu it can easily impact your sales 15-20% losses. It was a bad strategy only because like the bush administration, they have no exit plan.
Is this really what we’re worried about? Cheese on the dollar menu at McDonalds? How fat are we America!?!!
@snoop-blog:
I recently realized that, and of course got the double cheeseburger for a higher value. Never again. Those things are vomitous.
@stevegoz: There’s a big difference there. It’s all in the processing. See, Morning Star has scientists working as hard as they can to figure out what mix of soy products and flavorings will make the best faux-meat. Meanwhile, the meat packing plant has immigrants making sub-minimum wage push scraps of cow meat into a huge grinder. There is much less overhead for the meat plant.
However, if you were to buy the soy products, they’d be dirt cheap. It’s all the processing that drives up the cost, as well as the fact that their main market is vegetarian people, which is a niche market made up of people who won’t switch to meat just for economic reasons. McDonald’s already pays for a ton of processing on their food, but they make up the overhead in sheer volume. They could easily make a cheaper soy burger, but they’d probably have to drop their 100% Beef claims. I imagine they could probably do a 60% tofu 40% beef blend and get away with it, if their goal is to just cut costs.
I love the double-cheeseburger (DON’T watch Fastfood Nation). I should eat ‘healthier’ by leaving the cheese off, so I voted for a $1 hamburger instead of a more expensive cheeseburger.
Don’t double cheeseburgers already cost between $1.59 to $1.89?
They’ll probably do the US equivalent of they did in the UK and scrap the Dollar menu altogether and make it the “Dollar Saver” menu (read: everything costs more than a dollar).
I’ve got it! They can put two slices of cheese on one slice of meat and still technically call it a “double cheeseburger!”
When i go to Mcdonalds the double cheeseburger is usually what I get. Over the last 2 months or so though, I’ve noticed that the meat quality doesn’t seem to be where it used to be. Anyone else notice this?
Consumer spending down? Raise your prices. Brilliant!
Double Quarter Pounder WITHOUT Cheese. Hmmmm. I visit so often the drive thru clerk knows my name.
Yes, by all means offer a double hamburger. I hate that crappy over processed fake American cheese that is used by fast food joints.
@elgringoguapo:
Yum, Fazolli’s. But their portions are two farking small. I have to order two meals just to have enough, and of course two meals is just way too much food. Thank god for doggie bags and 3PM snacks.
I would pay for the Double Cheesebuger if it cost a little more. I would even be willing to pay about $1.50 to around $1.75, not just $1.19.
Here in Idaho, MickeyD’s is offering us a $1.00 double hamburger and has raised the price of the gloriously salty and delicious double cheeseburger to $1.29. Given that the double cheeseburger is a dietary indulgence for most people anyway, I can’t see the price difference persuading many customers to forgo the sweet bun/salty cheese ying/yang in order to save a few cents. Long live the double cheese!
@RickinStHelen:
Right on. I hate the cheese, so why should I be paying for it? Over at Wendy’s when I order a Classic Double with no cheese I get a price reduction. HOw about it McD’s?
@chocogray:
No, I’m pretty sure the waste price includes the cost of making it.
That means the labor, grilling cost & the paper wrapper.
Now when I make a burger at home, if I made it exactly the same as McD it would be: the bun costs 17¢ from Costco, the meat, 1/5 of a lb., 91% lean at $1.99 per lb. that I paid for at Food-4-Less = 40¢. Generic cheese is currently on sale for $1 for 16 slices or 12.5¢ for 2 slices, plus 2¢ for the pickles, mustard & ketchup.
That’s a total of 72.5¢ for the total food ingredients at retail prices.
Cooking & wrapping it can’t be more than 15¢ which gives us a total price 87.5¢.
Since McD gets vastly lower prices due to their huge buying power & they are using a lower grade of beef than I bought, their cost, even at the inflated prices of the last few months can’t be more than 75¢.
But I don’t eat cheese, so when I get it, their cost is about 63¢.
There’s no way in hell they’re losing money on the double burger!
They’re just not making as much on the double as they were a year ago.
Our Double Cheeseburgers in Grinnell IA went up to 1.59 in March. I was actuall astounded when I went to another mcdonalds a bit back and found out that the DC was still on the Dollar Menu. I just assumed that MCDs corporate had raised the price. I rarely go in to MCDs so I was not in the loop for some time.
@chocogray: Yet it is not the franchise owners who ultimately make decisions like whether or not the DCB stays on the dollar menu. If McD corporate decides it’s not on, then it’s not on. If corporate says no cheese, then there’s no cheese. I’d completely agree with you if it was a decision left up to each individual franchise, but it is not. Sure, the franchises may see some benefit out of it, but who really reaps the rewards here… the same folks who made the decision in the first place, McD corporate.
@desterion: Meat quality? You know we’re talking about McDonald’s here, right?
@GMFish: I’m going to back you up on this in another way. Y’all don’t realize just how cheap food is, particularly when you’re producing it commodity-style like McDonald’s does. They’re paying far less for groceries than you are. A couple 2-oz patties, a couple slices of ch?ese, and a bun doesn’t cost them much of anything. They have their own cattle-raisers, butchers and processors. They have their own Mexicans picking iceberg lettuce in the El Centro sun, and they have dedicated bakeries grinding the wheat into flour, pumping them full of helium, and baking them in their dedicated ovens 24/7.
They aren’t paying for middlemen and then again for retail markups like you and me. They have vast economies of scale that will blow your mind worse than that time in the 7th grade your older sister’s boyfriend let you take a puff on his joint (kids: just say no to drugs and read “Fast Food Nation” instead). That double cheeseburger probably doesn’t actually cost McD’s more than about 15¢. The rest is for slave wages and maintenance on Ray Kroc’s liquid-nitrogen suspended animation tank in North Scottsdale.
Now that that’s out of the way, why is ch?ese suddenly such a precious thing? 2 laser-thin slices of processed analog is tipping over the profitability of McD’s? Did the cows join a union or something? Tonight my pizza was noticeably skimpy on the cheese. These fast-food people better stop ripping off customers, or people will start buying Kraft pizza kits like they did back in 1976.
Here in the SFV of L.A., the Double Cheeseburger is still 99 cents at nearly all McDonalds. The one I go to most often is a franchisee.
A good friend is a manager at a Burger King very close to that particular McDonalds. They price matched their Double Cheeseburger for several months late last year and early this year. With more meat per patty/sandwich, his food cost was 61 cents.
The Wendys here just raised their prices approx. three percent. This is the third such increase in nine months. Their value menu is up, as well.
The company that owns all the McDonalds in my area is very scandalous when it comes to Double Cheeseburgers. It’s been years since they were $1.00 on the Dollar menu. Over the past two years they came off the dollar menu to sell for $1.29, then $1.39, and a couple of days ago they jumped to the ridiculous price of $1.49! WTF?!! I rather now just go to Jack in the Box and get a big cheeseburger for $1.29. I’m starting to hate franchises, at least fast food corporations are consistent from restaurant to restaurant.
I had a friend that worked at a McDonalds and told us howto order a custom burger from hell.
Plain Bun
3 Beef Pattys
3 Shots of Ketchup
2 Shots of Big Mac Sauce
1 Shot of Mustard
4 Pickles
Onion on each patty
Took them about 3 minutes of button pushing on the register, I only did it once, though.
Thank goodness a simple hamburger might reappear on the menu. I find it just silly to have to order a quarter pounder with cheese without cheese because a plain quarter pounder isn’t listed anywhere.
@Tmoney02: Same thing with the delish pies–2 for $1 (maybe not anymore, but definitely in the recent past), or one for 89 cents. It’s no different than any other “Buy 3 at X discounted price; Single items, price as marked.” If you really only wanted one pie, but you got hooked by the 2fer pricing, McD’s gets extra money in pocket. I’m sure it only works well on very low production cost items. If McD’s wasn’t still turning a profit on the pies, they wouldn’t sell them at 2 for $1. However, everything they sell costs so little to make, and they sell so many of them worldwide everyday, even if they are selling for break-even, they’re making up the money in Coke, “premium” sandiwches, and other things with a huge food-cost upcharge.
And yes, I am a sucker for the 2fer pies and $1 dbl cheeseburgers.