McDonald’s Pushes Chicken Hard

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

24/7 Wall St. Key Points:

  • McDonald’s new McCrispy Strips

  • The $5 meal worked well

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McDonald’s Pushes Chicken Hard

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Realizing the success of Chick-fil-A and the chicken products of other fast food chains, McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD | MCD Price Prediction) has created the first full menu item in nearly half a decade. Starting May 5, McCrispy Strips will become a mainstay of its products.’

According to CNN, they are “all-white chicken tenders coated in crispy, golden-brown breading.” The product was dropped in 2020, but it is not clear why.

Alyssa Buetikofer, chief marketing and customer experience officer, explained why they were added: “The demand for chicken strips has been remarkable across the industry, so we knew we had to deliver something so crave-able that it was worth the wait. We took our time, listened to our fans, and created a product we knew they would crave.” They are also part of a menu that has faltered.

In mid-2024, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski admitted the chain’s sales had faltered because its food had become too expensive for many customers. The company introduced a mix of new items and price cuts.

In January, it launched a $5 Meal Deal with a McChicken or McDouble alternative, four-piece Chicken McNuggets, small French fries, and a small soft drink. Late last year, it began offering a $1 meal. It was part of what McDonald’s called its “value menu.”

McDonald’s needs some help. Its comparable store sales in the most recently reported quarter dropped .1% worldwide and 1.5% in the U.S. Revenue was flat at $6.4 billion. EPS was flat at $2.80

The results of menu decisions and perhaps a comeback of the lower-income consumer have helped McDonald’s stock price to move higher this year by 9%. The market is off 6% over the same period.

McDonald’s means to get back on a growth track, even if it is product by product.

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
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.

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