McDonald’s is selling $1 Egg McMuffins as egg prices soar — and it could pay off big-time
McDonald’s is offering $1 Egg McMuffins on Sunday.
As the food industry grapples with the skyrocketing price of eggs in the US, McDonald’s is going against trends and selling $1 Egg McMuffins for one day.
On Tuesday, McDonald’s announced it would sell Egg McMuffins and Sausage McMuffins with egg for $1 on Sunday. The deal is valid only for purchases made through the app in the US.
The promotion celebrates the Egg McMuffin’s 50th birthday. The product was introduced in the US in 1975.
McDonald’s menu prices vary depending on location. In downtown Manhattan, an Egg McMuffin costs $6.
The company’s North America chief impact officer, Michael Gonda, wrote about the deal Tuesday in a LinkedIn post. Referencing egg prices, Gonda said customers “definitely WON’T see McDonald’s USA issuing surcharges on eggs.”
Value strategy
Dipanjan Chatterjee, a vice president at Forrester, a New York market research company, told B-17 the deal fit right into the McDonald’s value strategy, which includes $5 meal deals and $1 items.
Chatterjee said that with egg prices hitting record highs, marketing a “$1 value item” that uses eggs “may seem like an odd choice.”
But it’s more of an opportunity — because McDonald’s now has a chance to position itself as a company that “prioritizes its customers over profit,” Chatterjee said.
The move is “likely to pay off handsomely for McDonald’s,” said Mário Braz de Matos, a cofounder of the Singapore branding consultancy agency Flying Fish Lab.
“McDonald’s doesn’t just stand for fast food; it also stands for value,” he said. “In good times, it matters, but in harder economic climates, it makes this particular aspect of the brand more attractive to consumers.”
Alexandra Leung, the founder of Monogic, a food and beverage marketing and public relations agency in Singapore and Hong Kong, told B-17 that while the deal would be attractive to cost-conscious consumers, its real value wasn’t in the sales bump but in “digital customer acquisition.”
“I think that the measure of success for this promotion might be better evaluated through metrics like app downloads and digital engagement rather than sustained McMuffin sales postpromotion,” she said.
Soaring egg prices
The $1 McDonald’s deal comes as egg prices in the US have soared, partly due to supply chain issues stemming from an H5N1 bird flu outbreak in the US.
The average price of a dozen large Grade A eggs in the country hit a record high of $4.95 in January.
Given the short supply of eggs, supermarket chains have seen egg cartons sell out minutes after store openings. Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Costco have imposed limits on the number of cartons each customer can purchase.
The restaurant chain Waffle House announced earlier this month that it would start including a $0.50 surcharge on each egg it sold.
Shake Shack CEO Rob Lynch said on Thursday that restaurant chains with big breakfast businesses might dial back on eggs and offer more beef and chicken products instead.
Representatives for McDonald’s did not respond to a request for comment.
