McDonald’s Set to Launch Latest Twist on the Dollar Menu

McDonald’s will start the new year with a new attempt at a successful replacement of sorts for the Dollar Menu, the Associated Press reports.

It’s called the “McPick 2” menu and it will have a five-week run on the fast-food chain’s national menu starting Jan. 4.

During that period, the McPick 2 menu will offer customers their choice of two of the following items for $2:

• McDouble
• McChicken
• Small fries
• Mozzarella sticks

After the five-week run, McDonald’s said it might change the details of the offering but plans to keep the “McPick” concept and name, the AP reports.

Like McDonald’s recent move to offer breakfast all day, the McPick menu is the public company’s latest attempt to boost sales. It’s also an attempt to draw in deal-seekers after moving away from the Dollar Menu.

Steve Easterbrook, who became McDonald’s chief executive early this year, said in July:

“As we moved away from the Dollar Menu, we didn’t replace it with offers of an equivalent form of value. And customers have voted with their feet.”

The AP explains McDonald’s prior attempts at a twist on the Dollar Menu:

In an attempt to wean customers off the Dollar Menu in 2012, McDonald’s rolled out an “Extra Value Menu” that offered items for a range of prices. After that failed to take hold, the company turned to the “Dollar Menu & More,” which channeled a proven name but may have confused people with its range of prices.

The Wall Street Journal reports that analysts have been expecting the two-for-$2 menu.

Nomura Securities Co. restaurant industry analyst Mark Kalinowski said in a note last month that the “Dollar Menu & More” did confuse some customers and failed to spur growth, but “we view the move toward a long-term national value platform as positive for McDonald’s.”

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