Burger King $1 Menu

[Alpha8472]

They have introduced a new $1 menu that includes a bacon cheeseburger, chicken jr. sandwich, fries, and a soft drink.

Is this a sign of desperation? I do not know how big these items are, but they might be very tiny items.

[storewanderer]

They had a similar $1 menu 5-10 years ago and over time it turned into a $1.29, $1.49, $1.79, etc. menu. Are all locations actually running this menu?

If they can get all locations to run this menu it will put pressure on other operators to revive their $1 menu. Wendy's .99 menu officially went away earlier this year in my area (was already long gone in a lot of other places I visited Wendy's but a couple franchisees here kept holding on with a .99 junior fry, 16oz drink, junior cheeseburger, 5 nuggets). McDonalds still has an extensive $1 menu at some of their corporate locations, but at the franchise sites, the $1 menu is largely limited to the soda/tea/coffee at this point.

[Alpha8472]

My local San Francisco Bay Area Burger King restaurants are only offering some of the value items at $1. The bacon cheeseburger is $1.29.

I have noticed that Taco Bell has even fewer $1 items now. Wendy's has not had the 99 cent menu in the Bay Area for many years.

I doubt that other chains will copy the $1 menu. Everything is going up on price. Burger King might only be doing this $1 menu temporarily to attract customers who would never set foot in a Burger King otherwise.

I find the fries at Burger King to be some of the worst. If a restaurant has bad fries, it is not worth it to go back. Perhaps, Burger King should think about changing their recipes and actually improving their food. I also find that their chicken nuggets seem to be really awful. Microwave nuggets taste better than those. For the longest time those nuggets were only 89 cents.

The only good thing is that I can now get a $1 Coca Cola Freestyle drink at Burger King. That is the only thing I would get. I would drive to another restaurant to get better food.

[storewanderer]

$1.29 isn't bad for a bacon cheeseburger, though.

I agree the food is awful at Burger King. Their fries seem undercooked even when they are fresh from being cooked. After they sit around for a while, they seem gritty or something.

I have learned the past 9 months you can buy frozen fries, bake in the oven at very high temperature, and they come out pretty good. The Checkers/Rallys branded bagged fries are my favorite.

Taco Bell in Reno area has a lot of $1 items; cross over to the Taco Bell locations over the state line in CA (Truckee, Susanville, etc.) and there is little to no $1 price point item availability. Oddly the one in Susanville is more expensive than Truckee- I know where operating costs are higher, and it sure isn't Susanville.

Burger King is interesting as at least in my area while they always have some very attractive price point promotions running, their non-promotional pricing is very very high (like, higher than Carls Jr.). Burger King almost seems to run like a high-low fast food operator, counting on folks who come in and order their "usual item" without regard for price, to subsidize those very attractive price point value offerings. I sure hope those $5-$6 items taste better than the $1 items... given how lousy the $1 items are I would be reluctant to take the chance on something with a higher price point. I did get a $5-$6 range grilled chicken sandwich a few years ago from them that was really, really good. After that tried them for some basic low cost $1.79 burger (Whopper Jr.) and it was lukewarm and just awful, and didn't go back. The iced tea also tasted like dirty towel that second time; that really did it for me.

[cjd]

Before the virus happened, I used to get one of BK's "cheap meals" once a week or so. There have been a few variants in the last few years. I think the first was a burger, fries, drink and a cookie for something like $3. Later it became a small bacon cheeseburger, fries, chicken nuggets and a drink for $3.29 or something. A chicken patty sandwich could also be substituted for the burger. You couldn't really beat it for the price! Nobody else was offering a full meal at that price point except for Wendy's 4 for $4.

McDonald's used to offer a chicken patty sandwich or cheeseburger for $1 which wasn't bad. I used to get that along with $1 fry and $1 drink. It's probably been nearly 10 years already since they offered that. The cheeseburgers always seemed to greasy to me though.

Sometimes I'll get DQ's Five Buck Lunch. They have a pretty hefty burger and decent portion of fries for the price. Their fries are better than BK. The ice cream sundae that comes with it is not that great IMO, but even without the ice cream it's not a bad deal to me for what you get. I usually just stick the sundae in the freezer for later. When I used to eat in, I would sometimes upgrade to a small Blizzard which was much better.

[Super S]

Another factor is the increasing minimum wage. As of January 1st it is $13.69 in Washington. Haven't seen many true "dollar" items in a while around here. Although I will say that Burger King, Carl's Jr., and Arby's do send out coupons regularly.

[storewanderer]

Another factor is the increasing minimum wage. As of January 1st it is $13.69 in Washington. Haven't seen many true "dollar" items in a while around here. Although I will say that Burger King, Carl's Jr., and Arby's do send out coupons regularly.

These $1 items are designed to be low labor cost. I still don't see how you come out on a sandwich. The bacon cheeseburger contains limited ingredients. Fries and drinks are a low labor item to vend out. Surprised they don't do more $1 offers on the "no labor" items that are prepackaged and directly out of a cooler like cartons of milk, pie slices, etc. Well I guess someone has to take the items out of a box and put them into the cooler so there is some labor. Those type of items may not draw customers in but could be low cost add ons to existing customer orders.

[BillyGr]

McDonald's used to offer a chicken patty sandwich or cheeseburger for $1 which wasn't bad. I used to get that along with $1 fry and $1 drink. It's probably been nearly 10 years already since they offered that. The cheeseburgers always seemed to greasy to me though.

They are (or were a couple months back) still doing the hamburger for $1 (the "original" one that also comes with kids meals), and they had had the McChicken (which is on the same sized bun) for that not too long ago (maybe a year or two, if not more recently).

[jamcool]

I noticed BK is going back to their pre-99 “burger bun” logo. How long will it take to change the signage at the stores? (Ask Wendy’s and Arby’s about that)

[Brian Lutz]

https://www.wistv.com/2021/01/07/burger ... 0to%201999.

In fact, it looks like they are now reverting to their 1969 logo. I guess they figure it worked for Pizza Hut?