Fast food steps up value menus
Cheap eats are back. After two years of touting better-for-you foods and premium pricier products, the $120 billion fast-food world is entering 2006 with a new message: value.
Wendy's is pushing its Super Value Menu with new ads and steeper discounts. Burger King is testing a new value menu. Even McDonald's is running more value-menu ads.
This is more than a winter response to slow sales. It's also about their customers' economic stress. "When folks have to pay more than $2 a gallon for gas, the money has to come from somewhere," says Keith Sirois, CEO of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants.
Consumers also are paying record winter heating bills, shrinking funds for treats such as trips to a restaurant - even the fast-food joint.
"High energy prices are stretching consumers thin," says Sherri Daye Scott, editor of QSR, a fast-food trade publication. There's a "negative consumer perception" about the economy, she says.
External Source - For the complete article click here
Source - USATODAY
This is more than a winter response to slow sales. It's also about their customers' economic stress. "When folks have to pay more than $2 a gallon for gas, the money has to come from somewhere," says Keith Sirois, CEO of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants.
Consumers also are paying record winter heating bills, shrinking funds for treats such as trips to a restaurant - even the fast-food joint.
"High energy prices are stretching consumers thin," says Sherri Daye Scott, editor of QSR, a fast-food trade publication. There's a "negative consumer perception" about the economy, she says.
External Source - For the complete article click here
Source - USATODAY
