• Ad Age, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 10:30 AM

Some McDonald's owner/operators are starting to push back on the dollar menu credited with much of the chain's turnaround. Several McDonald's stores in New York have stopped offering it, for example, and in one Texas market franchisees voted down local funding to advertise the dollar menu this coming September. They're looking to support higher-margin items instead.

Ed Bailey, a franchisee with 63 restaurants in the Dallas area, says that the platform is best kept as a low-key, everyday-value proposition. "When you begin to advertise it and make it your marketing campaign, encouraging franchisees to do it because transactions are slipping and comp sales are slipping," there are problems, he says.

Dollar-menu sales in the U.S. are now roughly 15% of sales, on the high end of the 13%-to-15% range that's been typical during the past five years. McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud says that the organization is dedicated to working with franchisees. "We don't always agree, but there's always a discussion, because we've got to make decisions that are in the best interest of the brand," she says.

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