• by Teresa Buyikian , December 26, 2024

The summer (year?) of the QSR value meal deal has come to an end, and the results are in. A recent study by market research company Numerator found that while the deals may have driven loyalty for each chain, they did not guarantee more trips to the chain itself, and also did not increase purchases by the low-income consumers who are pulling back on fast food in general.

The report focused on the top four QSR chains and their meal deal offering this year: McDonald’s $5 Meal Deal, Wendy’s $5 Biggie Bag, Taco Bell’s $7 Biggie Box and the Burger King’s $5 Your Way meal.

Numerator’s omnichannel consumer panel of 800 customers of these deals participated in the study.

Surprisingly, both Wendy’s and Burger King experienced a decrease in purchase frequency among their meal deal buyers in 2024.

For diners in the low income category (under $40k per year), the deals had little impact, as many reported cooking more meals at home.

Yet McDonald’s and Taco Bell both drove increased purchase frequency among their meal deal buyers, but not necessarily in the way the brands may have expected.

Although consumers reported the perception that fast food incremental visits increased, per the study the receipts tell a different story. While deals increased loyalty among QSR patrons, they did not result in a significant raise in incremental visits over 2023. McDonald’s did see the largest increase, at 9.9% over last year, yet the other chains didn’t fare so well. Taco Bell only experienced a 0.9% increase, while other chains’ incremental visits actually decreased: Wendy’s by -6.7%, and Burger King by -9.8%.

So if lower prices weren’t driving consumer visits, what was? Per the report, these QSR customers place “value” above “price” when eating fast food. Forty-nine percent of those surveyed placed importance on the “Value of items in the meal for the price,” vs. only 28% who purely cited low price as the reason for their purchase.

Wendy’s actually emerged as the winner in terms of variety, with five different Biggie Bag deal options, which resulted in 31% of customers saying the chain had the best meal deals.

Also interestingly, the meal deal purchases didn’t necessarily result in lower customer check totals at ANY of the chains in the study, as the vast majority of customers purchase more items in addition to the value meal per visit.