Just as it sounds, the hamburger will be loaded with bacon. Six (that's 6) strips of hickory smoked bacon on top of a half-pound of never-frozen beef, according to the press release, which was sent out on the wires on Friday.
The Baconator follows June's rollout of the Triple Stack cheeseburger, a product featuring three hamburgers.
In April, the company intro'd Steakhouse Double-Melt cheeseburger, two burgers "packed" with onions, mushrooms, Swiss cheese, peppercorn sauce and three strips of bacon on a Kaiser bun.
So what happened to the trend of fast-food restaurants offering healthier options?
Restaurants, like all other retailers, have diverse audiences with differing desires, says Scott Hume, executive editor of Restaurants & Institutions magazine. "Just as The Gap offers a variety of clothing styles, restaurants provide a variety of menu items. That way, those who want salads find something on the menu, and those who crave a hamburger with six slices of bacon find what they want. If no one orders the Baconator, it quickly will go away, but those who don't want it needn't order it."
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R&I's 2007 New American Diner Study finds that 21.3% of consumers (23.1% of women and 19.5% of men) agree or strongly agree with the statement, "I am making a sustained effort to eat healthy at restaurants." The other 8 out of 10 sometimes eat healthfully and sometimes they indulge in higher-fat or higher-calorie choices. Wendy's and other restaurants aren't wrong to provide both lower- and higher-calorie options; like it or not, free consumer choice is the operating principle of the U.S. economy, Hume tells Marketing Daily.
Wendy's International Inc., which is the No. 3 hamburger chain, said the second-quarter sales hike was aided by new products such as the Triple Stack cheeseburger and the Frosty Float.
Wendy's recently received brand, food and operations accolades from: