McDonald’s Targets C-Store Customers with $1 Beverages

In an April 2 memo from McDonald’s Corporation’s western division chief, Steve Plotkin, the fast food giant urged store owners in the Western U.S. to slash large soft drink prices to $1, according to Crain’s Chicago Business Report which obtained a copy of the memo.  “Let’s take the c-store drink out of their hands and build our transactions,” Plotkin stated. “Value is integral to delivering for our customers in this economic environment.”

“Times are tough, and this could be a beverage war,” noted Dennis Lombardi, an Ohio-based restaurant consultant. “This is tapping into an area that, historically, fast-food chains have not wanted to go.”

While cheaper drink prices could lure some customers, most fast-food restaurants worry that such a discount could damage sales of their popular combo meals by encouraging customers to make their own meals from value menus instead.

A spokesperson for 7-Eleven, which has 7,500 stores in North America, told Crain’s that the convenience chain giant has an edge over McDonald’s in terms of convenience.  “Customers, especially males, want a quick fountain beverage and aren’t inclined to wait in line or at the drive-through when they can run into a 7-Eleven store and get what they want quickly,” she said.