- The coronavirus pandemic has affected the restaurant and fast-food industries in unprecedented ways.
- According to a previous report by Business Insider, sales at McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King plummeted by 20% to 35% in the last two weeks of March. Wendy’s also reported that its same-store sales were down 29% in the last week of March.
- Meat shortages, changing tastes, and restaurant closings could potentially affect menus at some fast-food locations across the country.
- McDonald’s salads and grilled chicken sandwiches have been removed from menus as the chain seeks to “simplify” its offerings amid the pandemic.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Fast-food chains are known to shake up their menus every now and again.
However, as the coronavirus pandemic stretches into the summer months, fast-food brands are having to constantly shift their thinking, and their menus, to keep up with changing demands, food supply changes, and customers’ evolving tastes.
While no public announcements have been made regarding permanent menu changes, some fast-food chains are scaling back their offerings, limiting what customers can order, or temporarily closing restaurants.
In light of these changes, here are seven fast-food menu items that have an uncertain future.
McDonald's menu items like the buttermilk crispy chicken tenders have been temporarily removed from menus.
In an effort to "simplify" its menu and operations during the coronavirus pandemic, McDonald's has removed a number of items from its menu.
While most fan-favorite menu items are still available, including the world-famous Big Mac, Chicken McNuggets, and most of the chain's burgers, one beloved menu item that was recently cut was McDonald's crispy chicken tenders.
This isn't the first time chicken tenders have been removed from the fast-food giant's lineup. McDonald's Chicken Selects became a massive success after their debut in 2004. However, they disappeared from menus in 2013.
In 2017, McDonald's answered fans and foodies' prayers by bringing back their tenders under the new name Buttermilk Crispy Tenders.
McDonald's has yet to release any information about when the modified menu will return to normal.
The grilled chicken sandwich has also disappeared from McDonald's menus.
Another item temporarily cut from the McDonald's menu - at least for the time being - is the Artisan Grilled Chicken Sandwich.
As McDonald's was deciding which items it would continue producing during the coronavirus pandemic, the brand decided to stick with its "most popular choices," Bill Garrett, McDonald's senior vice president of operations, said in a statement to Business Insider.
McDonald's is known to adapt to changing tastes when it comes to its menu.
"As always, we are constantly evolving our menu and listening to our customers to meet their changing needs," McDonald's representative Danya Proud said in a past statement when the chain decided to drop its Chicken Selects.
Salads are also off McDonald's menus for now.
McDonald's removed its lineup of salads from its menu as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
As of yet, McDonald's has not announced any disruptions to its menu due to supply issues.
"Supply has not been an issue for any of our food and paper products currently," an internal document obtained by Business Insider in March states. "This simplified menu is to make it easier in the restaurants during these challenging times."
Fast-food chains including McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Burger King previously said their sales plummeted by 20% to 35% in the last two weeks of March, according to a previous article by Business Insider.
As fast-food restaurants continue to adapt to suit customers' needs during and after the coronavirus, it seems logical that they will push their most valuable players forward and let other less-popular menu items fall behind.
Breakfast sandwiches and other morning-oriented items also face an uncertain future as breakfast sales suffer.
McDonald's has already limited its breakfast menu to the morning, rather than offering its all-day breakfast menu.
As more potential customers stay home, fast-food breakfast sales are largely suffering, according to a report by Business Insider's Kate Taylor.
"The breakfast business is impacted when people aren't on the roads going to work," David Gibbs, CEO of Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, said in a statement. "They are not going through a drive-thru for breakfast as much."
Following a successful launch of its nationwide breakfast menu despite the coronavirus pandemic, Wendy's also said in a press release in late March that it would be removing its "incremental breakfast marketing spend investment in 2020" and would "support its franchise system in other ways."
Nationwide meat shortages may impact fast-food chains and their ability to offer stacked burgers, like Wendy's triple Baconator.
According to an analysis of online Wendy's menus conducted by financial firm Stephens, around 1,000 locations, or 18% of Wendy's 5,500 US restaurants, are not serving any hamburgers or other meat-based menu items. Other locations are reportedly limiting customers to single-patty burgers.
This is due to meatpacking plant closures, which have happened as a result of COVID-19 sweeping through facilities and endangering employees - so much so that experts are calling these plants the new "coronavirus hotspot."
McDonald's, on the other hand, does not share the same concerns over meat shortages.
"For us, really what's been incredible is just through this entire pandemic we haven't had a supply chain break anywhere in all 40,000 restaurants around the globe," McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski said in an interview with Good Morning America in early May.
"That said, in the US And North America ... we're watching very closely this meat supply issue," he added. "It's particularly an issue with beef. Right now we feel good about our situation, but it really is a day-to-day status and we're monitoring it."
Plant-based items in fast-food restaurants could become more popular than ever.
Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are currently witnessing a spike in demand as meat shortages become increasingly likely in the US.
It's still too early to tell whether this increase in demand across all industries will result in a shortened supply for fast-food restaurants, or if plant-based menu items like the Impossible Whopper will overtake old fast-food favorites as meat becomes increasingly scarce.
"We have not seen any interruption in our supply chain," Impossible Foods CFO David Lee told MarketWatch. "While 95% of our consumers are meat eaters, the way we make our product is incredibly different. The meat industry has to grow an animal, transport it, slaughter it, process it, and turn it into the meat it serves. We bypass the animal, we go straight to the plants. We have a vastly different way to make our product that is far more efficient for us and far better for the planet."
Depending on where they live, customers might find it hard to get their hands on In-N-Out's burgers and fries.
Visiting your local In-N-Out burger may leave you out of luck. According to a statement by the California-based fast-food chain, all restaurants without drive-thru windows have closed indefinitely.
All other locations nationwide are closing their dining rooms and shifting to only drive-thru or curbside pickup.
Depending on where customers live, and whether or not their In-N-Out has a drive-thru window, it could be a long time before people can get their hands on animal-style fries or the chain's famous Double-Double burgers.
- Read more:
- People are eating more pizza and chicken wings, boosting sales at Papa John's and Wingstop as other restaurants face sales slumps
- Wendy's defied the odds and successfully launched breakfast during the coronavirus pandemic, creating a massive new problem for fast-food rivals like McDonald's and Taco Bell
- The coronavirus pandemic demolished breakfast sales at fast-food giants like McDonald's and Taco Bell
- What fast-food workers at chains like McDonald's and Taco Bell wish customers knew about working through a pandemic
