McDonald's has very few limited-time offers compared to its rivals.
While it seems like Restaurant Brands International's (QSR) -) Burger King makes a few menu changes each month and Taco Bell seems to shift up its offerings nearly weekly, McDonald's has been a lot slower to make changes.
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That's partially because McDonald's (MCD) -) has made service time and operational excellence its core focus. The company has been trying to optimize its restaurants for a world where more people order for takeout and delivery.
Adding new items complicates that process so, in recent years, the chain has largely stuck to gimmicks. It has used its Famous Orders -- basically celebrities telling you what they order -- and brought back limited-time-offer sauces.
Those things are marketing stunts that add no work in the kitchen. They're ways to make people feel like the chain has added something new when it really hasn't.
That doesn't mean those promotions aren't popular. Customers loved the BTS Famous Order meal and the "Rick and Morty"-themed Szechuan Sauce sold out quickly. The chain also recently had a popular promotion where it simply packaged its Big Mac "Special Sauce" in the containers used for Chicken McNugget sauces.
Now, McDonald's has a new item it plans to add to menus this fall, but again. it's not a food-related offering.
Image source: McDonald's/YouTube
McDonald's brings back Halloween Boo Buckets
McDonald's first introduced its Halloween "Boo Buckets" in 1986, bringing them back some years but not others. The plastic buckets that replaced the cardboard box Happy Meals are served in was not offered from 2016 through last year when they made a surprising return.
Boo Buckets are more a collectible than a practical Halloween candy holder as they're much smaller than the traditional plastic buckets kids use when trick or treating. McDonald's plans to bring back Boo Buckets this year, although exactly when and in what configuration has not been confirmed.
"After a long hiatus the iconic Boo Buckets returned last year and are set to hit stores again this October.So far there is no confirmation on if there will be new or different designs/characters, but at least we know that Happy Meals are going to be amazing come mid-October," the popular (and almost-always correct) Snackolator Instagram page reported.
Traditionally the chain has offered three Boo Bucket characters: McBoo the ghost, the orange McPumpkin, and the green McGoblin.
McDonald's brings back classic characters
McDonald's recently completed a successful promotion bringing back its Grimace character to celebrate his birthday. That included the chain adding a purple shake to its menu in honor of the McDonaldland character.
That shake became a popular internet meme as people posted staged crime scene photos using the very colorful beverage. McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski commented on the success of that promotion during his company's second quarter earnings call.
"This quarter, the theme is -- well, if I'm being honest, the theme was Grimace. I mean, Grimace has been everywhere the past few months, all over the news and more than 3 billion views on TikTok. Not bad for a 52nd birthday. This viral phenomenon is yet another proof point of the power of marketing at McDonald's today," he said.
Grimace, as lovable as the purple monster is, was not the full story for the chain.
"Aside from Grimace, what really stood out about this past quarter was our continued consistency. In Q2, we delivered yet another quarter of strong performance, achieving global comparable sales of 11.7% with double digit comparable sales across each of our segments," he added.
