McDonald's Wings a Mighty Flop

Franchisees complain about the 10M pounds of leftovers
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 19, 2013 3:52 PM CST
McDonald's Wings a Mighty Flop
This product image provided by McDonald's shows the chain's "Mighty Wings"offering.   (AP photo/McDonald's)

McDonald's "Mighty Wings" didn't exactly take off the way the fast-food chain was hoping. Franchisees are sitting on about 10 million pounds worth of unsold wings, the Wall Street Journal reports, and they're not happy about it. The chain bought 50 million pounds of the wings for the limited-time promotion, which ended last month, but sales were on the low end of what it expected. Now, it's hoping to run another promotion to sell the rest.

With that promotion will come a new, lower price. The wings were sold in packs of three for $2.99, which, franchisees told market analysts, was just too high. "Mighty Wings are proving once again that we can't sell premium items in large numbers because we still have the Dollar Menu," one franchisee said. In the company's third-quarter earnings report, CEO Don Thompson admitted that the price "was not considered the most competitive." He also said that some customers found them too spicy, according to Bloomberg. (More McDonald's stories.)

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