Coalition of Franchisee Associations

March 16, 2019

Poultry in Motion


At the end of February, a memo from the NOA board expressed some frustration with the development of "a better chicken sandwich".

On March 5 a press release appeared on the McDonald's corporate website featuring the "test" 
of "Mighty Chicken" in Augusta GA.

Now, I don't hang out on the McDonald's website very much but I've been there enough to know
that announcing a small market (35 stores) test on a website available all over the globe means 
it's not a "test", it's a done deal.

Local press in the test market? Absolutely. But it's not global news unless all of the decisions 
have been made. I wouldn't be surprised if this product isn't already on the OPNAD calendar.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be on McDonald's global website.

Here's the corporate press release:

Testing Mighty Chicken in Augusta, Georgia - McDonald's Corporation
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8 comments:

Richard Adams said...

Having said that, Augusta is a great place to test this product. If I was trying to duplicate In-N-Out's Double-Double I'd want to test it in SoCal.

Anonymous said...

Ho hum. We have changed/reintroduced our chicken sandwiches at least 4 times. If its not pressure fried like CFA, its a dud.

Anonymous said...

It’s cooked to order chicken. That’s going to be another operational nightmare.

Anonymous said...

Is this the first step to Mcd Corp trying to put pressure fryers in all of the stores? What would be the total cost of bringing in pressure fryers per store?

Anonymous said...

People don't go to Chick-fil-a because it is the best chicken sandwich out there it is more than just that just as people don't go to Starbucks because they have the best coffee product; both have unique selling propositions and that is what you need to find, what is your unique selling proposition, duplicating a Chick-fil-a sandwich is not going to do much for TC's or sales and probably overall a waste of time and Ad dollars.

Richard Adams said...

I go to CFA for the fast service. While I haven't tried the entire menu many of their products are being held, waiting for the customer. I often order two of the basic sandwiches and in every case, they hand me the food before the credit card receipt is finished printing. There are advantages to a "Made For Anyone" kitchen operation.

If McDonald's develops a "hurry up and wait" chicken product it won't do much for sales and won't pull customers from CFA.
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Anonymous said...

This is a joke. McDonald's needs to fix its chicken supply before even considering expanding into this.. It's no wonder protestors are all over the place, who else has seen the Im Not Lovin It stuff? They were in Augusta for this event. Chris K needs to examine the products before creating more issues for the supply chain. You didn't hear it from me though

Richard Adams said...

The poultry industry is its own worst enemy. If you travel the midwest in areas where chickens are raised you see flatbed trucks with hundreds of wire cages with chickens crammed wing to wing looking pretty miserable. I don't know if chickens are smart enough to know where they are but it certainly looks like cruelty. It'd be smart to put some side panels on those trucks.