The Rise and Fall of the Dollar Menu

Weird History Food is going to your favorite fast food drive-thru for the history of the Dollar Menu. The big three fast food chains, Mcdonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King have all introduced their version of the value menu. But when did it start? And more importantly, where did it go? Well, grab yourself a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger and see the untold story of the Dollar Menu.

#fastfood #foodhistory #weirdhistoryfood

[DPSFSU]

It's so crazy to me that, within my lifetime, the $5 bill has basically become the $1 bill. The greed in this world is astronomical.

[jtp]

The Wendys 4 for 4 seems like it has been the most successful one of all of them. That is a pretty damn good meal for $4 and it Wendys does not lose money

[TylerNicely]

being a high school senior was so nice at this time. 5 dollars footings, 5 little Caesars pizza, dollar menus everywhere.

[Dj.MODÆO]

This scenario is almost exactly what happened with the $5 foot long at subway. Subway forced all the franchisees to only buy ingredients and products from them to sell in the store and was charging more than $5 on average for the ingredients to make the footlongs. Because more than half of sales were $5 footlongs, The franchisees were losing between $50k-$75k a year at every franchise location so they sued subway and won.

[mccallosone]

wendys dollar menu probably saved my life. jr bacon, a chili, and a drink would be my biggest meal of the day sometimes

[inthisdayandage]

I think we’ll be extremely lucky to ever see another dollar menu in our lifetime

[dannymartial]

It’s true. When McD launched their Dollar Menu, I NEVER ordered from anything that wasn’t from the Dollar Menu. My go-to was a McChicken and a McDouble, which famously made the McGangBang, the best value burger of all time, and tasted damn good too.

[TurdFergurson]

It's absolutely crazy that McDonald's actually thought the dollar menu would get people to add to a meal instead of people ordering exclusively off the $1 menu. Were they really that naive?

[MAVJ]

I worked at McDonald's back in high school (2012-13ish) and groups of people used to come in and get 30 McChickens and 30 McDoubles ATLEAST twice a shift. It was a damn good deal to feed a party 😅

[grantmurdock]

I don't understand how or why, but the last time my wife got a combo meal it was eleven bucks. Somehow fast food is the same price or more expensive while still being crappier than other local offerings.

[randysmith]

Around the mid 80's, a McDeez hamburger was around 50 cents. Minimum wage was around $5. Now a hamburger is around $2.50 and minimum wage is around $15. Burgers are up 5X while wages are only up 3X.

[these_handles_are_stupid]

I'm 20 and while I'm not that old, I remember being able to get like five bucks from your parents and you could get so much food. These days 5 won't even get you a god damn Big Mac, and I live in one of the poorest markets in the country.

[Smarfton]

When I was dirt poor and working a retail job, I used to go to Wendy's, order dollar fries and two dollar orders of chicken nuggets, dump everything into the bag, shake it up and just blindly grab whatever my fingers touched.

It was great.

[dameneko]

I still miss the 59/79/99 cent value menu at Taco Bell. When I was a kid, my mom used to be able to get us both a big enough dinner for less than $3 total and she'd always grab a bunch of sauce, which I'd use on eggs and rice at home. But even Taco Bell was considered to be kind of a treat. Our target was to not spend more than $1 per person per meal (this was the 90s), so most of the time I'd make my own bean burritos at home. Things like McDonald's french fries were a "mom just got paid" kind of treat.

[MovieEggman]

The Dollar Menu is what kept me and my roommates fed through our college years. We always ordered Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers, Fries and Frosties from the Wendy’s that was near the campus, we usually spent less than 20 dollars for all three of us, good times.

[drowntone]

We had it so good with the dollar menu in the late 2000's early 2010s, you don't even know. The people of the great recession needed to be fed and fast food delivered.

[Waxyjoessb]

“As filthy and dimly lit as possible to make costumers feel like they’re spending the bare minimum” this line is a perfect description of Dollar General. Immediately subscribed for that one.

[lygophilia]

Pay attention with combo meals. In some cases (not specifically McDonald's) I've noticed it's not only not a decrease in price to get the combo but actually costs MORE than buying individually. They "get" you on your assumption it'll be cheaper and ease of ordering.

[sburton]

What's interesting is that you can still see a section of many fast food menus called "dollar menu", however you really can't find any item that actually only costs $1. Most of the cheapest items now still costs over $2.

[arieljones]

I remember, as a senior in high school in '95, our local Taco Bell had tacos for $.49 and Supremes were like $.59, same for bean burritos. Basic tacos are now $1.79. That's a price factor of 3.5 times plus. Has inflation gone up like that? No!