Wendy’s is stepping up its long-running fight with McDonald’s, targeting the competitor’s well-documented problem with broken ice cream machines.
Wendy’s says customers can get a small-size Frosty dessert for just $1 through the end of the month. It’s the latest in an escalating series of price wars amongst fast-food companies to win back and win over customers.
To promote the special, Wendy’s has partnered with McBroken.com, a website that tracks whether the ice cream machine is broken down at people’s nearby McDonald’s. In addition to a big banner at the top of the online tool promoting the $1 deal, the map of McDonald’s locations now also includes Wendy’s stores (which are signified with the company’s logo, rather than the dots used to show MicDonald’s).
As of Thursday morning, nearly 15% of the ice cream machines tracked by McBroken were nonoperational.
Broken machines have been a longtime problem for McDonald’s. In 2017, the company announced plans to replace its existing machines, which also were subject to customer complaints about being out of order. Those were said to have fewer parts, the ability to dispense more flavors and required shorter offline cleaning periods. The fact that McBroken is a popular website puts doubts on some of those claims.
The shift to frozen desserts is just the latest twist in this year’s land grab among fast-food companies. Virtually every fast-food chain has rolled out value meals in the past few months to win back customers who were upset with claims of “McFlation,” which followed reports of about $8 chicken sandwiches and $18 Big Mac meals. McDonald’s CEO Joe Erlinger addressed that earlier this summer, issuing a public letter to counter what he called the “viral social posts and poorly sourced reports that McDonald’s has raised prices significantly beyond inflationary rates.”