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Customers of Burger King are furious over the Miami-based chain’s decision to eliminate its paper coupons, a policy that dates back literally decades, as well as scale back on promotions in general. Come on, BK, give the people what they want! We couldn’t believe our eyes to read that the fast food chain was discontinuing one of its most popular customer perks and possibly pulling other value-based promotions that bring diners into its doors. The news came as part of the restaurant’s third-quarter earnings call; CEO Jose Cil revealed on the October 25th event that the chain would be phasing out its popular paper coupons. Not only that, but it seems the burger spot has plans to run fewer promotions in general. What is happening!
Burger King Paper Coupon Policy
The American company has recently slipped into the number three national fast food chain spot behind McDonald’s and Wendy’s when it comes to sales. This may have influenced their decision to no longer offer printed coupons, such as their popular Buy One, Get One for $1 and 2 for $6 deals. According to transcripts from the earnings report, the chain is also planning to reduce the volume of promotions it runs overall. Burger King had previously been known for these value deals, and joins McDonald’s in the growing trend of U.S. fast food chains eliminating dollar menus and even raising prices overall.
"All our data shows our flame-grilled Whopper outperforms the hero product of our competitors yet many of our Burger promotions for the last few years have focused on some brands or extensions to our core rather than doubling down on our flagship hero product," Cil said on the call of the move away from value promotions.
Later, he doubled down on the message, saying that removing the promos will "allow us to really drive growth in the core of our business." Some longtime BK customers may not be so sure about that, Jose!
In fact, fans of the food chain have recently started dropping not-so-subtle hints on their Facebook page that price increases will lead to a very unhappy customer based. "They raised the prices," one user recently commented on an October 29th Facebook post about the distinct sound of flame-grilling their Whopper. "I cancelled my order and will have another fast food joint deliver my burgers," they continued. "Dear Burger King, why did you double the price of the Whopper and make it so that only needs one hand now??" wrote another. BK, we implore you: bring back the great value items.
