McDonald’s offers any size coffee (small, medium, or large) for $.89 cents. I thought about this for a minute and found it pretty peculiar. Why offer something in 3 sizes for all the same price. Why would anyone choose the smaller size? Why would McDonald’s want you to choose the larger size? A few things came to mind.
- McDonald’s wants to get you hooked on the bigger coffee. Once your body starts to adapt to the higher dose of caffeine, you’ll never go back to a smaller size. Once they have you accustomed to the large, they can raise the price and make bigger profits on something that probably costs next to nothing. After this promotion the regular price goes up to $1.50 and you have no choice but to pay because you aren’t going back to the small.
- They offer this deal just to get you in the door. They make money on other products and their goal is to get you to purchase McDonald’s breakfast. Therefore they don’t really care about the coffee money (even though I’m sure it’s profitable even at .89 cents) but the potential of getting someone to buy a 6 dollar breakfast is more enticing. A deal too good to pass up, which an $.89 cent large coffee is pretty damn good.
- My final thought, an off shoot of the last one, was that they make so much on coffee that even at .89 cents they don’t give a shit. It’s not nearly as schemed as I’m portraying and it’s as simple as getting more people in the door.
McDonald’s is a billion dollar corporation and I’m sure that they put a huge amount of effort and thought in their promotions and this one struck me a bit unique. It’s just such a strange concept to offer 3 sizes all at the same price. They want you to drink their large coffees. They don’t care that more caffeine isn’t healthy to the human body, they only care about your money. A fine, interesting example of corporate greed. Get them hooked on the one thing they sell that is moderately addictive.
They are doing it again. I thought of these reasons you give too. But they could also be collecting data. To see what size is the most popular regardless of price. Used for future combo promotions and competitive purposes. I, for example, don’t give a dead rat’s last shit so when I want a coffee, I want a small size. Not medium, not large, not extra large, lake Ontario size. I often don’t even finish the small and it gets cold. For others it will be the medium, large, or XL. Others will up their normal size for free.
I also think they are in a nasty war with Timmie’s. They keep trying to get an edge over the other. If they wanted to, McDs could drop their price permanently to like 25cents and still make money. Beat the crap out of Timmie’s (and Starbucks, etc) if they did that.
If McDs wants to win that war they can since their pockets are deeper. It is no secret that retail brewed coffee is ridiculously over-priced. With all the competition out there, its just a matter of time before a big player like McDs decides to put the squeeze on everyone else.
The McDonut line is long overdue. Timmie’s management knows its coming. But how will they counter? Hamburgers and fries at Timmies? No thanks!