Would you buy a burger for 29 cents? A medium pizza for $5? As much as you want to,
these fast food deals are dead and gone — and they're probably never coming back.
It's impossible to hear the words "$5 footlong" without also hearing Subway's famous jingle in
your head. The earworm advertisement promoting the international sandwich chain's beloved $5 footlong
deal was played in near-constant rotation during the late 2000s and early '10s. The
promotion was so popular that even our favorite characters on TV shows were getting in on it.
"We don't have a substance abuse problem! If anything,
we have a Subway abuse problem. We destroy $5-footlongs."
"Yeah we do."
Of course, we can't help but lament the full-time discontinuation of Subway's $5 footlong in
2016 — a decision that was announced on the company's Twitter feed. There's no real mystery as
to why the deal ended: while it certainly helped Subway reach corporate heights it was unlikely to
achieve otherwise and was a hit with consumers, it ultimately fell victim to its own success.
Frankly, it was simply too difficult for franchisees to turn a profit over time
with the $5 price tag. And if $5 was too low for individual stores to consider the
deal's reintroduction in 2020, the odds are high that it's disappeared forever.
Taco Bell makes a pretty compelling case for "the best fast-food chain." From Baja Blast to
nacho fries to the incomparable cheesy gordita crunch, the home of the late-night fourth meal
holds a place near and dear to our hearts. Of course, Taco Bell's wide range of offered deals
has certainly added to the restaurant's number of devoted fans. This includes the formerly-available
$2 Meal Deals, introduced on a limited-time basis in 2010 — and seemingly gone forever as of 2022.
The $2 Meal Deal offered a fairly substantial amount of food for its cost,
especially considering that it was launched a decade into the
21st century. Customers had their option of an entre — a double-decker taco, chicken burrito,
Gordita supreme, or beefy 5-layer burrito — a bag of Doritos, and a drink for a mere two dollars.
It's crystal clear why this feast was such a beloved option for consumers,
but that doesn't make it any more likely to return. For now, we'll just have to remember
the good old days of discounted tacos and burritos — and try not to tear up.
"Erlich, he started crying in Taco Bell. He tried to blame the taco sauce."
Dave Thomas didn't open a charity when he created Wendy's, but if
you consider the fast-food chain's formerly-offered Super Value Menu,
it seems the founder and CEO really did care about his customers' wallets. After all, the
Super Value Menu offered a plethora of individual items for just 99 cents each, including a junior
bacon cheeseburger, a Frosty, fries, chili, a baked potato, chicken nuggets, and a salad.
Now, we're talking about the original 99-cent Super Value Menu from Wendy's — as in the one
touted by Thomas in an early '90s commercial. Introduced in 1989 — a full decade before the
McDonald's Dollar Menu hit the market — the Super Value Menu sort of feels
like a dream in hindsight. Considering a junior bacon cheeseburger costs twice as
much in 2022 at $1.99, it's easy to see why we're so sad this deal disappeared.
If you didn't know anything about the former Whopper Wednesday deal from Burger King — where
customers could purchase the chain's signature sandwich for a single dollar — you might assume
it's a relic from the 1980s or '90s. In reality, the $1 Whopper deal was only introduced in 2020
as an app-exclusive deal, making it one of the shortest-lasting fast-food deals on this list.
Not that longevity was required to develop an appreciation for this incredibly cost-effective
deal. A Whopper costs upwards of $4 as of 2022, so it's no wonder folks were flocking
to BK on hump day to take advantage of the whopping discount. Of course,
because nothing lasts forever — and because of profits and inflation and all that — the
short-lived Whopper Wednesday deal is now a thing of the past.
As José Cil, CEO of Burger King's parent company Restaurant Brands,
told Yahoo in August 2022, the restaurant has no plans to bring back the steeply-discounted
Whopper Wednesday deal. Anything's possible in the future, but for now? We're left
with only our memories of the delicious discount — memories we could never forget.
"Doctor, thank you for calling me back. Did anyone leave a bag of Burger King in your office?"
When someone discusses the alleged Dollar Menu at McDonald's nowadays,
it's a bit infuriating. After all, while the company was the best-selling fast-food chain
in 2018 by a wide margin, the Dollar Menu we all know and love hasn't been around
for quite some time. Even though ever-rising inflation makes it obvious why the deal ended,
that doesn't make its loss any less tragic.
One of the more recent casualties in the fast food world was also one of
the saddest — the removal of McDonald's $1 any-size soft drink deal. Gone are the
days of ordering a large Dr. Pepper and not thinking twice about it.
Then again, that's just the way life works sometimes. You can't always get what you want,
although we're not sure why this beloved fast-food deal had to be the one to disappear.
We wouldn't blame you if you're just now learning that Dunkin's Go2s are no
longer available. Like so many menu changes that have been made by the breakfast chain,
its decision to remove this promotion wasn't done with any sort of fanfare. In fact,
outside of an internal Dunkin' memo indicating the "permanent removal" of its Go2s deal, there's
virtually no other publicly available information from the chain regarding the disappearance.
For the uninitiated, the Dunkin' Go2s was a series of escalating two-for deals offered by
the restaurant. Introduced in 2018, the promotion included two egg and cheese wake-up wraps for $2;
two sausage, egg, and cheese wake-up wraps for $3; two bagels with cream cheese for $4;
and two bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches for $5. That's some serious value for your gift card.
"It's good for five bucks at Dunkin' Donuts. Any Dunkin' Donuts."
The appeal of buying two items at a discounted price is obvious. Dunkin'
definitely understood this as well and recognized the discontinuation of its
beloved Go2s deals might cause an uproar among customers. As a result, we don't
have much to go on when it comes to why this deal disappeared — we can only mourn the loss.
Our apologies to McDonald's for harping on their decision to essentially discontinue its
beloved Dollar Menu, but we can't help but be annoyed. After all,
Mickey D's continues to rake in huge profits in 2022, despite inflation
impacting everyone's dining budget. Frankly, we don't feel any real guilt for complaining about
the fast-food burger chain's decision to end its $1 McDouble deal in 2013.
It's easy to forget that the McDouble wasn't a part of the original Dollar
Menu when the new prices debuted in 2002. Given how strongly the single-cheese-slice
double-patty burger has been associated with the glory days of the Dollar Menu,
it may be a shock for some to learn that it was only added to the menu in 2008.
Still, in only five years of availability, the $1 McDouble made a massive mark on the
fast-food industry, with fast-food customers still pining for its return. We can't help
but concur with those disappointed that the dollar McDouble is no more. We understand the
rationale behind it, of course — but that doesn't mean we have to like it.
Fast food is supposed to be fast, right? Of course it is, but there's a limit to what the physics of
time allow humans to accomplish. That's why, of all the beloved fast-food deals that have
disappeared over the years, Domino's decision to rescind its 30 minutes-or-less guarantee is the
one we most understand. After all, it was a safety issue, and it had become impossible for delivery
drivers to meet the company's lofty promise without some fairly reckless driving techniques.
"Wise man say forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
"I gotta get a new route."
The decision to guarantee delivery in 30 minutes or less wasn't seen
as controversial upon its introduction in 1984,
but a series of accidents and lawsuits involving desperate Domino's drivers led to its downfall.
The final straw came in 1993 when a woman who had sued the pizza chain after being injured by one
of its delivery drivers several years prior was awarded $79 million to be paid by Domino's. Even
for a successful company, this settlement was surely a hefty blow to the popular pizza chain.
As a result, the promotion was discontinued on a national level, though the memory of it remains.
The notion of a cheeseburger for 39 cents or a hamburger for 29 cents may conjure images of
the very first McDonald's, but this sorely missed deal was actually a promotion from the 1990s. Not
that Mickey D's was offering its burgers for less than two quarters without restrictions:
after all, you don't serve 100 billion customers without some business savvy.
As a commercial for the deal indicated, each offer was only available on certain
days. On Sundays, cheeseburgers could be purchased for 39 cents a piece,
while on Wednesdays, hamburgers were available for 29 cents. But even this came with a catch:
the restaurant set a cap of 10 burgers per customer per visit.
Not that 10 cheeseburgers for less than $5 is a deal to complain about — unlike its
disappearance. Decades after the promotion was prominent, we're still sore and sad it's gone.
Of all the deals listed here, there's a fair chance the now-discontinued $5 Flavor menu
from Pizza Hut generates the least amount of fanfare — though that's not for a lack
of worthiness. After all, a value menu from a pizza place is a rare sight. So
when the fast-casual chain announced the introduction of its Flavor menu in 2016,
featuring seven different options for only $5 each, it was something to celebrate.
Of course, because the deal presented consumers with some truly incredible
values — including a one-topping medium pizza and eight chicken wings — it wasn't
likely to generate big bucks for individual restaurants. Frankly, this beloved deal may
have been doomed from the start, as many locations weren't able to profit from it.
Perhaps that's why value menus are so uncommon in the pizza world. Either way, while the $5
Flavor menu items remain for sale at Pizza Hut in 2022, the $5 price point is a thing of the past.
Is all-day breakfast a deal, per se? We're not entirely sure. Regardless,
the recent confirmation that the all-day breakfast promotion from
McDonald's wouldn't be returning hit breakfast enthusiasts particularly hard.
First introduced by the fast-food giant in 2015 to the public's widespread approval, it's no surprise
the all-day breakfast deal was immensely popular. After all, McDonald's breakfast is phenomenal and
consistently more delectable than its lunch and dinner options. Given the choice of a
sausage egg McMuffin or a Big Mac, we'd grab the breakfast sandwich ten times out of ten.
"What time do they stop serving breakfast?"
"It's 3 o'clock!"
"Some of them serve breakfast all day."
"None of them serve breakfast all day!"
At least we had some time to prepare ourselves for this enormously disappointing development.
While the official end of all-day breakfast was only confirmed in 2022, it has actually been
suspended since March 2020, during the early days of COVID-19. All-day breakfast from McDonald's
appears to just be one more unfortunate food casualty from the seemingly endless pandemic.