When you think of McDonald's, what's the first thing that comes to mind?
Is it the chain's perfectly salty, slightly beefy french fries?
Is it the iconic Big Mac with its Special Sauce and middle bun?
Or is it a simple but classic Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
Whatever the case, chances are pretty good that their chicken isn't anywhere near the
top of the list.
Sure.
McNuggets are great… for your eight-year-old niece.
But when it comes to food for adults, McDonald's isn't exactly synonymous with good chicken.
Chick-fil-A, on the other hand, is synonymous with chicken.
And according to McDonald's franchisees, it's that classic Southern-style chicken sandwich
that is missing from the McDonald's menu.
How strongly do they feel about it?
In 2019, the National Owners Association, which is comprised of McDonald's franchisees,
sent out an email suggesting that McDonald's getting a good chicken sandwich would be their
equivalent of landing on the moon.
"A Chicken Sandwich at McDonald's should be our top priority.
JFK called for a man on the moon, our call should be a category leading chicken sandwich."
"We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they
are easy, but because they are hard."
Why do they feel so strongly?
Because the franchisees are losing money to Chick-fil-A, and they aren't happy about it.
The email read in part,
"A favorite, that our customers want, is a chicken sandwich.
Unfortunately, they have to go to Chick-fil-A for it.
Chick-fil-A's results demonstrate the power of chicken."
And the N.O.A. made it clear that McNuggets just aren't going to cut it, sounding a warning
to other franchisees that Chick-fil-A was coming for them too.
"Yes, we have great Chicken McNuggets and our McChicken is a very good product.
But we do not compete in the premium chicken sandwich category, either grilled or crispy.
Our US Southeast markets' results should concern everyone.
You may not have Chick-fil-As in your market or to the degree they have them in the southeast,
but they are coming.
And they don't discount."
So what's the solution?
The N.O.A. implored McDonald's to bring back their Southern Style Chicken sandwich, but
with some key improvements so they could compete with Chick-fil-A.
"We don't have to reinvent the wheel.
We didn't invent the drive thru, we perfected it.
Chick-fil-A invented the Chicken Sandwich, but we can do one better.
Our Southern Style Chicken sandwich was very close to category leading.
It needs some tweaks.
We need to serve it in a foil bag and we need to butter the bun, but the patty recipe was
excellent."
They're not wrong.
A side-by-side comparison of Chick-fil-A's Chicken Sandwich and McDonald's Southern Style
Chicken Sandwich by Serious Eats in 2008 concluded,
"Honestly, this sandwich from McDonald's was a pretty accurate recreation of the Chick-fil-A
sandwich...
If you don't have a Chick-fil-A near you [...] you're not going to do too bad by grabbing the Faux-fil-A
from Mickey D's."
You might not think that McDonald's could possibly be threatened by little ol' Chick-fil-A
— after all, the Golden Arches runs something to the tune of 14,000 U.S. locations compared
to CFA's roughly 2,000.
But even with fewer locations, and even though Chick-fil-A chain is famously closed one day
a week, according to Nation's Restaurant News, Chick-fil-A is the nation's third-largest
restaurant chain by sales in 2019, behind only McDonald's and Starbucks, and beating
out fast food powerhouses Taco Bell, Wendy's, and Burger King.
While there is a vast difference in total sales — $38.52 billion for McDonald's compared
to Chick-fil-A's $10.46 billion — that meteoric rise of the chicken-centric chain obviously
has Mickey D's owners thinking outside the burger box.
And for good reason: according to the 2018-2019 American Customer Satisfaction Index, Chick-fil-A
had the most satisfied customers amongst fast food restaurants, while McDonald's was down
near the bottom.
Will a better chicken sandwich change that?
Maybe not.
But while a better chicken sandwich might be a pretty small step for an individual franchisee,
it would represent a very large step for all McDonald's-kind.
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