McDonald’s is reportedly preparing to launch a $5 meal deal in a bid to lure back lower-income customers who were priced out of the Golden Arches as its menu prices soared to include an $18 Big Mac and a $6 side of hash browns.
The affordable menu offering could either include a McChicken or a McDouble along with fries and a drink, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity.
For reference, a McChicken at a McDonald’s outpost in Times Square goes for $5.59 for the sandwich alone, which includes a breaded chicken patty, shredded lettuce and mayonnaise.
A McDouble, meanwhile — which boasts two beef patties, cheese, pickles and diced onions — retails at that same Midtown Manhattan McDonald’s location for $5.79.
A side of small french fries at this location adds on another $4.49, plus a small soft drink tacks on $3.19.
Without being offered up in a $5 meal deal, a McDouble with the same items — the sandwich, fries and a drink — totals a hefty $13.47.
At $5, that marks a nearly 63% cost difference.
It wasn’t immediately clear in which of McDonald’s 13,500-plus US locations this $5 meal deal would be rolled out in — or when.
Representatives for McDonald’s did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Rumblings of the affordable meal offering come after McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told investors after reporting weaker-than-expected first-quarter earnings that the company has to be “laser-focused on affordability” given how price-weary diners have become.
Keeping costs low hasn’t been top of mind for McDonald’s yet this year, which kicked off with roughly half the states in the country hiking their minimum wage, including in New York and California, where hourly earnings were lifted to $16.
The Golden State, however, also implemented a rule on April 1 that requires fast-food workers to be paid $20 hourly.
To offset rising labor costs, multiple franchisees across the country hiked menu prices, including McDonald’s owner Scott Rodrick, who said he’s already lifted menu prices 7% at the 18 locations he owns and is now considering reducing store hours.
Customers have also fumed for noticing that a Big Mac new tops $18 at one location in Connecticut, where an Egg McMuffin is a whopping $7.29 and a single side of hash browns will run hungry patrons $5.69.
Others expressed feeling salty over the fact that McDonald’s popular $1 $2 $3 Dollar Menu doesn’t actually have anything that’s just $1 on it.
Overall, the Chicago-based burger joint has jacket its menu prices by 100% over the course of the last decade — more than three times the rate of US inflation, according to a study by FinanceBuzz, which cited average prices nationwide.
FinanceBuzz reported that a Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal goes for $11.99 — more than double the $5.39 it cost in 2014.
McDonald’s has claimed the report is inaccurate.
As the price of a McDonald’s meal has risen, so too has the rate of inflation. The consumer price index — which measures changes in the costs of everyday goods and services — rose at an annual rate of 3.5% in March.