What Is The Best-Selling Item On The McDonald’s Menu?
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When it comes to fast food, McDonald’s remains the king. There are a number of fast-food chains that have tried, but none have been able to completely knock McDonald’s from its lofty perch. To keep its hold on number one, McDonald’s has had to continue to be inventive while also continuing to give customers what they expect – Big Macs, cheeseburgers, french fries, and chicken McNuggets. All of them have been McDonald’s staples for a long time and all of these have been big-time sellers. They continue to lead the way in keeping McDonald’s as the number one fast-food restaurant in the world, but which of these staples (or perhaps another) is the item that truly moves the needle? Which is the best-selling item on the McDonald’s menu? The answer may not even come close to surprising you.
MCDONALD’S HAD SIMPLE BEGINNINGS
Little did anyone realize just where the McDonald’s franchise would end up. It came into existence in 1940 when the McDonald’s brothers, Richard and Maurice, opened their first McDonald’s restaurant. It was a simple hamburger joint located in San Bernardino, California, and did decent business early on. But the brother’s desire was to get food out faster to their customers, so in 1948, they introduced the “Speedee Service System” that had been put into use decades earlier by another popular hamburger chain, White Castle.
The Speedee Service System used principles of a manufacturing line and applied them to the restaurant. It helped the McDonald brothers move their products along at a much faster rate, satisfying customers. Obviously, the best-selling item on the McDonald’s menu at that time was the hamburger.
THE BEST-SELLING ITEM ON THE MCDONALD’S MENU WENT FROM SIMPLE TO FAST
As Ray Kroc put it when he first rolled into McDonald’s, “I was amazed. They were serving hamburgers for 15 cents, french fries for 10 cents, and milkshakes for 20 cents. And basically, that was the menu, and I said, ‘that’s for me.’” And he wasn’t lying. Ray Kroc first visited the McDonald’s location in 1954 as a salesman for Prince Castle. He sold eight Multi-Mixers for the McDonald’s San Bernardino restaurant and was thoroughly impressed by their business model.
Kroc became McDonald’s franchise agent in 1955 with a vision, one that didn’t necessarily include the McDonald brothers. As Kroc was convincing the brothers to expand the menu, he was also building more and more restaurants. For the first seven or so years of McDonald’s, they were not known as the “Golden Arches.” Instead, their early mascot was a chef’s hat that sat on top of a hamburger. The Golden Arches wasn’t introduced until 1961 and while the design has changed a time or two over the years, the Golden Arches remain the same.
While hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and french fries remained the best-selling items on the McDonald’s menu, Kroc and the McDonald brothers were locked in a struggle for control of the business. Kroc, the ever-aggressive one, eventually bought out the McDonald brother in 1961 for $2.7 million, a number unheard of at the time. From that point on, Ray Kroc began to chart his path to world fast-food dominance. Of course, it all started with the best-selling items on the McDonald’s menu.
THE MCDONALD’S MENU OVER THE YEARS
Innovation has always been the key to the best-selling items on the McDonald’s menu. From the simple start of burgers, fries, and soft drinks, Kroc and company knew the only way they were going to build and retain customers was to continue producing the items that made them popular and also introduce new items to bring in new customers. Some of their ideas failed miserably, but some of their ideas stuck.
We are going to take a look at the top 10 best-selling items on the McDonald’s menu. We will count them down from 10 to 1, so see if there are any items on this list that may be surprising to you. Guaranteed, the number one best-selling item on the McDonald’s menu will not come as a shock to anyone. Here we go.
BEST-SELLING ITEMS ON THE MCDONALD’S MENU – FROM 10 TO 1
10. McGriddles Breakfast Sandwich – How can you not love the combination of pancakes, bacon, and eggs? Separately they are delicious but putting them together in one small breakfast sandwich is sheer brilliance. The “folded egg” design of the breakfast sandwich has been a hit since its inception and continues to be so today.
9. Double Cheeseburger – What is better than a single cheeseburger? Well a double, of course. The McDonald’s double cheeseburger ranks as the number nine best-selling item on the McDonald’s menu and has a special place in saving the franchise. The double cheeseburger came aboard in 2002 and in 2003 it was placed on the McDonald’s Dollar menu. It popularity and high sales volume almost singlehandedly saved the franchise from its first quarterly loss since way back in 1965.
8. Premium Salads – Say what? A salad is the eighth best-selling item on the McDonald’s menu. Say it isn’t so! Well, we can’t because they are. Salads have been part of the McDonald’s menu for some time, but it was back in 2003 that they decided to up their lettuce game from regular iceberg lettuce to a new lettuce blend mixture. Eventually, McDonald’s got rid of the iceberg lettuce altogether and began adding ingredients such as the Southwest Buttermilk Crispy Chicken and Bacon Ranch, turning a ho-hum menu item into a big seller.
7. Chicken McNuggets – What’s surprising about this item being the number seven best-selling item on the McDonald’s menu is just that. It is number seven and not higher on the list. Kids generally request Chicken McNuggets more than any item on the menu, which makes this entry at seven confusing. But there they are, still in the top ten, and rightfully so.
6. Baked Apple Pie/Apple Slices – There is some history to both of these items. When the apple pie was first introduced, McDonald’s offered it in its “fried” form. Over the years, McDonald’s moved from fried to baked as a way to help combat the health issues fast-food presented. Although it hasn’t hurt apple pie sales that much, there still are many customers out there longing for McDonald’s to return the apple pie to its original fried state.
When the apple slices were first set on the McDonald’s menu, they were called Apple Dippers. They came with a small container of caramel dipping sauce. Again, when McDonald’s began to introduce a more healthy menu, they removed the dipping sauce. Apple slices continue to sell in big numbers.
5. Egg McMuffin – This one is another item that is not shocking to see as one of the best selling items on the McDonald’s menu. There are many of you who need your breakfast fix and don’t get it at home. Jumping in the car to work, a quick stop at the McDonald’s drive-thru and you get what you need. The first iteration of the Egg McMuffin had creator Herb Peterson introduce it with a poached egg. Now, the messiness of a poached egg is no longer, but the end results are just as tasty.
4. Happy Meal – Yes, a true best-selling item on the McDonald’s menu since the first time it hit the menu. What makes it best-selling is not only can kids get their choice between a hamburger, a cheeseburger, or Chicken McNuggets, but they also get a popular toy. It is a win-win for kids around the world.
3. Snack Wraps – We know, you’re probably saying to yourself, Snack Wraps aren’t on the McDonald’s menu at the moment. True, they aren’t, but when they were they were extremely popular, making them the third best-selling item on the McDonald’s menu. The problem McDonald’s was having with them was that they were a complicated make. In terms of “fast food,” they were less than fast and because of how many people wanted them, it slowed down progress greatly. For that reason, McDonald’s discontinued them. Will they come back? Should they come back? Maybe McDonald’s is working on a speedier process to make that happen.
2. Big Mac – The biggest-selling burger worldwide. Who doesn’t love the two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, pickles, and cheese on a sesame seed bun? It is music to any McDonald’s lover’s ears. For very good reason, the Big Mac sits as the number two best-selling item on the McDonald’s menu.
1. McDonald’s French Fries – Come on. We all knew this was number one and it isn’t even close. McDonald’s french fries rock and the world has proven it. A simple, but classic food, McDonald’s french fries are the absolute best-selling item on the McDonald’s menu. They account for nearly 75 percent of sales around the world. Impressive.
FINALLY
This one was an easy call. McDonald’s french fries are the best-selling item on the McDonald’s menu and if you combine them with a McDonald’s vanilla milkshake, you have a winning combination like none other. Trust us, give it a try.
