A trip to the drive-thru used to be an easy call. Order, pay, forget about it by the time you got home. Fast food chains know that easy feeling disappeared for a lot of customers over the past couple of years, and now five of the biggest names in the business are racing to bring it back.
McDonald’s has been leading this charge for about two years now, testing offer after offer to convince people the chain is still the affordable stop it used to be. It worked well enough that other brands are following, and this summer four more chains rolled out their own value pushes within weeks of each other. Some are only discounting a single item.
Others are rewriting whole sections of the menu. Either way, the message is the same. Fast food wants you to believe it’s cheap again.
Why Fast Food Got So Expensive in the First Place
Restaurant menu prices didn’t just feel like they went up. The cost of eating away from home climbed 8.3% at the peak of the price surge in 2022. It’s cooled off since then, down to about 3.4% now, but that’s still higher than where it sat at the end of 2024.
Here’s Who’s Cutting Prices Right Now
Five chains are running the same play within a few months of each other, and here’s what each one is doing.
- McDonald’s expanded its McValue menu this spring with a new Under $3 lineup and a $4 breakfast meal deal, building on the platform it launched last year.
- Checkers & Rally’s rolled out a bundled meal deal letting customers pick a Loaded Tender Wrap, Spicy Chicken Sandwich or Classic Burger with fries, chicken bites and a drink, all for one price.
- Wendy’s took a smaller step with a limited-time $1 Frosty deal, timed for peak summer cravings.
- Pizza Hut brought back a nostalgia-driven Throwback Value Menu with a Stuffed Crust pizza, Personal Pan pizza, breadsticks, cinnamon sticks and a soda, plus two new items, a Triple Cheese Mac dish and S’mores Sticks.
- Taco Bell’s Luxe Value Menu launched earlier this year and still includes two steak burritos under $3, a rare find on a fast food value menu.
These deals aren’t a sign fast food prices are heading back down for good. But if you’ve skipped the drive-thru lately because the math stopped adding up, this is a good stretch to check back in.
Open the app for your go-to chain and see what’s on the value menu right now. You might be surprised.