McDonald’s Chicken Sandwich Gave It A Double-Digit Bump In Business

Everyone remembers the hoopla that surrounded the fried chicken sandwich at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in 2019.

So, McDonald’s
MCD
faced a tough standard to meet last week, when it rolled out its competing chicken lineup. How did it do?

Well, it didn’t make the kind of fast food history that Popeyes enjoyed. But as it turns out, McDonald’s enjoyed a double-digit bump in weekly business, according to one measurement compiled by Placer.ai for Forbes.com

The company, which tracks retail foot traffic at various types of businesses, says that visits to McDonald’s jumped in the four days following its launch last Wednesday, compared with the same days in the week before.

The best day for McDonald’s was on Thursday, the second day the three sandwiches were on sale, when traffic was up 29.2% from the week before.

On Wednesday, when the sandwich actually launched, traffic rose 19.1%, the Placer.ai figures showed.

There was more healthy traffic on Friday, when McDonald’s visits rose 21.9%. On Saturday, last of the days measured by Placer.ai, McDonald’s traffic was up 13.8%.

Placer.ai called the traffic “impressive” and showed the traffic generated by McDonald’s promotion of its chicken lineup.

Along with boosting its weekly performance, the three sandwiches also helped McDonald’s overall business for February grow by 11.6%, compared with January.

The interest in the sandwich helped make up for the dreadful traffic drop that McDonald’s experienced in the last week of January and the first week of February, when much of the nation was gripped by cold and snow.

Visits during those weeks were down 43.1% and 42.3%, compared with the same week in 2020, Placer.ai said.

Still, the pandemic continues to take a toll on McDonald’s and the rest of the restaurant industry.

When looking at a year-over-year comparison, McDonald’s business was still down in double digits on the four days of the chicken sandwich launch. And, McDonald’s isn’t likely to achieve the record same-store increase in sales that Popeyes franchises enjoyed when its fried chicken sandwich debuted.

But the fact that McDonald’s business grew week-to-week shows that the company is “back to its recovery trajectory,” Placer.ai said.