Find out what MNers think of the new McDonald’s Happy Meal menu options

[EmmaMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the Mumsnetters who attended the McDonald’s family fun day to try out the new Happy Meal menu with their 5-11 year olds. Testers visited a McDonald’s restaurant in St Pauls for music, games, face painting, and for their children to try the new customisable grilled chicken wrap menu option in Happy Meals. This new option was added to the Happy Meal menu after running research via a survey and focus group with Mumsnetters and gransnetters to find out what they’d like to see in Happy Meals.

Here’s what McDonald’s has to say: “We are constantly looking for ways to enhance our menu, from introducing new items to evolving the recipes of our iconic favourites. We’ve taken big steps to improve our Happy Meal in recent years and reducing saturated fat, salt and sugar content across our menu remains a priority. This is why we have been working with Mumsnet to provide even greater choice for parents and their families. We’ve heard from Mumsnetters about what they’d love to see added to the Happy Meal menu and we’re excited to be launching it.”

Testers please share any photos you took at the event and answer the following questions:

• What did you and your children think of the new Grilled Chicken Wrap option on the Happy Meal menu?
• What did you think about being able to customise the Grilled Chicken Wrap? What options did you pick?
• What did you think of the event? Have you been to a Family Fun event before?
• What else would you like to see from McDonald’s for you and your family to better enjoy the restaurant experience?
• What are your main considerations when eating out as a family?

Everyone who leaves their feedback on event will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

To find out what gransnetters think of the new Happy Meal option click here.

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

I think the reason there's no demand for veggie stuff is because McDonalds do such a rubbish job of marketing anything veggie that lots of people assume there isn't anything veggie and so don't go.

When I tell people I've been to McDonalds, most people look incredulously at me and say 'but you're vegetarian?'

McDonalds don't want veggie's in their restaurants, it ruins their 'American meat feast' image.

'Either' of the veggie burgers??? To my knowledge there is only one, you just have the option to have the spicy sauce or not. That is NOT 2 veggie options!

Hallamoo Yes, either of the veggie burgers. We have the Veggie Deluxe and the Spicy Veggie Deluxe. They are two different burgers with different sauces and different ingredients.

Veggie Deluxe : Sandwich sauce and shredded lettuce

Spicy Veggie Deluxe : Cool mayo sauce, sweet chilli sauce, shredded lettuce and three cucumbers

Like I said, two different burgers. Like I said, I work at McDonalds, so I have an intimate knowledge of all our products.

Er, no it isn't. The wrap used to be like the Linda McCartney southern fried strips (not those actual ones obv, but like that), nothing like the current veggie burger. (Where's the protein?)

Yes it is, in terms of all the same ingredients (cool mayo, sweet chilli, shredded lettuce and cucumbers). The only difference is that we now use the veggie patty that’s round instead of how it used to come.

As for protein, you get 9.6g in a Veggie Deluxe and 9.9g in a Spicy Veggie Deluxe (which are 19% and 20% of your daily recommended intake respectively).

Also, if you can make it into a wrap, then why don't you let people know that is an option?? I'd much prefer that than the burger bun.

Because the veggie wrap isn’t an item on the menu. If you ask us to put it into a wrap, we split the veggie patty in half to make it fit into the wrap. So no, we won’t advertise it as an option because it strictly isn’t one, but if a customer asks for it in a wrap, we will oblige by splitting the patty in half to make it fit.

If you would prefer it in a wrap, ask politely if it can be made into a wrap for you and they should happily do it, because we like to go the extra mile for our customers and give them a great experience.

As for the cheese side, it changes with every promotion; some come back round again, others don’t.

McDonalds don't want veggie's in their restaurants, it ruins their 'American meat feast' image.

Hallamoo That is also simply not true. McDonalds wants everyone to enjoy their restaurants (they’re extremely customer focused), but at the end of the day they are a business and they won’t put items on the menu that are going to cost them more to get in than they’d make on selling them.

It’s basic supply and demand.

I agree with everything that has been said. McDonald's customer service is some of the best imo because we're very well trained and it is strongly encouraged. I have two separate customer care qualifications just from McDonald's.

Ask us nicely and we'll make what we can for you.

It's unbelievable there is still no vegetarian option for a happy meal. I can maybe understand this in USA where other dietary requirements are more prevalent, but I thought they would adapt to local culture here where vegetarian food is normal, common and expected. As the 47% of survey respondents requesting it shows.

I thought they would adapt to local culture here where vegetarian food is normal, common and expected. As the 47% of survey respondents requesting it shows.

Orangepear They only interviewed 1000 people from one website, so that’s only 470 votes for it. It’s a tiny, tiny survey sample.

Of the hundreds of thousands of customers McDonalds serves every day in the UK alone, it isn’t anywhere close to being enough.

There just isn’t a demand for a veggie happy meal. We have our own feedback system, and it’s never been mentioned on that as a possible way to improve in any of the stores I’ve worked in.

If enough people wanted it, McDonalds would happily sell it, but they simply don’t.

We don't go as much since DS turned veggie. He did try the veggie burger once but didn't like it. I agree with pp about simple quorn nuggets that would be easy to do in different quantities for happy/adult meals.

The thing I'd like to see ditched from happy meals is the toy to be honest. More plastic crap that is binned a couple of days later.

soup this is what I'd like to see too. Both dds are vegetarian so if we go to McDonald's they just have chips.

Same here, both DCs are veggie and although we can order them a cheeseburger happy meal without the meat, half the time it comes back with meat so I tend to check before walking away.

As others have pointed out, Burger King manage to do it.

My dd 7 has been veggie for a year now, and chooses the chicken wrap Happy Meal (without the chicken!) whenever we go to McDonald's. More often than not her order comes out wrong, so now she asks me to check it first before tucking in.
I'm really surprised that they don't offer any veggie options for kids, it's really very disappointing.

I excitedly went to McDonald's off the back of this survey to see the new Happy Meal choices on offer and was very disappointed to find they had still not added a vegetarian option but TWO more chicken options. I'm done with McDonald's now.

*There just isn’t a demand for a veggie happy meal. We have our own feedback system, and it’s never been mentioned on that as a possible way to improve in any of the stores I’ve worked in.

If enough people wanted it, McDonalds would happily sell it, but they simply don’t.*

I disagree. When I went in to ask what the new options were the staff in my local
McDonald's agreed with me they had hoped it would be a veggie option and said lots of people ask for it. I live in a town with one of the highest areas of deprivation in the country, not a leafy hipster vegan town.

was very disappointed to find they had still not added a vegetarian option but TWO more chicken options. I'm done with McDonald's now.

Pressuredrip No, we haven’t added two more chicken options. The crispy chicken wrap happy meal was already on the menu; we’ve only added the grilled chicken wrap happy meal.

You can disagree all you want, but I’ve worked there for a long time, I know a lot about the company and our customers. If there was a demand for it, McDonalds would happily have one.

@WhatToDoAboutWailmerGoneRogue

You do realise don't you that your own feedback system is speaking on to people who are already your customers, and who are therefore by definition pretty satisfied already with what you offer.

The 1000 people you surveyed here are a population which will by the nature of how participants are included going to be more strongly representative of people who would like to become your customers in future. They are selected from your prime pool of potential new customers.

So the question is, are you trying to just be more appealing to your existing customers so they come more often, or are you interested in gaining new customers? The former is a perfectly acceptable option but I that case you didn't really need to go beyond your internal feedback system for your surveying. Any answers about demand from your internal systems are obviously going to be excluding the thoughts of the people who never crossed the threshold because they know that you don't offer anything that they can enjoy eating.

If you want to grow your number of customers your question needs to be - how do we extrapolate the answers to this survey to work out what the actual size of the market is of people who would like to be your customers but currently never come. Then you can decide whether it is worth investing in developing stuff to appeal to them.

Imchlibob I don’t work in McDonalds marketing department; I work in store. The reason Mumsnet was selected for a small survey is because families make up a great deal of our customer base. They already are our customers.

McDonalds wants as many people to visit their restaurants as possible, but if there isn’t a demand for a product, it won’t be sold.

But @WhatToDoAboutWailmerGoneRogue I'm not going to go into Mcdonalds and tell them I'm not eating there because they don't have a veggie option. I'll just go somewhere else.

So saying that your internal feedback doesn't reflect any demand for a veggie option is irrelevant.

If a veggie option is so needed or wanted, can someone make a petition of sorts? Not to go to McDonald’s but more of a “hey look, this many whole would like a veggie option and would eat there if you had one” of course McDonald’s aren’t going to invest in a veggie option if they don’t believe it will sell well, but if it’s made known to them in huge numbers they might? Or even ask for a couple month trial run? They should be willing to potentially lose money to see if It is able to make money using a veggie option or two. They could tell pretty quickly just by adding a few things and seeing how it goes.

FelixBrown You’re an adult; they have two vegetarian burgers for you.

An entire family of vegetarians is unlikely to be going to McDonalds even if there was a veggie happy meal.

It is more likely that there is one or two veggies in a family and the rest eat meat, so would therefore occasionally visit McDonalds and be able to put forward their feedback on the lack of a veggie happy meal.

It is terrible that there is still no veggie option for children available in McDonalds. Our local one closed due to low footfall, a veggie option would have helped it stay open due to the make up of the population in my town.

I was disappointed that there was no vegetarian happy meal introduced!
It's not just vegetarians who don't eat meat at fast food restaurants - I know plenty who won't eat non-organic meat for health/ethical purposes.
Equally, I've never ordered a veggie burger/wrap at McDonald's because they're simply not very nice.
Burger King bean burger is lovely, Wimpy bean burger is even better.
The Nando's veggie burger was next level delicious until they replaced it with some "super green" mush.
McDonald's is the only fast food veggie burger I just can't make myself enjoy.

So I just have a measly portion of cheese bites, spending £1.59 whereas I happily drop £7+ on a fast food meal elsewhere as they have a nice vegetarian option!

Honestly, if you did a vegetarian option the same way as Burger King do (one size patty, one in a kids burger, 2 in an adult) I can't see how this would need any more demand than there currently is for vegetarian options?
If you made it a tomato/red pepper and spring onion soy thingie like Nando's used to have, I imagine it'd be incredibly popular. There was mass mourning when they took it off the menu - even fussy kids like soya based things because of the even texture.

When did you last do market research on your veggie burgers?
I don't know any vegetarian who really likes them. We all go elsewhere/get the cheese dippers!

Has anyone got their £30 plus travel costs yet?
I got a cheque in the post this morning for £9ish which could be our travel costs but last time we got the travel plus £30 in one cheque. There is no covering note so I am really not sure what it is for.

No, not received anything as yet

@Sixgeese - I’ve only got travel expenses so far. Still waiting for the £30.

My travel expenses came on Saturday (after my 1st post)