The Week In Fast Food: McDonald's New Spin-Off And Starbucks' Slump

This week, the fast food world saw a potential sandwich monopoly, a droop in Starbucks' Red Cup Day giveaway, and an odd side project making headway at McDonald's. Here's all the biggest fast food news from November 27 to December 1, 2023.

A potential sandwich monopoly has Subway's recent sale under scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, Politico reports. The proposed $10 billion purchase of Subway kicked off back in August, but several anonymous sources tell Politico that the FTC is evaluating whether the sale may lead to a monopoly because of the sandwich businesses already owned by the prospective buyer, Roark Capital. Read More

If ain't broke, don't fix it. This is surely the motto the McDonald's marketing team chooses to live by, because the brand has spent the past year appealing to millennials with a full-court nostalgia play—a strategy that has continued to pay off again and again. Today, in keeping with that playbook, McDonald's announced a new collaboration that will see the return of the McNugget Buddies, another beloved character from the retro McDonald's canon. Read More

Starbucks, as we've known for a long time, relies on a few key events throughout the year to generate momentary hype and sustained revenues. This year's release day for the Pumpkin Spice Latte, for example, saw record foot traffic, and the chain's holiday menu rollout enticed customers with cup designs featuring the all-new addition of magenta (incredible "She's got a new hat!" energy). But one Starbucks promotion seems to have fallen flat this year: Red Cup Day, in which customers receive a free reusable cup with the purchase of a holiday drink, saw only a modest boost in foot traffic in 2023, versus the certifiable spikes of previous years. Read More

National Cookie Day comes around just once a year on December 4, but Subway has decided it's in the cookie business for the long haul—literally. The sandwich chain has announced it will be adding footlong cookies to its permanent menu beginning in December. Read More

Thanks to eagle-eyed social media investigators, we now know just a tad more about McDonald's shadowy new restaurant concept, CosMc's. Photos posted online and various TikTok videos show the construction for the spinoff restaurant currently underway in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Read More