Hot dogs are a venerable American fast food, and a number of “second tier” fast food places (DQ, etc.) sell them. But not the Big Two. Anyone know why?
Apparently, McDonalds did in the distant past:
I think they tried it again fairly recently and it didn’t sell.
I know McDonalds, Burger King and Wendys conduct a LOT of research into different products and test market them constantly in various locations. So if hot dogs were a big seller fast food places would be selling them
I know where I am in Chicago, you can often find them 2/$1.00 at 7-11 and Speedway. It might be that at that low price a single hot dog wouldn’t be cost effective.
They could put dogs on the Dollar Menu, but they’ve probably found that it eats too much into other sales.
McDonald’s doesn’t do it because no one else is doing it and making money at it, so they don’t see any market to muscle in on.
Burger King won’t do it until McDonald’s does it first.
McD has Johnsonville brats on the menu from time to time here in IL/WI.
Hot dogs are percieved of as cheap, so that’s one reason.
But they also need a steamer, whichis yet another item in a crowded kitchen which would be mused for a single food.
There are plenty of sources for fast food hot dogs outside the burger joints. Note that the burger joints rarely sell pizza or fried chicken (on the bone).
Hot dogs seem like they’d be harder to ‘sell up’ as well. Add a few layers of cheese, veggies and extra patties to a burger and you can give it a different name and increased price. There just isn’t that much room in a hot dog bun.
I was thinking of this as well, but if they are selling hot dogs 2/$1.00 at places like Speedway and 7-11, selling one hot dog at $1.00 would be overpriced.
I guess you could sell them 2/$1.00 but what if people only wanted one hot dog. Most people don’t like to waste food, so they wouldn’t order it. Just a thought of mine.
IMHO It’s a dead end food. Stuck in the minds of the public as cheap food, it would be hard to price it so it doesn’t eat into profits that would normally be taken by other foods. Can’t really be upselled, without offering different sized dogs, but that requires more space to cook, and keeping another line of food cooking continually. Also it would not only require the hotdog itself, but almost everything to go along with it, sourkrout, buns, onions, mustard (some McD’s only have ketchup).
It’s much easier to make another hamburger by recombining what they have already.
Nathan’s has been doing it for nearly 100 years. They are awesome.
Kinda hijacking, but why haven’t the hot dog/chili places (Skyline, etc.) moved out West?
It’s highly unlikely McDonald’s hot dogs could compare to Nathan’s (nor can their fries, for that matter).
Though quality varies by store of course.
The root beer chains Stewart’s and A&W also have hot dogs as a major item on the menu. Stewart’s was founded in 1924 and are very popular in NJ. A&W is bigger but they don’t seem to be in the North East.
Wendy’s experimented with hot dogs in the 80s and naturally chili dogs but it disappeared fairly quick so I guess the trial failed.
Plenty of Hot Dog chains out here; Der Weinerschitzle sp?), Top Dog, and others.
Because out here we already have something called “chili.” If Skyline tried to open a location in Texas, there would be lynchings.
Guess the question becomes, “Why don’t people order hot dogs when fast food joint market them?”
Knowing why the public behaves and purchases as it does is a mystery that is sometimes never solved; hence all the tests.
FWIW, Burger King did sell hot dogs at one time. I worked at a Burger King back in the late 70s and hot dogs were on the menu. They sold well and the customer could order them anyway they wanted - just like the burgers. I don’t know when or why they were removed from the menu. Since it was a locally owned franchise maybe it was just a local thing.
KFC doesn’t sell hamburgers, and that disappointed me a bit.
Their Fries are delicious and I was hoping I could get a burger there too.
Are you sure? I worked at McD’s in the early 80’s and mustard came standard on the regular hamburgers and the Quarter Pounder.