Wendy’s Releases a $3 Breakfast Meal to Rival McDonald’s Recent $5 Deal

Everyone is feeling the squeeze of higher food costs in 2024. Americans report changing their eating habits to accommodate, eating more meals at home instead of dining out. When they do head to restaurants, many consumers report that they’re seeking out spots offering deals and discounts. That’s why McDonald’s just announced a much-hyped value meal dropping in June, consisting of either a McChicken or McDouble, four-piece chicken nuggets, fries, and a drink — all for $5. 

Not to be outdone, Wendy’s has unveiled its own price-conscious promotion: a new breakfast combo meal for just $3.

Starting today (and for a limited time only), Wendy’s is offering either a Bacon, Egg, & Cheese English Muffin or a Sausage, Egg, & Cheese English Muffin with a small order of Seasoned Potatoes for a total of $3. At my nearest location in Chicago, these English muffin options each cost $4.19 à la carte and the small order of Seasoned Potatoes costs $1.79, so the savings here is significant — a nearly a 50% discount. 

As Carl Loredo, chief marketing officer at Wendy’s, explained at a media event in 2021, the development of Wendy’s breakfast menu back in 2019 started from a place of rivaling McDonald’s fast food breakfast supremacy, “saving consumers from folded egg sandwiches that were being served in the marketplace.” 

When Wendy’s launched its breakfast menu on March 2, 2020, the chain had no idea what was coming: The pandemic brought daily life to a shuddering halt just a few days later, a fact that made the new breakfast offerings more crucial than ever. No longer rushing to the office with exclusively handheld foods they could eat in the car, consumers were eating more breakfast foods throughout more hours of the morning, and placing larger orders, often for the multiple members of the family (all stuck at home, of course). Add to this the fact that Wendy’s considers bacon one of its signature ingredients, and the breakfast menu was primed for success. 

The innovation hasn’t slowed down since then, with Wendy’s signaling a push into a new era starting last summer with the release of a new coffee lineup and new English Muffin sandwiches. Next came the rollout of breakfast burritos (aka “portable bacon perfection”) in January 2024, followed by sweet Cinnabon Pull-Aparts in February. 

With the latest $3 bundle, Wendy’s says it is “doubling down on better breakfast with unmatched value and quality on the go.”

Breakfast isn’t the only time of day when Wendy’s is hoping to rival McDonald’s with value-driven promotions, either. Earlier this month, the chain also announced that every “Wendy’s Wednesday,” customers can get a free six-piece order of chicken nuggets with any purchase, so long as orders are placed within the app and the promotion is applied at checkout. And for those entertaining a crowd, there’s also the Nuggs Party Pack, a 50-piece order that’s available every day of the week in select markets. This latter announcement actually makes Wendy’s antagonism toward McDonald’s pretty clear: The press release points out that the Nuggs Party Pack locator was developed by Rashiq Zahid, who also created McBroken to highlight all of McDonald’s allegedly “broken” ice cream machines. 

Your move, Ronald.