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June 19, 2012

Prices: McDonald’s vs. Clover

By ayr

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I always wanted to see our prices decline over time. I thought that someday, 10-20 years from now, we might have prices almost as low as McDonald’s. The Harvard MBA didn’t help me figure out that getting prices as low as McDonald’s wasn’t going to mean dropping our prices. McDonald’s has been busy doubling their prices. So here we are, 4 years later, and our sandwiches are less than 1/3 of the sandwiches on McDonald’s menu. Totally nuts, right?

$4.24 Classic
$4.24 Angus
$4.34 Big Mac
$4.64 Chicken McNuggets
$4.64 Ranch BLT
$4.67 CLOVER SANDWICHES (at trucks)
$4.74 Club
$4.84 Double quarter pounder
$5.00 CLOVER SANDWICHES (at restaurants)
$6.19 Chicken select

At our trucks we sell our sandwiches for $4.67. You might not think of it that way, but that’s because state sales taxes make up that difference between $4.67 and $5. We’ve been considering whether we might need to change our sandwich prices. It’s been nearly 4 years since we started, and that means 4 years with no price changes. I wanted to be competitive with McDonald’s someday, but this is really silly.

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