Yahoo Finance Kids lose the fizz at Burger King
Kids, say goodbye to fountain soda at Burger King…sort of.
The fast-food powerhouse owned by Restaurant Brands International (QSR) will no longer offer soda on its kids’ menu board or in its kids’ meals. Burger King telling Yahoo Finance that instead, those meals will come with either juice, fat-free milk or low-fat chocolate milk. But soda will still be available on the regular menu.
Yahoo Finance Columnist Rick Newman notes that fast-food restaurants such as Burger King and McDonald’s (MCD) have come under increasing pressure from consumer advocates and others to limit sugary drinks and high-calorie menu items, especially for children. But he wonders: what took so long for Burger King to make this move?
“I guess Burger King expects us to applaud that it’s so enlightened that it would do this,” he says. “Burger King and McDonald’s seem like they are 11 steps behind where everybody else is. They’re getting creamed by healthier options-- we know the effect Chipotle (CMG) is having, locally sourced, fresh ingredients. These fast-food companies are moving so slow it seems almost pathetic in a way.”
Plus, adds Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Michael Santoli, Burger King and McDonald’s can’t seem to gauge what customers actually want.
“They are trying to redefine what the standard offering is and they’re trying to comply with the general mood of the public,” Santoli notes. “But they look at their sales figures and guess what, people don’t buy it.”
Santoli thinks maybe The King and Golden Arches should forget the healthy notion and just follow the lead of some of their competitors in calling it like it is.
“If you look at Sonic (SONC), Jack in the Box (JACK), they are unabashed-- we sell junk food, we sell what people want and we give them a lot of it,” he explains. “Their sales are doing great.”
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Newman also points out soda companies such as Coca-Cola (KO) and Pepsi (PEP) are going to push back against any plans by fast-food chains to keep drink products away from one of their key demographics.
“You can bet there are big battles behind the scenes with their suppliers,” he notes. “You know this is a huge deal because this is how you hook kids on soda when they’re young and the soda business is already losing sales.”
And Newman thinks the whole idea of Burger King trying to limit kids’ fountain soda consumption won’t work, anyway.
“Kids will be screaming for soda and the parents will comply,” he says
