McDonald's Dollar Menu
Two double cheeseburgers for $2—the economic lifeline of broke teens everywhere. McDonald's launched an entire era on a single strategic bet that cheap meant survival.
McDonald's launched its first national Dollar Menu in late 2002 as a bid to boost slumping sales with a permanent-discount strategy. The icons were perfect: the $1 double cheeseburger and the $1 McChicken. For over a decade, this menu was the reason teenagers could afford lunch.
In November 2013, it ended. The McChicken bumped to $1.69; the double cheeseburger to $2.19. "Dollar Menu & More" was its official name, but everyone knew what had happened: the era of the $1 meal was over. It was small, economic, and for many kids, symbolic—the moment when even the cheapest option started to hurt.
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