McDonald’s Has Possible Worst Day Ever

If you haven’t tried the new dollar menu at McDonald’s, you’re not the only one. Thanks to lackluster sales from its new dollar menu, McDonald’s may have just had its worst ever day in its history — or at least since the fast-food giant started tracking data in 1972.

Shares of McDonald’s Corp. closed Friday down 4.8%, the worst dollar decline in the company’s history as a publicly traded company, MarketWatch reports. It’s also the worst percentage drop since October 2008.

The fast-food chain also experienced its worst weekly percentage decline for shares since 2008 and the sharpest total dollar decline for a week ever. Shares of the Dow Jones Industrial Average component were most recently off 4.9%, or $7.67.

There are reportedly two reasons for the drop: Lackluster sales from the new $1, $2, $3 value menu, which was expected to boost sales. Second, the marketing spent on promoting the new dollar menu could be affecting sales of other regular menu items.

Analysts say “deteriorating industry conditions” and “disappointing” sales of the new value menu drove the U.S. same-store sales forecast for the first quarter down to 1% from 3.5%.

“Our sense is that the $1 $2 $3 platform stole attention from local marketing, particularly at breakfast, which likely slowed as a consequence,” analysts led by David Palmer told MarketWatch. “In addition, we believe $1 $2 $3 menu’s positioning as a variety play protected franchisee profitability but lacked the ‘hero’ item necessary to resonate with value-conscious consumers.”

Although analysts remain cautious, they say they see opportunity for growth in the coming quarters.

The company is still worth $118 billion — to put that in perspective, Inc reports that means it lost enough value that theoretically you could have bought its much smaller competitor Wendy’s with the amount of the loss, and had a lot left over.

While Mickey D’s tweaks its new dollar menu, customers are begging for Hi-C Orange to return to the menu. The Golden Arches dropped the fan-favorite drink in August 2017, having announced in April 2017 that it would replace it with a new soda, Sprite TropicBerry.

It seems that fans haven’t forgotten about the orange drink, with many taking to social media in recent weeks to express their wish that the product return to the McDonald’s menu.

The demands appeared to be prompted by the limited return of Szechuan sauce, which itself was prompted by demand from Rick and Morty fans. This seems to prove that McDonald’s hears its customers’ requests, though there’s no telling whether it will listen to this one.