McDonald's Considers Not-So-Double Double Cheeseburger

$1 McDouble Would Have One Slice of Cheese, Two Patties

Posted by Emily Bryson York on 10.30.08 @ 05:50 PM

McDonald's may soon be asking patrons "one slice or two?"

The chain has spent most of the year battling with franchisees to keep its double cheeseburger, which is one of its bestsellers, priced at $1 a piece. The chain instituted a dollar menu in 2003, and has yet to raise prices. But that's about to change, sort of. Franchisees will be voting next month on whether to raise the price of a double cheeseburger. Price may vary by market. The dollar menu, meanwhile, gets a whole new sandwich! No, not really. But the single-cheese double-patty sandwich is going to be called a McDouble.

"Our customers tell us that value is important. And we are listening," Greg Watson, VP-marketing, McDonald's USA, said in a statement. "The recommendation to add the McDouble to our popular dollar menu reflects that we're not only listening, we're responding by providing our customers even more choices, with the everyday affordability our customers expect."

Wendy's, meanwhile, has a double-patty "stack attack" for a dollar, but it's only got one piece of cheese and you've got to cope with vegetables -- lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles, to be exact. Burger King scrapped plans for a dollar double cheeseburger earlier this year .

Vegetarians may think this is kind of a snore, but hardcore fast-food lovers take their double cheese seriously. In an August poll at Consumerist.com, 69% of respondents said they'd rather pay more for a double cheeseburger than eat a dairy-free version, but a month later 69% said they'd never pay an extra 10 or 20 cents for their beloved double cheese -- never mind skyrocketing commodity costs, inflation and the fact that operators need to scrape by somehow.

Come on, y'all. Seriously?