The Biggest Fast Food Failures Of The Past Decade

In 2013, Burger King decided to take a shot at dethroning McDonald's to become the king of fast food french fries. So they invented the Satisfries, a lower-calorie alternative to the fries the chain usually offered. The whole shtick behind these particular fries was that they were made with a kind of batter that absorbs less oil, meaning they ended up having 20 percent fewer calories than regular Burger King fries.

Unfortunately, the Satisfries failed to satisfy Burger King customers. In 2014, less than a year after the menu item debuted, 7,500 American Burger King franchises were given the option of continuing or ceasing to offer Satisfries. Only 2,500 decided to continue. At those 2,500, they were gradually phased out after remaining as a limited-time offer. So what went wrong?

Public perception was an issue, of course. Nobody thinks of Burger King as being particularly healthy, and nobody goes to Burger King for their health either — so healthier options such as the Satisfries were unlikely to capture the imagination of customers. 

There's a good chance Americans' predilection against potatoes and carbs had an effect, too. According to the Wall Street Journal, in 2012 the total annual consumption of potatoes by Americans had fallen 25 percent since 1996. In an environment like that, any new potato-based menu item — even a healthier one — is likely to struggle.

Even a chain as mighty as McDonald's isn't immune to a mistake or two, and nothing illustrates that better than the disaster that was Mighty Wings. 

These wings hit McDonald's stores back in 2013 (after an unsuccessful run from the 1990s to 2003), as part of a marketing campaign that sought to use an association with the NFL to tempt football fans. Around the time of their release, a McDonald's spokesperson said: "Given the natural tie between wings and football, the NFL is the perfect partner to help promote our new Mighty Wings."

Things were looking good. To prepare for the launch of the Mighty Wings, McDonald's even purchased 50 million pounds of chicken wings — and then it all went wrong. As of the end of 2013, 10 million pounds of those same wings remained, after the Mighty Wings suffered from hugely disappointing sales. According to AdAge, the wings failed because they were both too spicy and — at $2.99 for three wings — too pricey.

"One dollar per wing was still not considered to be the most competitive in the current environment," said McDonald's CEO Don Thompson on the company's third-quarter earnings call. "The other thing we saw, and it's a very slight modification, the flavor profile is slightly spicy for some consumers."

Mighty Wings returned in 2016 for a limited time in Atlanta, but haven't been seen since — so don't expect to see them any time soon.

The McWrap was introduced to McDonald's menus in 2013, as a means of appealing to a younger, more health-conscious customer base than the chain was used to. These wraps were filled with vegetables and came with a lower calorie count than the burgers for which McDonald's is so famous. 

Internally, McDonald's execs hoped that the McWrap would make for a fitting rival to Subway's sandwiches. Unfortunately, they didn't last long. Analysts blamed the McWrap for a 4 percent fall in U.S. sales in 2015, and the item was discontinued in 2016.

The failure of the McWrap was down to a number of reasons. For one, McDonald's struggled to sell the McWrap to its target audience — millennials — because of the public perception that the chain simply offers junk food. As a result, an off-brand "healthy option" just wasn't enough to appeal to that audience; the exact same trouble the Satisfries had. 

What's more, the McWrap managed to put off the customers McDonald's already had, too. Because a McWrap took 60 seconds to create on average (while a burger takes around 10), the item contributed to a build-up in drive-thru wait times that had only been worsening over recent years. 

"What (customers are) waiting for is a better hamburger from McDonald's, not a wrap," one former McDonald's executive told The New York Times.

At first glance, nothing seems outwardly offensive about the idea of a third-pound burger. It's just a big burger, right? 

Well, as A&W discovered in the 1980s, things aren't always that simple. The Sirloin Third Pounder was meant to compete with the McDonald's Quarter Pounder, with the idea being that customers would get a bigger burger for more value. But the Sirloin Third Pounder failed to sell, and A&W had no idea why. After running some more focus groups, they finally discovered the problem. In his book Threshold Resistance, ex-owner of A&W Alfred Taubman explains the problem was that people didn't understand fractions.

"More than half of the participants in the Yankelovich focus groups questioned the price of our burger," he writes. "'Why,' they asked, 'should we pay the same amount for a third of a pound of meat as we do for a quarter-pound of meat at McDonald's? You're overcharging us.' Honestly. People thought a third of a pound was less than a quarter of a pound. After all, three is less than four!"

And that was the end of that... or so it seemed. In 2015, McDonald's themselves decided to release a burger of a similar size — and, having apparently learned nothing from A&W's '80s nightmare, even gave it the exact same name. 

It was gone within a year. It was introduced as limited time item, but didn't make enough waves to stay around longer or ever make a menu comeback. Seriously... what did they expect?

Just like the Bacon Sundae, the Whopperito is exactly what it sounds like. It's a Whopper crossed with a burrito. 

Released in 2016, this Burger King menu item came with beef, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, and queso sauce, wrapped up in a tortilla and sold for $2.99. Mass Live described it at the time as existing "in a melancholy twilight between two types of food. It doesn't taste as good as a burger, and it isn't a particularly good burrito."

Even the release of the Whopperito was surrounded by ambivalence. Alex Macedo, the company's North American president, had little more to say than "It's certainly one of the first times that we've tapped into the Tex-Mex category," while the company's press release seemed to admit that it was only released nationwide because of "media attention" and "social media requests."

VICE's taste test was similarly underwhelming. "The Whopperitos were created," they wrote. "I have consumed and then written about them. The circle is complete. It is done. Content: created. Whopperito desire: sated."

All in all, the Whopperito turned out to be a weird idea executed competently — the problem was, nobody seemed to give a damn.

One last flub for McDonald's, here, with the chain's 2012 launch of Fish McBites — which, in case you didn't know, are basically fishy McNuggets. 

Described by McDonald's as "poppable pieces of white, flaky Alaskan pollock," these nuggets were made from a fish that Kotaku rightly describe as being more commonly used for "fish sticks, fish balls and cat food." According to their review, "biting into one unaided results in a brief hint of the sea, the bitter taste of burnt grease and then nothing but texture."

Brand Eating was a little more generous with their review. The publication wrote that "if you like fish, these might be worth a try." 

Still, some good graces from the occasional reviewer did nothing to save the Fish McBites. Shortly after the item debuted, Forbes reported that the item had done nothing to win over customers; instead, the company's profits "floundered" (their pun, not ours). According to Forbes, McDonald's had foolishly attempted to increase sales by offering "inexpensive food" rather than the "emotional engagement" they should have been pursuing. 

Still, at least someone felt emotionally engaged with the Fish McBites; enough at least to start a petition in 2019 calling on McDonald's to re-release the item. At time of writing, they hadn't yet met their goal of 200 signatures. 

So, yeah. RIP, Fish McBites. We hardly knew ya.