Will McDonald's Snack Wraps Actually Return To The Menu?
A rumor concerning the imminent return of the Golden Arches' Chicken Snack Wrap has reached such a fever point that a representative of McDonald's apparently felt compelled to address the story.
The rumor seems to have spawned in the comments section of a video on TikTok, where someone posted, "As a McDonald's worker: they are supposed to be coming back soon. We are waiting to hear back from corporate to get us off the limited menu."
However, as the representative informed The Takeout in an email, the claim is baseless. "Snack Wraps were removed from our national menus in the U.S. several years ago, at which point local markets and restaurants could decide to offer them locally based on customer preferences," the representative explained. "Last June, Snack Wraps were phased out as a local offering. At this time, there are no plans to bring Snack Wraps back to nationwide menus in the U.S. or Canada."
The email continued saying that despite the lack of plans to bring back the chicken Snack Wrap, the company is always open to customer feedback. This, it states, is why the Hi-C Orange Lavaburst, the Spicy Chicken McNuggets, and Mighty Hot Sauce all returned. So, the answer is that the Snack Wraps will not return to the menu. They technically could, but they actually won't for the foreseeable future.
Why did McDonald's remove the Snack Wrap?
Considering how widespread the rumor became, the questions of why McDonald's originally removed the Snack Wrap and why it has not taken this opportunity to reinstate it remain. After all, an initial glance suggests that this would be an easy PR win.
However, there is a reason McDonald's no longer serves the Snack Wrap. At first, blame was directed towards Millennials. Eater writes that the meal was made to capitalize on a demographic's interest in healthy eating. But as Jack Russo analyst Edward Jones explained, "A lot of people who eat at restaurants aren't interested in health and wellness. You've got to give the people what they want." The profits made from the Snack Wraps never justified their presence, so the company axed them.
Millennial purchasing habits are often blamed for failed products, but that might obscure a bigger issue. A self-described ex-McDonald's claimed on Reddit that in this case, the issue was that the wraps took too long to work within McDonald's modus operandi. During rush periods, they wrote, the store could make $2000 to $2,500 off of meals when employees could keep a proper pace. But making a wrap was a more involved process that cut into production time and reduced profit. If so, then McDonald's might be unlikely to bring back the Snack Wrap because it would hurt the company's bottom line in a way that a less time-consuming item wouldn't.