Can someone explain this one? A cheeseburger happy meal at McDonald’s here in Australia is $4.95 (currently). A small cheeseburger meal is $6.95. They are the same thing.
A cheeseburger happy meal comes with a cheeseburger, fries (or apple slices), a toy and a small drink. It’s a small cheeseburger meal with an included toy and the option of apple slices over fries. A small cheeseburger meal comes with all of the above (minus the toy). You don’t get the option of Apple slices, but that’s it.
Do I misunderstand the economics of this? The Happy Meal comes with a box and a toy, both presumably costing money. The small cheeseburger meal comes in a paper bag with minimal printing on it. Is the happy meal some loss leader, where they know adults will be ordering over the top to make up for the lost margins?
I somehow doubt a well oiled corporate machine like McDonald’s would ever run a loss on anything that it sells, especially Happy Meals which are the popular young child option.
Something tells me that McDonald’s are cutting down their profit margin (which is probably still high) because they know a happy meal is statistically going to be accompanied by an adult meal or drink purchase.
