Demand for crispy french fries has gotten a tad soggy
Demand for crispy french fries has gotten a tad soggy
The value meal: A burger, fries and a drink, all for some tidy price point. Recently though, things have changed.
“A lot of them have shifted to the, you know, ‘two sandwiches for $5’ — things along those lines,” said Robert Byrne with the food consumer research firm Technomic. “Which, if I’m Lamb Weston, is something to consider, because now you’ve eliminated my component to the value meal.”
If you’re a McDonalds fan, you’ve very likely sampled the wares of Lamb Weston. It’s an Idaho-based maker of frozen potato products and the supplier of the Golden Arches’ famous french fries.
But turns out, the frozen potato product business has seen better days. Lamb Weston recently closed one its processing facilities, and at one point this year saw its stock price dip more than 30%.
Inflation has caused low-income consumers to make fewer trips to fast food restaurants, Byrne noted. Those restaurants are searching for answers — and potentially nixing the fry.
“There’s a lot of ‘Let’s just fling anything at the wall and see what sticks because we know traffic is a very troublesome issue,'” he said.
Lamb Weston also makes frozen french fries you can pick up at the grocery store, but made-at-home fries aren’t necessarily a great substitute, per Morningstar analyst Kris Inton.
“Even though they’re available in the grocery store, like, I think folks will still mostly consume them outside,” he said.
It’s likely fry sales will rebound only when consumers start accepting fast food costs more than it used to, Inton added.
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