McDonald's $5 Value Meal Is Coming But There's a Catch

McDonald's Debuts A McPlant Burger In Limited Markets

SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 14: In this photo illustration, a McDonald’s McPlant Beyond Meat burger is displayed with french fries at a McDonald’s restaurant on February 14, 2022 in San Rafael, California. Nearly three years after Burger King and Carl’s Jr. rolled out meat-free burgers, McDonald’s has debuted its McPlant burger made with a Beyond Meat vegetarian patty. For a limited time the burger is being offered at 600 McDonald’s restaurants across the country. (Photo illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

(Photo illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

McDonald's $5 value meal is coming. But here's the deal. It's not as amazing as it sounds. There are a couple of catches here but before we fill you in, let's take a look at why McDonald's felt the pressure to bring us this deal in the first place.

McDonald's sales did not reach expectations

So first quarter numbers show mixed results with many McDonald's stores missing expectations. Shares of McDonald's stock has dipped in the first quarter and after 3 years of growth, increases have been well below expectations. According to CEO Chris Kempczinski “Consumers continue to be even more discriminating with every dollar that they spend as they faced elevated prices in their day-to-day spending, which is putting pressure on the [quick-service restaurant] industry,”

McDonald's $5 value meal will be here in June, but here's the catch

So here's the deal: the $5 value meal will include four items. The four items include a McChicken or McDouble, four-piece chicken nuggets, fries and a drink — and will run for roughly a month, beginning on June 25. So there's your catch. This deal will only be valid for one month. The other catch is, it most likely WILL NOT be available at every location.

Will this new value meal bring you back to fast food? Or better yet, have your habits of eating fast food even changed at all? We'd love to hear your thoughts on whether or not this will affect your fast food choices. In the meantime, to help you with your quest to save money, we've listed below the McDonald's in Massachusetts ranked from most to least expensive.

Expensive? McDonald's?

Have you noticed that everything seems to be getting more and more expensive these days? Whether it's due to inflation, or worse shrinkflation it seems like everywhere you look you're getting less and less for your buck. Add McDonald's to that mix as they have gone from one of the cheapest places to get a quick bite to one of the most expensive. In fact according to Business Insider the prices of a meal at McDonalds has risen by 100% in the last 10 years. That means prices have literally doubled (or McDoubled bwaaaaahahahahahaha).

A few weeks ago I started looking at the difference between prices at McDonalds now compared to 30 years ago back in the 90s. Of course the price had risen, but what I didn't expect was that it had risen WELL over inflation. That is except in one instance and that was with Happy Meals. While the cost of a Quarter Pounder, and every other item had tripled or more in 30 years the cost of a Happy Meal had remarkable stayed reasonably priced at only about $2 more than it was back in the 90s.

Or So I thought

Doing my due dilligence on the story I decided to not just look at the cost of Happy meals at the McDonalds closest to me in Waltham, but I decided to search through 23 of the top McDonald's in Massachusetts and see which one's had the cheapest and the most expensive prices. The answer honestly shocked me. I live in Lexington and many people, especially my cohosts, tell me that everything is overpriced and ostentatious there. Well turns out that's not the case. Here is a list of the top 23 McDonald's in Massachusetts ranked from most to least expensive. Where does yours rank?

My Criteria

I decided to rank them by how expensive their Happy Meals were. Why? Because the Happy Meal is still the most popular meal at McDonalds and since the Happy Meal is the only meal at McDonald's that is reasonably priced it's the best way to guage how expensive the McDonald's overall is.

MOST EXPENSIVE: McDonalds at 128 Broadway, Saugus, MA

Hamburger Happy Meal: $5.59
4 Piece McNugget Happy Meal: $6.49
6 Piece McNugget Happy Meal: $7.69

22. McDonalds at 114 Broadway, Saugus, MA

Hamburger Happy Meal: $5.19
4 Piece McNugget Happy Meal: $6.19
6 Piece McNugget Happy Meal: $7.69

21. McDonalds at 333 Montvale Avenue, Woburn, MA

Hamburger Happy Meal: $5.49
4 Piece McNugget Happy Meal: $6.09
6 Piece McNugget Happy Meal: $7.59

20. McDonalds at 1750 Soldiers Field Road, Brighton, MA

Hamburger Happy Meal: $6.19
4 Piece McNugget Happy Meal: $6.69
6 Piece McNugget Happy Meal: $6.99

19. McDonalds at 197 California Street, Newton, MA

Hamburger Happy Meal: $6.19
4 Piece McNugget Happy Meal: $6.69
6 Piece McNugget Happy Meal: $6.99