LOS ANGELES
,
June 1, 2017
(Off The Menu)
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My current favorite fast food place is Burger King. It recently vaulted to No. 1 on my list, ahead of McDonald’s and its Big Macs, Carl’s Jr. and its Big Carls, and Del Taco and its Macho Nachos.
The main reason why Burger King is getting so much of my recent business isn’t its food. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy a good Whopper, and those Mac N’ Cheetos are surprisingly tasty. But there’s one thing that’s helping Burger King stand out among the rest:
Coca-Cola Freestyle Soda Machines.
If you don’t know what a Coca-Cola Freestyle Machine is, learn! It’s the greatest invention since…well, soda! It’s a touchscreen machine that features up to 165 different Coca-Cola drink products and custom flavors.
Think about that number for a minute: 165. Don’t just gloss over that fact. Let me break it down: A regular self-serve fountain, like the kind you might find at a 7-Eleven or a movie theater, will typically have between six and 12 options. Now multiply that by 13 or 14, and you’ve got the number of choices from a Freestyle Machine. I mean, it’s mind-boggling!
Anyway, back to Burger King. Several of its locations now feature these machines, offering customers more soda options than ever before. Burger King is one of the first major fast-food chains to offer this technology, but it certainly won’t be the last. Several Jack in the Box locations have the machines, and White Castle just announced that its locations will offer them as well.
It will only be a matter of time before the other chains follow suit. Why wouldn’t they? In my neighborhood, there’s a Burger King and a McDonald’s practically across the street from each other. At the Burger King, there’s the Freestyle Machine. At the McDonald’s, there’s just your average self-serve soda fountain. It was fine before, but now it’s just pathetic compared to the Freestyle Machine. And a company like McDonald’s doesn’t tolerate being pathetic for long.
McDonald’s will soon switch over. The other major chains will too. It’s simply good business sense.
Nevin Barich is the Food and Beverage Analyst for Industry Intelligence and is also Menuism’s fast food expert. Email him at Nevin.Barich@industryintel.com or follow him on Twitter.
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