McDonald's Latest Menu Upgrade Features Larger Burgers

McDonald's became the United States' number one fast-food restaurant due to its longevity, vast number of locations, and most importantly, its delicious burgers. While the price has risen since its debut in the 1940s, so have the number of different McDonald's burgers customers can purchase. You can always get a standard hamburger or cheeseburger, but the more filling items like the popular Big Mac and Double Quarter Pounder are also available for those with larger appetites. McDonald's is aware that customers crave bigger burgers.

"We've listened to our customers," Jo Sempels, McDonald's President of International Development Licensed Markets shared at an investors event (via CNN). "And we understand their desire for larger, high-quality burgers that fill you up." Sempels' words come as CEO Chris Kempczinski also told CNN that "a larger burger is an opportunity. We're working on that, that is something you should expect in the future."

While fans may wonder when this new, bigger burger will be available in stores, don't hold your breath. McDonald's has a history of taking its time, testing out potential menu items in different markets. This may mean another year or two before some of us get to taste this new, immense burger — but it's also a smart way to ensure the company is providing consumers with items they are happy to shell out money for.

McDonald's plan to start testing out bigger burgers comes at a time when McDonald's has big plans for the future. The company aims to open 9,000 more restaurants by 2027, and some of these may end up being CosMc's, a new restaurant concept they've been testing out. "The vast majority of what we're going to build are going to be our traditional restaurants," Kempczinski told CNN. "There probably will be some restaurants that are drive-thru and delivery only," he said, "but that's going to be the minority."

McDonald's burger initiative is something that began years ago when the company committed to cooking all of its Quarter Pounders with fresh beef and no preservatives. The year after this change saw a 30% increase in Quarter Pounder sales, which gave the chain ideas for additional improvements. The decision to upgrade its burgers by making softer buns, meltier cheese, fresh off-the-grill onions, and other tiny changes is a way for the company to get closer to achieving other goals, such as increasing its 150 million loyalty program members to 250 million by 2027.

For those wary that all these new improvements mean higher costs for customers, McDonald's has hopes that a superior burger will still be affordable enough for customers to choose them over the competition. Kempczinski shares, "We think we're going to be able to deliver a great tasting large burger at a superior value to what [customers] can get anywhere else."