Deep down, just about anyone in most countries can say they’re Lovin It. McDonald’s is just synonymous with tasty fast food. They consistently offer a wide variety of breakfast and lunch sandwiches, have nifty secondary selections like salads and desserts, and now they even have a genuine espresso style cafe and it has some excellent coffee.
So of course people are going to want online and printable coupons for the most popular fast food joint in the world. Free drinks, family meals, cheap upsizing on fries, you name it and there’s a coupon for it somewhere in the world, right?
It seems like an oddity that McDonald’s doesn’t make it easy to find deals like this, then.
McDonald’s Website in 2023
Most stores and restaurants have a deals or coupons section on their website that allows customers to find the special offers currently being made. One could be forgiven for clicking on the Promotions section of the McDonald’s website and expecting to find something similar, then.
What we get instead is simply a list. A very pretty list, where every item currently being featured is explained with interactive pictures and lovely little soundbites about how delicious things are, but notably there don’t seem to be any mentions of actual discounts or savings on said products. It really is a ‘promotion’ page in the sense that it is telling you these are the deals that friendly McDonald’s drive thru clerks are going to be asking you if you want to try when you drive up.
Currently on promotion are the new Spicy Chicken McBites. Basically a newer, smaller Chicken McNugget, the McBites are a curious kind of snack food that come with the dipping sauce attached to the container. There is also a plug for their chocolate chip frappe, and a list of the current Happy Meal toys, but again precious little information on actual sales. None, in fact.
So where can people go to actually find savings on their favorite drive thru dining destination?
Well, this is where the story gets even stranger.
Retail Me Not in 2023
Retail Me Not is a peer reviewed coupon and sale submission site. Users submit deals they find, and other users review them and say when they were last used successfully.
Looking up McDonald’s on RMN reveals a lot of coupon alerts with low consumer ratings. There were no codes at the time this article was written, although RMN would redirect you to the McDonald’s Website with what appears to be an affiliate referral code.
Coupon Mom in 2023
Another standby of the online coupon seeking world, Coupon Mom didn’t fare much better than Retail Me Not. Not a single actual McDonald’s coupon was available through either the site’s restaurants section, or searching the Online Coupons tab.
DealsPlus in 2023
Dealspl.us is another coupon submissions site, and is the first place we actually found some working McDonald’s coupons for 2023.
The first was for a Buy One Get One (BOGO) free offer on chilled drinks, such as frappes, lemonade, or chillers. Admittedly, this is a great summer offer because it cuts the price of some very nice drinks in half on those hot days. Good for someone who wants to cool off after a workout or in between classes, for sure.
The second coupon on offer was for a free medium fry with the purchase of any McCafe beverage. Before you raise an eyebrow at the thought of coffee with your fries, remember that the fruit chillers and milkshakes are part of the McCafe now. Again, a nice low key choice for people to make rather than a big promotional deal.
eBay? Really?
One thing that Deals Plus and Printable Coupons both pointed to was an eBay category where users were auctioning off various coupon packets. This included everything from Extra Value Meal coupons to Orlando area coupon Booklets with McDonald’s coupons to 12 packs of Kids Meal freebie coupons.
Admittedly, these are interesting deals, but where are the FREE online coupons for people to get? Sadly, there just don’t seem to be that many.
What’s the Deal, McDonald’s?
Basically, McDonald’s just isn’t buying into the online or printable coupon model of doing business. They really do seem to feel that their current promotions and menu offerings are priced competitively enough. In some cases, they are right. There is a current promotion at multiple McDonald’s locations in California, and possibly other states, where every drink costs $1 no matter the size.
But even so, this is a bad, bad case of a company missing the reality of the situation. Food prices are rising steadily all the time. McDonald’s prices in California are climbing up to a pretty ridiculous rate. It can cost $8 easy for a Big Mac ‘value’ meal. Well, for $3 more we can go to Red Robin down the street and get double the burger, unlimited steak fries, and a milkshake. Oh, and they have an actual online coupon – sign up for the eclub and you get $3 off your next purchase in-store. So that changes things! For the SAME PRICE that you pay for a Big Mac meal, you can get that larger burger, unlimited fries, and a milkshake.
So what DO they offer?
Don’t get us wrong, McDonald’s does offer some competitive deals. Their discount menu (formerly the dollar menu) does have some sweet little options and you can build a tasty meal for relatively cheap.
But Take a look at McDonald’s sizes sometime, and it just doesn’t seem that good overall. Orange juices and milk jugs are criminally small for the prices paid with breakfast meals, for example.
Sadly, the truth is that McDonald’s just doesn’t have their heart in the coupon business at this time. You may be able to find local coupons in your area circular or newspaper, and a given McDonald’s may be having a buy one get one offer of some sort when you head there. But if you were looking for coupons online, your choices have really become hit or miss compared to the offers other restaurants are making.