McDonald’s Spent 50 Years on Its Breakfast Menu. Now, Thousands of Fans Say They Crave 1 Simple Thing

Move over doughnuts. There’s another change on the McDonald’s breakfast menu that has some McDonald’s customers a lot more excited. 

It’s a quiet change, and it’s all part of what a McDonald’s executive recently called the nearly 50-year quest to perfect breakfast at McDonald’s. For the fans who organized in a Facebook group devoted to it, that’s part of the fun.

We’re talking about the return of McDonald’s breakfast bagel sandwiches, which disappeared from McDonald’s during its pandemic-era menu simplification. 

As you’d learn from the 13,000-member Facebook group, Where’s my McDonald’s Bagel?, they’re back on a region-by-region rollout–available in some McDonald’s, but not all.

The Facebook effort is serious and organized, including a shared, public spreadsheet showing the addresses and of well over 1,200 McDonald’s locations that offer them.

Group creator and administrator Jared Hefenfinger told me that some fans also took a more direct approach.

“People in the group are sharing their local franchisees’ contact information and saying, ‘Hey, send out messages or call these people,'” Hefenfinger said, adding.

“I can kind of tell you where they’re going to be next, based on where the group is adding members from. I messaged one of the franchisees in Minnesota …

He told me that in the last three weeks, they’ve gotten more calls than they have in the last three years.”

Honestly, the most fun part of this story for me is trying to figure out whether the McDonald’s fans’ Facebook group actually influenced McDonald’s plans.

I think we have 3 possibilities here:

• Possibility 1: The McDonald’s fans created real pressure, especially by calling all these franchisees, who in turn (maybe without even knowing there was a Facebook group), asked McDonald’s to bring back the bagel sandwiches. 
• Possibility 2: Perhaps McDonald’s was going to bring back bagel sandwiches anyway, and the group of McDonald’s fans, while fun, didn’t really affect anything that wouldn’t have happened regardless. The romantic in me hopes this isn’t the case, but it could be.
• Possibility 3: Finally, there could be a hybrid explanation, in which McDonald’s had its own plans to bring back bagel sandwiches, but the group and its members were part of a consumer movement that reinforced the decision, and maybe led to it being rolled out faster, or expanded. 

Can we step back from McDonald’s for one second, and recognize that this would be a dream scenario for most businesses?

Imagine if your most dedicated customers organized on their own to give you positive, constructive feedback. 

Imagine if they went a step further, calling you personally, and politely but persistently saying: “If you will please offer this product, we will pay you money for it!”

I wouldn’t mind.

But I also had to admit to Hefenfinger that I’ve never actually had a McDonald’s bagel sandwich myself. 

He was quick to point out that he doesn’t normally eat a lot of fast food, but he said he got in the breakfast habit with McDonald’s before the pandemic, when he was on the road for a sales job. Here’s what he said made the bagel sandwich worthy of launching a Facebook group to bring it back:

“The texture of the bagel is a little different than what you would expect from a toasted bagel. And then it all comes down to the breakfast sauce. … 

There’s just something about it. And the steak bagels, with the steak and the grilled onions — this is going to sound terrible, but if you get a nice, greasy one that’s just dripping grease, it’s like the closest thing to heaven that you may be able to find here on Earth.” 

Of course, I also asked McDonald’s directly for its comment, and especially whether we have “Where’s my McDonald’s Bagel?” to thank for the return of McDonald’s bagel sandwiches. Here’s what the company had to say:

“Our fans’ love for McDonald’s breakfast runs deep, and we love to see the passion they have for some of their favorite menu items. 

We’re always listening to their cravings and taking their feedback into account as we make menu decisions.  

Though Bagel Sandwiches are not available nationwide, they are a regional offering and currently available at participating McDonald’s in several markets.”

O.K. then. I guess the quest continues. The bagel sandwiches sound pretty good. But as far as I’m concerned, the story is even better.