Burger King Franchisees Sue Over $1 Double Cheeseburger

by Sarah LeTrent, Posted Nov 12th 2009 @ 4:30PM

Photo: roboppy, Flickr

Burger King franchisees are fighting to have it their way.

The suit, filed against Burger King by the National Franchise Association, comes after Burger King required all franchisees to sell its double cheeseburger for $1. The suit, which represents 80 percent of all Burger King franchise owners in America, alleges that the Whopper chain doesn't have the power to set price ceilings on choice menu items.

The saga started back in July when we reported franchisees turned down an initial plan to sell the double cheeseburgers for a buck due to worries that another $1 offering could cause more customers to trade down from higher-priced menu items.

This forced the chain to devise a mail-out coupon campaign for $1 double cheeseburgers to nearly 80 million households nationwide.

Then in September, the King overruled the franchisees by nixing the coupon campaign and forcing the $1 promotion to be put on the in-store menu anyway. Franchise owners complain that they've been selling the burgers at a loss.

"BKC [Burger King Corp.] believes the lawsuit is without merit," Burger King Corp. issued in a statement to Slashfood. "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decided earlier this year that BKC has the contractual right to require franchisee participation in its BK Value Menu program."

[Via Associated Press]

Filed Under: Fast Food
Tags: burger king, burger king franchises, BurgerKing, BurgerKingFranchises, one dollar double cheeseburger, OneDollarDoubleCheeseburger, the national franchise association, TheNationalFranchiseAssociation

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-13-2009 @8:38AM LinC said... They may be selling the burger at a loss, but they more than make up for it in what they charge for a soda and for fries. You don't see many Burger Kings going out of business.
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11-13-2009 @9:27AM S.A. said... This is antidotal, but I'll tell you two things:

Two times I've gone to a Burger King and ordered the $1 double cheeseburger. Both times they seemed unhappy about it, and the sandwich was made extremely poorly (even for fast food standards).

As for "more than making up for it in what they charge for a soda and for fries" I've seen more than a few people come in and order one or two double cheeseburgers and nothing else.

Loss leaders do not work if they are not differentiated from you normal product.
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11-13-2009 @7:44PM Mandy said... There was a report about this on the radio today. The franchises claimed that it would be a profitable sandwich if they could make it with two burgers but only one piece of cheese.

It frightens me that the cheese is more expensive than the beef.
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11-24-2009 @8:20AM herbie said... booger king needs to sell a bigger burger for a buck they have crappy greasy tasting burgers they may be flame broiled but taste like the surface is never cleaned and like old dirty greese! with mcdonalds and wendys selling doubles for a buck why not the dirtiest least qaulity franchise chain be able to match? if you go into a burgerking they are the dirtiest least kept up of the 3 chains and the food is of much lower quality than wnedys and mcdonalds and the prices are higher!
why would anyone buy a 6-8 dollar burger fries and drink combo when they can goto applebees and get a bigger better burger and fries for the same price or tgi fridays wher they can buy a jack daniels burger with fries for 5 bucks! burger queen is a dying franchise and the 1/4 lb doubles are a desperate attemp to get people into the dirty franchises!
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11-30-2009 @12:41AM emma said... what the hell? Is herbie on crack?

I'm sorry but I really can't take anyone who calls it "booger king" or "burger queen" seriously.

In short, the dollar double cheeseburgers are causing a serious profit loss as far as dailey wages. The sandwich, including toppings and paper, comes to a total of 1.10. That's a dime per sandwich, which, when about people in a row order five of them (which they often do) things tend to go downhill.

And the other person has a point. Most people who see that the double cheeseburgers are a dollar have no intention to order expensive sides. Bargain hungry people will come in and see the deal, finger the five in their pocket and think about the coke they have sitting back home in their fridge. They'll order four doubles, a value fry and be on their merrry way.

And in response to the second comment, people probablt didn't sound thrilled about making your cheeseburgers because they just got done making about twenty in the past ten minutes. When people come through the drive-thru and ask for two doubles, they might think that their order isn't a big one, but what about the person in front of them? Or the person in front of that person? Burger King often has about three cars in a row order ten double cheeseburgers. Thats twenty pieces of meat and twenty pieces of cheese that have to be pried apart and strategically placed in between the patties. It gets a little bit chaotic so yeah, the workers are going to groan a little.
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