McDonald’s Will Sell Bagged Coffee At Grocery Stores, Not Its Own Restaurants

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As the old joke goes, if you burn yourself on McDonald’s coffee at home, at least you can’t sue McDonald’s. It’s not an old joke, but we did make it nonetheless back when Mickey D’s was just testing selling bags of coffee at grocery stores. And now the company is rolling that plan out nationwide soon, with one executive saying the company hopes to sell “lots” of coffee in 2015.

McDonald’s McCafé brand coffee is a partnership with Kraft, reports Scott Hume of BurgerBusiness.com, and it will only be sold at grocery stores, drugstore chains and other retailers, and not at McD’s own restaurants, starting next year.

Customers will have a choice of 12-ounce bags of ground Premium Roast, Breakfast Blend, French Roast, Colombian, Premium Roast Decaf and French Vanilla and Hazelnut plus a French Roast Whole Bean, and there are also plans for single-serving pods in premium, French and decaf. Bags should go for about the same as the $7.29 price it sold for during tests.

“We think this will increase the awareness of the McCafé brand beyond its current in-restaurant strength and that will encourage more people to try it.,” Greg Watson, senior VP, McDonald’s U.S. Menu Innovation told BurgerBusiness.com.

As for whether or not selling its own stuff at stores will dig into McDonald’s coffee sales at restaurants, Watson says that didn’t happen in test sales at all.

But down the line, bags of coffee could be peddled at Mickey D’s restaurants as well, he added.

“We’ll continue to look at that; it is definitely a possibility for the future.”

McDonald’s Plans McCafé Retail Rollout in 2015 [BurgerBusiness.com]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist