Why are there so many fast-food offers on?

The fast-food giants are falling over themselves in an increasingly competitive race to offer you the best deal.

Whether that’s low-price breakfasts at McDonald’s or at bakery chain Greggs, or lunch offers from KFC and Domino’s, promotions are surging in popularity.

So why the sudden splurge in special offers?

Put simply, customers are being more thrifty and the chains want to tempt you back, though critics worry about the health impacts of this buffet of fast-food deals.

The number of promotions on offer at fast-food restaurants, bakeries and coffee shops between April and June this year jumped by a third from the same period last year.

This is according to data from Meaningful Vision, which tracks the sector.

“The use of promotions is growing as a key tool to generate additional traffic, which has not been growing,” says chief executive Maria Vanifatova.

Footfall was in decline over the year to May, and only now is 1% up on a year ago, she says.

Fast-food operators, like other businesses, put their prices up sharply during the cost-of-living crisis.

But prices in fast food on average increased slightly more than prices in grocery chains, points out Siobhan Gehin, a retail expert at consulting firm Roland Berger, who used to be an executive at KFC.

“This unprecedented speed of change has not really given businesses or consumers time to get used to the new price levels,” she says.

This is making customers either trade down to cheaper menu items or eat at home instead, Ms Gehin adds.

As such, fast-food companies are “using the promotion lever to try to stimulate demand”.