Burger King Adds Grilled Hot Dogs to the Menu

In a surprise move, Burger King adds grilled hot dogs to its menu. So, if you are not overly concerned about eating healthy, do pay the restaurant a visit. The burger chain will roll out the mysterious Oscar Mayer wiener for $2 a piece at all its 12,000 locations starting this month.

Apparently, the Home of the Whopper is done with experimenting with healthy food after the public was hugely disappointed with its Satisfries, which were made of organic potatoes that supposedly should have tasted better than regular fries, but they didn’t.

But now, BK is putting a bet on America’s all-time favorite: the hot dog. Weeks before the official release date the company has been heavily promoting the dogs on its social media channels. It has even hired Snoop Dogg, for obvious reasons, for a short spot.

Yet, some analysts are concerned that the move may be risky in an age when people are so concerned about what they put on their plates. But the reasoning behind the move is simple– the dogs are cheap and filling. So, they make the perfect solution in a time of economic distress, and they may soon convert Burger King into the King of Frankfurters, or something like it.

Other experts believe that Burger King’s move may simply be a stroke of genius. Its hot dogs are 100 percent beef and they come in two versions: the classic dog which is garnished with mustard, ketchup and relish, and the chilli dogs which are covered in shredded cheese and, of course, chilli.

The dogs will be manufactured by Kraft Foods-owned Oscar Mayer, while the ketchup will be provided by Kraft Foods’ parent company, Kraft Heinz Company. What’s more Heinz is on the portfolio of 3G Capital, the investment firm behind Burger King’s deal to acquire the coffee chain Tim Hortons.

Bret Thorn of a publication that analyzes U.S. restaurant chains explained that Burger King virtually kept the hot dogs business ‘in-house,’ so costs would be kept to minimum. Subsequently, if you keep basic ingredients in-house, massive menu changes across thousands of stores will be easier to make, and less costly.

Plus, BK can easily manipulate the supply chain when all suppliers belong to the same group. On the other hand, there are some drawbacks. The strategy could backfire if most customers pick the grilled hot dogs over hamburgers. If that happens, one business successfully has just managed to ‘cannibalize’ the other, which is bad for the overall business.

Image Source: Flickr