Why McDonald's got rid of the snack wrap — and why it's not coming back any time soon
- McDonald's cut snack wraps from menus because they were too complicated to make.
- Snack wraps didn't sell as well as the chain expected.
Fans of the McDonald's snack wrap shouldn't hold their breath for it to return to menus any time soon. There are no plans to bring them back to US menus, the company confirmed to Insider.
The snack wrap is simple: grilled or crispy chicken, lettuce, cheese, and and sauce wrapped in a tortilla. As a product of the 2000s, McDonald's initially promoted them with Heidi Klum after their 2006 launch. Snack wraps were intended to appeal to younger consumers who wanted healthier snacks they could eat on the go.
A decade later, McDonald's removed snack wraps from national menus, though individual franchisees could still choose to sell them. It turns out customers didn't want healthy options from McDonald's.
"A lot of people who eat at restaurants aren't interested in health and wellness," Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo told Bloomberg in 2016. You've got to give the people what they want."
They were also a major pain for restaurants. They took too long for workers to make, from steaming the tortillas to cutting chicken and folding the ingredients up to fit in the cardboard boxes. McDonald's franchisees complained about how inefficient they were to make and pushed to remove them from menus as the chain pushed to keep service time low.
The snack wrap wasn't successful in part because it went up against the growth of other healthy fast-food chains, like Panera and Chipotle. It also had the bad luck of going head to head against the highly popular all-day breakfast. Wraps and continuing breakfast after 10:30 a.m. both added complexity to kitchens that made service slower, and one had to go. Breakfast was more popular with customers, so it won out. Then in 2020, McDonald's removed it from US menus completely as part of a larger menu simplification.
Now, McDonald's is seeing growing sales and shrinking wait times for drive-thrus. The chain has found a way to introduce menu items without adding complexity for workers, with Famous Orders, Menu Hacks, and the return of Szechuan sauce. With these low-cost menu additions, there's little incentive to add new complexities that would anger franchisees like snack wraps.
Recently, McDonald's fans have made some efforts to show McDonald's that they want snack wraps back. A search for "McDonald's snack wraps" on Twitter reveals hundreds of customers begging for its return. Some tweets even ask singer Doja Cat to bring back the wraps, after her involvement in Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza return.
For US customers who can't wait any longer for their snack wrap fix, they're still on McDonald's menus in Canada.
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