McDonald's Fans Are Up in Arms About Birthday Meal Pricing

If you haven't heard yet, McDonald's is setting up some birthday festivities for their fuzzy purple mascot, Grimace, this month—but the celebration isn't bringing smiles to everyone.

The fast food chain recently launched the limited edition Grimace Birthday Meal, featuring a purple shake inspired by Grimace's iconic color.

And while fans were excited to get their hands on the special menu offering, some customers seem to have grievances with Grimace over cases of reported price gouging.

In a now-viral video on TikTok, one user mapped out the price differences around various locations, claiming that some franchises are upping the price for fans who want to try the Grimace Shake, which is only available to purchase with the whole meal. As a result, customers are paying upwards of $17 dollars for the limited-edition meal, when the actual value of each included item is much less.

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"I love McDonald's promotions, but it's awful to see a lot of franchises taking advantage of customers," the TikTok creator wrote in their video. "Someone even posted their McDonald's was over $17 for the Grimace meal."

"Mine was $20.26 and $18.16. I said nope not today," another user wrote in the comment section.

"19.88 at my local," added another.

"mcdonalds asking over $17 for the grimace meal is truly abominable," one disappointed fan wrote on Twitter.

"i wanted to try the grimace meal from mcdonald’s but immediately changed my mind when i saw it was over $17…" someone else added.

The controversy around the Grimace Birthday Meal has left fans with one burning question: is it worth the jacked-up prices? In addition to the colorful shake, the meal also comes with the choice of a Big Mac or 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, and McDonald's World Famous Fries.

The special meal is only available for a limited time, so fans should move quickly to get their hands on it—if they're willing to fork over the cash!