McDonald's to bring back spicy chicken McNuggets

Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal joined Yahoo Finance Live to break down what McDonald's bringing back spicy chicken McNuggets means for consumers.

Video Transcript

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ADAM SHAPIRO: So we were just singing the old jingle-- beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. Not so much with the Spicy McNugget, huh, Allie Canal?

ALEXANDRA CANAL: No, but you know what? It is coming back to McDonald's. I mean, I love that jingle. That really does bring me back here. But yes, the Spicy Chicken McNuggets. They are making a comeback at McDonald's for a limited time on February 1st. Now, the Spicy Chicken McNuggets were first around in mid-September. I did not get a chance to try them then, but I certainly want to now.

They are battered in a tempura coating with chili peppers, cayenne peppers. And they are paired with a very mighty hot sauce from McDonald's. And this hot sauce is the hottest dipping sauce that's available at the brand. It's also one of their first brand new rollouts of a dipping sauce since 2017. So if you're a fan of spicy things, a fan of flavorful things, you might as well go out and get the Spicy Chicken McNuggets when they're back.

And this couldn't come at a better time for the brand. We're seeing a new dawn of the chicken sandwich wars. Yesterday, Chick-Fil-A also announced a new spicy chicken deluxe sandwich that they will be adding to the menu. And of course, later next month, we have McDonald's rolling out three new chicken sandwiches, including a spicy chicken sandwich with a spicy pepper sauce.

So I'm certainly going to need a big glass of milk with me whenever I try these next month. But despite all the product innovations that are coming in the new year, there's no denying that the coronavirus pandemic has really hit these fast food giants, especially when we talk about in-store dining.

But when we take a look at a new report from Placer.ai, which tracks and monitors foot traffic patterns across all these different operations, we'll see that there is a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel when we talk about McDonald's. If you take a look there on your screen, you'll see that in November, foot traffic was down over 37%, compared to 2019 levels.

However, just one more month later, we saw a slight recovery of around 32%. That, coupled with the fact that McDonald's has seen success with drive-through dining, takeout, delivery options, points to a recovery once pandemic restrictions ease. We know how well they were doing with their breakfast. So once people get back out there, get back into their morning routines, go back to work, go back to school, hopefully, that recovery will continue.

Of course, we do have earnings coming out for McDonald's on Thursday. I think investors are closely going to be monitoring that same store sales growth. Hopefully, those numbers can tick up there, and we'll see how the company does.

ADAM SHAPIRO: You deserve a break today.