Sitemap

Member-only story

How McDonald’s $1 Coffee Could Reshape Singapore’s Daily Grind

7 min readMay 17, 2025

McCafé’s bold weekday-only pricing play and it’s connect with fast food retail, consumer psychology, and urban habit hacking

TLDR;
✨ Design: Visually commanding ad layout with the $1 offer front-and-center. Clean product shots and subtle nudges like "NEW" tags add polish.
💰 Business: This is a classic loss-leader model. McD wants to drive weekday traffic and upsell to larger baskets.
🧠 Consumer Psychology: $1 feels like a steal, triggering FOMO, urgency, and habit formation during commutes.
🇸🇬 Local Fit: McD undercuts kopitiams and upgrades the experience for Singaporeans used to hawker coffee.
⚡ Opportunity: Once inside, consumers are more likely to order add-ons, boosting McD's average order value.
🙌 Winners: McD, consumers, UOB cards.
❌ Losers: Kopitiams, 7-Eleven, Toast Box, and potentially McD's own higher-margin coffee SKUs.

In a surprising yet calculated move, McDonald’s Singapore has introduced a limited-time offer: $1 McCafé coffees on weekdays. This bold pricing decision drops the usual $3 price to a single dollar, instantly grabbing the attention of commuters, office-goers, students, and anyone craving a caffeine fix. But this isn’t just a promo — it’s a sharp, multi-dimensional strategy aiming to shift consumer habits and reposition McDonald’s in the competitive coffee scene.

--

--

Dhananjay Garg
Dhananjay Garg

Written by Dhananjay Garg

Product Designer who narrates stories. Love designing products that are accessible & usable. Connect on https://www.linkedin.com/in/djgarg/

No responses yet