McDonald’s workers beg customers to stop ordering adult Happy Meals

McDonald’s workers beg customers to stop ordering adult Happy Meals, a nostalgic marketing ploy
Nicholas Gordon
Wed, October 5, 2022 at 11:10 PM

People really want their adult Happy Meals, and it’s stressing out McDonald’s frontline staff.

On Monday, McDonald’s started selling Happy Meals—normally targeted to children—to adult customers. And like the child Happy Meals, the special offering comes with a toy, as part of a collaboration with Cactus Plant Flea Market, a streetwear brand. The promotion runs until the end of the month.

But while potential customers were excited about the special promotion—and the limited edition toys—McDonald’s employees were less enthusiastic about dealing with a rush of customers. “I can see the stress among my coworkers,” one employee told Kotaku.

Employees are venting on social media, like TikTok and Reddit. “Y’all, please stop ordering these,” posted one employee on TikTok. Another employee wrote, “They going crazy with the adult Happy Meals,” over a video showing the number of Happy Meal orders.

“New Adult Happy meals are killing me,” said one post on the McDonald’s employees subreddit.

“We ran out of boxes the first day we had them, ran out of toys the second, and on the third day we had to say the truck doesn’t come till tomorrow,” wrote one commenter elsewhere on the subreddit. “It’s been…not fun.”


TODAY -- Pictured: Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones and Craig Melvin on Tuesday, October 4, 2022 -- (Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)

McDonald’s did not immediately reply to Fortune’s request for comment.

This isn’t the first time a McDonald’s promotion has caused hassle for the staff.

In 2017, McDonald’s revived its Szechuan dipping sauce for one day as part of a marketing exercise with Adult Swim show Rick and Morty. Desperate fans swarmed restaurants hoping to get some of the limited supply, leading to long lines, disruptive customers, and even calls to law enforcement. The chaos was worsened by poor communication from McDonald’s as to which restaurants were taking part in the promotion, meaning customers flocked to sauce-less restaurants.

Customer chaos happened again in 2021, when McDonald’s revived its Pokémon Happy Meals, complete with collectible cards, to celebrate the video game franchise’s 25th anniversary. Unfortunately, the promotion occurred during a bubble in Pokémon trading cards, in which cards could be flipped for a 350-times return.

Some restaurants were forced to restrict sales of the Pokémon Happy meals to stop scalpers from buying up all the available Happy Meals and flipping the included trading cards on eBay.

It’s not just McDonald’s. Last year, a tweet from a purported Starbucks employee went viral after the worker complained about customers adding too many modifiers to their drinks, leading to many other baristas complaining about the stress of completing similarly complex orders.

oliver clotheshoffe wrote:

Adult toys from McDonalds... what, like a battery powered vibrating Ronald McDonald or something...?

McDonald's New Happy-Meal-Inspired Box for Adults Is Here: What You Get
The Cactus Plant Flea Market Box comes with either a burger or nuggets, plus a wonky-looking figurine.
Meara Isenberg
Oct. 5, 2022 11:05 a.m. PT


Four kooky-looking figurines are up for grabs. McDonald's

You've pulled up to McDonald's as a full-on adult. You absolutely do not need a toy with your meal, right? Joking. Of course you do. The fast-food chain is now selling boxed meals geared toward grown-ups, and each one has a cool, odd-looking figurine inside.

The meal has an odd name -- the Cactus Plant Flea Market Box -- that's based on the fashion brand collaborating with McDonald's on the promotion.

According to McDonald's, the box is inspired by the memory of enjoying a Happy Meal as a kid. The outside of the box is multicolored and features the chain's familiar golden arches.


The Cactus Plant Flea Market Box.
Greetings, Cactus Buddy.

The Cactus Plant Flea Market Box will be available in the drive-thru, in-restaurant, by delivery or on the McDonald's app, while supplies last. You can choose between a Big Mac or 10-piece Chicken McNuggets. It'll also come with fries and a drink.

The boxes will pack in one of four figurines. Three of the four appear to be artsy takes on classic McDonald's characters Grimace, Hamburglar and Birdie the Early Bird, while the fourth is a little yellow person called Cactus Buddy sporting a McDonald's shirt.

When I forked over 10 bucks for my own boxed meal on Monday, the toy was the best part. I liked that the prize came in packaging I couldn't see through, prolonging the surprise. I ripped it open to find the happy yellow guy, which seems like something my on-trend, college-aged brother would display in his dorm room. So I'm setting it aside for him.

Pricing is set by individual restaurants and may vary, according to McDonald's. When I attempted to order through the app from a McDonald's near me in Charlotte, North Carolina, it cost slightly more to get the burger box over the nugget box, but both could be purchased for a little less than $10. (For this price, the item came with a medium fries and drink).

The Wise And Powerful wrote:

According to McDonald's, the box is inspired by the memory of enjoying a Happy Meal as a kid.

Never happened, I was 19 years old when they first came out.