McDonald’s coffee: Free or not so free?
Posted
Feb 09 2009, 06:08 PM
by
Joan Melcher
Rating:
With Denny's recent free breakfast and Starbucks' plans to offer its own version of breakfast value meals, it's no surprise that some McDonald's restaurants are upping the ante -- free coffee for the whole month of February.
But it gets complicated. There's much discussion online as to where to find this free morning jolt. You won't find it at every McDonald's; we called one in our town and they knew nothing about it.
But it's clear some people are getting in on the deal.
One poster at Slickdeals said he went to Mickey D's to pick up pancake syrup for his leftover IHOP pancakes (talk about cheap) and saw this sign: "Freebruary: Free medium coffee -- vanilla, hazelnut, regular iced coffee flavors available, February 1-28, 5 a.m. to 9 a.m."
"There was no Denny's-sized line or anything," he said. "Just the regular customers. I didn't have to buy anything either. So I picked up a medium vanilla iced coffee for free."
A few other voices chimed in, two noting they had heard about the promotion and expected free java, but were charged for their coffees when they ordered food.
One poster from Atlanta did score: "What I like about the deal is you don't have to buy anything else," he wrote, adding he thought it was a brilliant marketing effort because he usually orders food when he goes in for the free coffee even though he seldom eats breakfast otherwise.
So, you pay your money, you take your chances. Or, you can call your local McD's and just ask. There's still a few weeks left in Freebruary. Maybe enough calls will shame late adapters into it.
Related reading:
Desperate restaurants try new tricks
McDonald's wooing the Starbucks faithful
Starbucks tries a downscale approach
McDonald's goes on the offensive
