By Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Business Writer
Consider this if you suspect that McDonald’s needs to get his snack wrap back. Nine years after the fast food powerhouse discontinued US items, customers continue to order at Drive Thrus.
These customers don’t have to leave empty-handed long. On Tuesday, McDonald’s announced that a new version of the snack wrap will be on sale on July 10th.
McDonald’s invented a snack wrap, a tortilla full of chicken, lettuce, shredded cheese and sauce almost 20 years ago, making it easy to eat chicken on the go. However, the kitchen was too complicated to prepare, so the burger giant abandoned snack wraps in the US in 2016.
The decision destroyed fans like Alicia Force, a high school musician and administrative assistant in Missouri. Force tried to make snack wraps at home and sample alternatives from Irby and other restaurants, but nothing was the same. So she started a Facebook group in which 86 members encouraged McDonald’s to revive snack wraps.
Other loyal Noshers also weighed them. The change.org petition asking McDonald’s to retrieve his snack wrap has almost 19,000 signatures. The Tiktok video, which is still on sale by a US food reviewer eating snack wraps in Ireland, has earned over 1.4 million views.
It had an impact. McDonald’s began teasing snack wraps’ reappearance earlier this year.
“We listen to our fans and the return of our snack rap is proof of that,” McDonald’s US President Joe Arlinger told The Associated Press.
McDonald’s chef Wayne Cour will wrap a snack wrap at McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago on Thursday, May 29th, 2025.
McDonald’s chef Charles L. Kurmiek will place cheese on tortillas to make snack wraps at McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago on Thursday, May 29, 2025.
McDonald’s chef Left, Wayne Cour of Charles L. Kurumieka, looks at each other after making snack wraps at McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago on Thursday, May 29, 2025.
McDonald’s chef Charles L. Kurmiek will place chicken in tortillas to make snack wraps at McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago on Thursday, May 29, 2025.
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McDonald’s chef Wayne Cour will wrap a snack wrap at McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago on Thursday, May 29th, 2025.
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However, McDonald’s has a reason to reboot. The low prices of snack wraps can seduce customers who have endured inflation eating less fast food meals in recent months. The wrap size and tortilla casing also appeal to health-consciousness.
Steve Davis, a mental health counselor in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, once bought six grilled chicken snack wraps and kept them in the fridge as grab-and-go snacks.
“I’m not actually a fast food fan, but the snack wrap felt like I was eating an actual ‘wrap’. I felt healthy,” Davis said.
Snack wraps also help McDonald’s compete with more and more rivals. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen introduced its own chicken wrap on Monday, but Burger King and Wendy’s have been selling them since 2023.
“There are so many opportunities in the chicken category,” Erlinger said. Fast food chicken sales are almost twice the size of beef and are growing faster around the world, says Erlinger.
Reviving snack wraps has been a long-standing process, Arlinger said. First of all, McDonald’s wanted to develop a better fried chicken strip. After several years of testing, the Chicago-based company debuted Pepperma Crispy Strip in early May.
McDonald’s also had to update its snack wrap tools, simplify the preparation process and train workers at 13,500 US restaurants.
“We knew there was one chance to knock it out of the park because this is one of our most anticipated menu items. It had to be easy for the crew to run,” Erlinger said.
For US comebacks, McDonald’s offers fewer types of snack wraps to ensure faster service. Previously, there were both grilled and fried chicken options, but for now, they only serve fried chicken in the US. And the rebooted snack wrap has two flavors: ranch or spicy. The company was offering additional sauces such as honey mustard and sweet chili.
It can disappoint some fans. For example, the honey mustard sauce snack wrap had some strength. Davis would always grill chicken in a snack wrap, so after disappearing he rarely went to McDonald’s.
McDonald’s continues to have a wider range of options in other markets where snack wraps don’t disappear. Canada offers grilled or fried chicken on snack wraps, for example, full-sized wrap chicken, fish and breakfast versions. McDonald’s won’t say if they plan to add snack wrap varieties to the US
“We’ll keep listening to fans when it comes to menu innovation,” the company said.
Snack wraps are back at low times for fast food restaurants. From January to April, fast food traffic in the US fell by 1% compared to the same period a year ago.
Sales at the same McDonald’s stores (revenues from locations open for at least a year) fell 3.6% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year. Sales in the same store increased by less than 1% in 2024.
Inflation is the main culprit, Portalatin said. In the first quarter of this year, average checks at fast food restaurants in the US increased by 41% from the same period in 2019. The higher the price, the more Americans, especially middle to low-income families, eat at home instead of going out.
McDonald’s tried to counter it with a limited McValue menu and an increase in trading. However, inexpensive options like snack wraps can also be helpful.
The company doesn’t say how much snack wraps cost in the US as prices vary depending on the location. But Burger King’s prices may give you a clue. At a Michigan restaurant this week, Burger King charged $2.99 for a 310-calorie royal crispy wrap, the equivalent of a snack wrap. Burger King’s Royal Crispy Chicken Sandwich, bread, large chicken breast, almost twice the calories cost $5.49.
Portratin said McDonald’s and others’ snack-sized options also reflect changes in American dietary habits. More people choose to eat smaller meals all day rather than eating breakfast, lunch or dinner in traditional times.
“Consumers don’t think about what we want to think of as marketers in the neat bucket,” Portalatin said. “We want to say, ‘This opportunity is lunch, and these are lunch foods.’ Consumers say, “Where am I?”
That was certainly true for Force, who said she loved the memories of picking up after-school snack wraps as a teenager. She looks forward to making that part of her routine again.
“Hopefully they’ll come back, they taste the same taste and they won’t break my heart again, frankly,” she said.
Original issue: June 3, 2025, 2:19pm EDT
