How Hard Is It To Find A McDonald's Happy Meal These Days?
DJ Khaled demands answers for why McDonald's flagship kids meal is so elusive.
In a national tragedy affecting each of us equally, DJ Khaled failed to find McDonald's Happy Meals this weekend for his son. Like any good celebrity activist, the rapper took to Instagram to ask McDonald's to make Happy Meals easier to find. After striking out at one McDonald's, he had to go to another one, and another one, and, okay, you get the idea. He had to go to five McDonald's locations before finally acquiring the coveted treat. He's asking the question we all should be asking: Where are all the Happy Meals?
Are McDonald’s Happy Meals being phased out?
It turns out that McDonald's has quietly making changes to its Happy Meal offerings behind the scenes. Last September, the brand announced that it was making all Happy Meal toys out of mainly corn and other eco-friendly materials. Ah, finally, a common ground solution for saving the whales and appeasing children who are like, "What if my Sonic the Hedgehog toy was made out of paper straws?"
Back in 2018, McDonald's took the Happy Meal off the value menu. McDonald's does have a website, happymeal.com, with games, coloring book pages, and toy options, but no word on whether this is meant to replace the toys in the bag, or whether there are any issues acquiring the meals themselves. Are Happy Meals getting scaled back as the brand figures out how to transition to corn toys? Or did DJ Khaled just have bad luck?
If I go to McDonald's and ask for a Happy Meal, will they have one for me? Am I scared for the future because my local Popeyes rejected my request for a kids meal two days ago and now I fear I will never have a kids meal again? Isn't it wild that we never know when our last kids meal is? That we just have our last kids meal one day, and then suddenly, we never have one again? Am I hungry right now? Who are the 1.5 million people who follow DJ Khaled's five-year-old son on Instagram, and why? Should I lie down?
As of this writing, McDonald's has not yet commented on DJ Khaled's pleas for national Happy Meal restoration. In the meantime, I gotta go to my neighborhood McDonald's to, uh, research.