text: McDonald's Mighty Wings (Photo: Paco Marquez McDonalds) Story Highlights Mighty Wings now sold in packs of 5 for $3 
   
   That's about 60 cents per wing vs. the original $1 per wing 
   
   National advertising began this week 
   
   The Mighty Wings price has been seriously clipped. 
   
   The bone-in chicken wings brought McDonald's some angst -- if not embarrassment -- last year when the wings sold poorly at about $1 a wing. This week, McDonald's brought them back to stores -- and began to nationally advertise them again -- at 40% price reduction. Now, a pack of five fetches $3 -- or about 60-cents per wing. 
   
   McDonald's now concedes that the early regional testing it did on Mighty Wings last year did not reflect what consumers nationally might be willing to pay. Or, for that matter, just how much spice they want on their wings. 
   
   "While pricing during the national advertised launch was consistent with the test markets (Atlanta and Chicago), those markets were heavy wing markets which did not reflect some of our broader customers feelings towards the price and spice of the wings," says Lisa McComb, a McDonald's spokeswoman. 
   
   While the amount of spice has not been changed, "there is more awareness that they have a spicy kick to them," says McComb. 
   
   For McDonald's, Mighty Wings has been a rather high-profile new product disappointment. While it's not uncommon for some new products to perform well regionally but poorly on a national scale, McDonald's CEO Don Thompson had high hopes for Mighty Wings. 
   
   The problem, however, wasn't the product, but the price. "The product is good, but the price was too high," says Scott Hume, founder of the BurgerBusiness.com blog. "The lesson that McDonald's and other quick-service brands keep learning and relearning is that much of the (fast food) audience is unemployed, underemployed or otherwise very cautious with spending." 
   
   Although the national re-rollout began this week, "thousands" of McDonald's restaurants have continued to sell Mighty Wings since they were introduced in Sept. 2013, says McComb. 
   
   But it's too early to write an obituary for Might Wings, advises Hume. "If Mighty Wings score at 5 for $3 then they'll be back," he says. "But if the price break doesn't make them sell, then McDonald's is unlikely to give wings another try." 
   
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   There’s a chicken wing clearance sale going on at McDonald’s (MCD). This week the chain began promoting its Mighty Wings at a new price of $3 for five wings, or about 60¢ each, compared with the original price of $1 per wing. That’s a 40 percent discount. At this price, McDonald’s will either break even or take a slight loss on the product, according to Nick Setyan, vice president in charge of equity research at Wedbush Securities. 
   
   Mighty Wings will be sold at the discounted price “until supply runs out,” spokeswoman Lisa McComb wrote in an e-mail. 
   
   “They’ve paid for those wings. If they don’t sell it, they would have to eat the entire loss,” Setyan said in an e-mail. “It’s really the only sensible option at this point.” McDonald’s declined to comment on the profitability of the wings. Even so, Setyan estimates that the new price reduces operating margins on wings by about 10 percentage points. 
   
   Disappointing sales left the Golden Arches with roughly 10 million pounds of frozen wings—about 20 percent of what the chain purchased—at the end of 2013 after Mighty Wings launched nationally in September. 
   
   “The original price point wasn’t as competitive as it could have been,” according to McComb. Although some consumers found the wings too spicy, the recipe has not changed; there’s “just more awareness that they have a little kick to them.”
target: – McDonald's Mighty Wings simply didn't fly with customers, and now the chain appears to just want to break even on them. Reports in December predicted that a promotion would be coming, and it's here: Instead of selling the wings at a buck each, McDonald's is now offering them at a rate of five for $3, or 60 cents per wing, Businessweek reports. That price will result in either breaking even or a small loss, says an analyst. But "they’ve paid for those wings. If they don’t sell (them), they would have to eat the entire loss." A McDonald's rep indicates to USA Today that Atlanta and Chicago might bear some of the blame for the flop: "While pricing during the national advertised launch was consistent with the test markets (Atlanta and Chicago), those markets were heavy wing markets which did not reflect some of our broader customers feelings towards the price and spice of the wings." Now, the discount will continue "until supply runs out"—and there's a big supply—says the rep, who notes that while the price has changed, the level of spice has not, though there's now "more awareness" of it.