ARCH DELUXE TURNS 1: MCFORTUNE OR MCFLOP? : MCFORTUNE OR MCFLOP?Byline: John Stebbins Bloomberg News McDonald's Corp. called it ``the biggest product launch in company history'' and then set out to sell a sandwich line targeted not at kids, its main market, but at their parents. A year ago today, the fast-food chain introduced the first and best-known of four Deluxe de·luxe also de luxe adj. Particularly elegant and luxurious; sumptuous: deluxe accommodations; a de luxe automobile. adv. sandwiches, the Arch Deluxe The Arch Deluxe was a hamburger created and marketed by McDonald's with the intent of capturing the adult fast food consumer market, presented as a more sophisticated burger for an adult palate. It failed to catch on and is seen as one of the most expensive flops of all time. hamburger. It was followed by two Deluxe chicken sandwiches Noun 1. chicken sandwich - a sandwich made with a filling of sliced chicken sandwich - two (or more) slices of bread with a filling between them and a Deluxe fish sandwich, all topped to appeal to adult tastes. McDonald's spent two years testing and tweaking tweaking Vox populi Fine-tuning to produce optimal results the burger before serving it to the public, with lead chef Andrew Selvaggio searching two months for the sauce's mustard ingredient alone. While Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's says the Arch Deluxe has met its expectations, it is a bit vague about saying exactly what those expectations were and won't break out sales numbers. That gives analysts, franchise owners and others wide berth to call the burger everything from a modest success to an overhyped disappointment. ``I think they (sold $1 billion in Arch Deluxes) . . . or maybe a little better,'' said Paul Westra, an analyst with Salomon Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . ``It was a reasonable goal, and it gave them a great complementary product.'' Not so, says Damon Brundage, a NatWest Securities Ltd. analyst. ``Arch Deluxe?'' he said. ``Oh, you mean the Arch McBust.'' |
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