There is a new war taking place in the world. One that doesn’t involve any nuclear missiles, tanks or guns. In this war, the only machinery being used is fryers, grills and cash registers. This new war that is sweeping the nation is the fast-food war.

The fast-food industries are known for being fast, easy and cheap. Certain businesses like Subway are known for their value deals like the “Five Dollar Footlong.” Consumers are always looking for the best deal, which can leave several companies hurting. With more companies adding new items to their value menus, others have to find a way to compete by making their own menu.

This stance isn’t leaving companies with their sought after results. Many companies are facing financial despair thanks to trying to compete with other restaurants. As companies like McDonalds and Taco Bell add more items to their dollar menus, companies like Subway can’t keep up.

This fast food war not only hurts other competitors, but it also hurts restaurants. Most family-owned diners can’t compete with titans like McDonalds or Burger King. This leaves several restaurants hurting and facing the chance of being closed.

Many companies don’t make money off of their deals. This causes a bit of an issue, especially if small, local-run stores can’t afford the ingredients needed to make the items on their menu. Select Subway stores have already disbanded certain deals because of prices for ingredients getting higher and overall product price getting cheaper.

The reason behind the value menu is to get people into the store. By making people walk into the restaurant to order something, the company hopes that those people will come back. Another hope that these companies have is that people will buy an inexpensive sandwich, but then buy a drink or fries to go with it to make a meal.

To many this isn’t much of a shock though because this is a well known technique used in advertising. Many retail stores will do a type of technique close to this one where they will put their sale items in the back of the store in hope that while you walk through you will see something and buy a full price item. This is also used by grocery stores when they put an item on sale, so this is not a new strategy at all.

Senior Morgan Stewart works at a local Wendy’s in Cranberry Township where they got rid of the value menu. Stewart stated why Wendy’s had decided to disband the value menu.

“We did it because we added all value sandwiches to the 4 for $4 meal. It originally came with the Junior Bacon Cheeseburger, the BLT crispy chicken, or the double stack, but now you can get it with the Junior Cheeseburgers, the Junior Deluxe, the regular crispy chicken, Junior hamburger, or any of the chicken wraps. We also increased the prices of the Crispy Chicken and Junior Cheeseburger from $0.99 before tax to $1.29. So in all, the value menu no longer exists, but the items still do they just are now part of the 4 for $4.” Stewart said.

Wendy’s might have just been one place in Beaver County that this has happened, but it could happen to any fast food restaurants. In the end, the real question is whether or not it is worthwhile for companies to even make value menus if they are just going to do more harm than good.