McDonald’s Is Bleeding Free Fries After Historic Toronto Raptors Run

Toronto Raptors cost McDonald’s millions in free fries

McDonald’s is apparently losing millions in free french fries thanks to the Toronto Raptors’ surprise historic run, according to a report by the Financial Post’s Jake Edmiston. About a year ago, McDonald’s and the Raptors signed a major sponsorship deal to give away medium fries in Ontario whenever the team scores twelve 3-pointers in a game. Then the Raptors traded “infamously reticent 3-point shooter” DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green — that trade, plus the midseason acquisition of Marc Gasol, meant the Raptors were suddenly looking a lot more likely to exceed the 12-shot giveaway threshold.

Almost a year later, the Raptors have hit the mark 44 times in the regular season and 10 more times during the playoffs, costing McDonald’s more than two million medium-sized orders of free fries. Using the average cost of $2.89 CAD ($2.18 USD), that’s about $5.8 million CAD ($4.37 million USD) in free fries.

There has been concern at McDonald’s that the giveaway amount has ballooned to three times more than the original projection, the Financial Post reports, but the concern has been more about franchisees’ ability to handle the demand (at one franchisees’ four Ontario stores, managers have an extra fry cook on hand for the lunch rush on “free fry days”). But in the long run, McDonald’s is betting it will pay off by getting more customers to download and use the McDonald’s app, which is the only way to redeem their fries the day after a Raptors game. With the Raptors looking to finish the NBA finals with a win tonight, Ontario residents better get their apps ready. If Kawhi has his way, tomorrow will be yet another “free fry day.”

And in other news…

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• In a sign that the universe still has a sense of humor, Gwyneth Paltrow reveals her 13-year-old son only ever wants to eat chicken nuggets, french fries, and Gatorade. “It’s like a war every day,” says the Goop queen. [People]
• Against “wellness”: “In 2019, dieting presents itself as wellness and clean eating, duping modern feminists to participate under the guise of health.” [NYT Opinion]
• The New York City Council will investigate the stiff fees that restaurants are charged by Grubhub and other food-delivery apps. [NY Post]
• What goes into an $899 bottle of beer? [LA Times]
• Oberlin College must pay a nearby bakery $11 million after an Ohio jury found the school liable for defamation after being wrongfully accused of racially profiling students. [CNN]
• The Philippines has been overwhelmed — or blessed? — by an excess of 10 million mangoes, thanks to a drier and warmer wet season than usual. [Business Insider]
• Just a spectacular photobomb:

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