Marketing

The definitive 2019 chain restaurant gift guide

Just in time for the holidays: More restaurant-branded merch than ever before.
Photograph courtesy of KFC

Searching for the perfect white elephant gift? Have no idea what to get the restaurant lover in your life?

You’re in luck. Chains have been eagerly selling their own branded merchandise online this year, so that McDonald’s beanie you just had to have or that chicken-scented fire log you had no idea you needed are now readily available. Here's a roundup.

KFC’s Firelog

KFC gifts

Photograph courtesy of KFC

KFC, which introduced a log that smells like its Original Recipe Fried Chicken last year, has brought it back, in partnership with Enviro-Log and Walmart.

Consumers can find the logs at KFCFirelogs.com, which directs to Walmart’s website.

KFC has also introduced a new holiday bucket to its menu, featuring a “Secret Sanders” contest through which customers can win a number of other gifts such as KFC wrapping paper and a Colonel Sanders nutcracker.

McDonald’s merch

McDonald's merch

Photograph courtesy of McDonald's

McDonald’s, meanwhile, recently opened its first year-round merchandise shop, Golden Arches Unlimited.

McDonald’s has sold branded items periodically for decades, dating back to the 1980s, and in 2017 started selling limited-time merchandise through its McDelivery Collection. 

There, customers can get a McDonald’s holiday sweater for $65 or World Famous Fries socks for $20. There is also a sesame seed zip hoodie for $60. Alas, the Happy Meal T-shirt and the aforementioned beanie are sold out.

Red Lobster’s ugly sweater

Red Lobster sweater

Photograph courtesy of Red Lobster

Seafood chain Red Lobster introduced its own Red Lobster Shop this holiday season with “It’s Always Biscuit Season” T-shirts for $19.99 and Cheddar Bay Biscuit insulated fanny packs for $19.99.

It also had this fabulous Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit Ugly Sweater (above) that featured lobsters and its famous biscuits as well as an insulated pocket customers could keep said biscuits in. Alas, the sweater is already sold out.

White Castle’s House of Crave

White Castle Sweater

Photograph courtesy of White Castle

Lose out on the Red Lobster sweater? White Castle has one, for $39.95, in its House of Crave shop.

The shop includes other items such as $14 Ugly Socks or a Light Up Glass Ornament for $5.

The Del Taco Shop

Mexican fast-food chain Del Taco has its own online shop where customers can purchase Del Taco socks for $15.99, a two-pack of taco holders for $4 or a Del Taco knit beanie for $7.50. Also available are cases of 100 sauce packets for $6.99, such as Del Scorcho

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