How Burger King is beating McDonalds with revamped Whopper after CEOs bite blunder

Burger King is taking a big bite out of McDonald’s business.After McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski appeared to struggle to take a bite of the chain’s new Big Arch burger in a promotional video that went viral for all the wrong reasons, Burger King’s president swooped in to promote a revamped Whopper – and it appears to be paying off. Since March, when the videos took off online, growth in weekly visits to Burger King has begun to far outpace McDonald’s on a yearly basis, according to Placer.ai data shared with The Post.For the week of March 2, when both the Big Arch and the new Whopper debuted on menus, weekly visits to Burger King jumped 7.4% higher than the same time last year.McDonald’s were just 2.2% higher, according to Placer.ai’s figures.Over the next three weeks, Burger King saw traffic grow 5.4%, 2.2% and 3.2% – while McDonald’s suffered declines of 0.2%, 2.2% and 1.3%, respectively.“We believe the war and rising gas prices are partly to blame [for slowing McDonald’s sales], contributing to overall US same-store sales growth slowing from 3% in early March to flat year over year in the last three weeks,” David Palmer, restaurant analyst at Evercore, wrote in a note.“That said, it is also true that McDonald’s has been underperforming peers such as Burger King in the wake of viral ‘CEO burger-bites’ videos and the subsequent taste tests of the Whopper vs.

the Big Arch burger,” Palmer added.Placer.ai noted that shifts in foot traffic can be tied to many different factors, including heightened economic uncertainty and lower consumer confidence, as well as holiday store closures and weather conditions.Shares in McDonald’s are down 7.4% over the past month, while Restaurant Brands – which owns Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes – is up 4.9% over the same period.McDonald’s did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.In a February video on social media, Kempczinski appeared reluctant to take a bite ...