Fast food chains battle Burger King to be crowned top dog

It’s the dog days of fast food as the wiener wars heat up.

After Burger King added flame-broiled dogs to its permanent menu this week, 7-Eleven and Checkers & Rally’s Restaurants jumped into the fray with dog promos, claiming supremacy in price and quality.

Checkers advertised on Wednesday touting its 79-cent hot dogs — a promotion running through March in its 800-plus eateries — while 7-Eleven began pushing this week a Big Bite and Big Gulp combo for $2, a savings of $1.38, at its 10,700 stores.

The sudden interest in hot dogs is not a result of burgers waning and dogs surging, say industry experts.

“There has not been a successful hot dog chain,” said restaurant consultant Andrew Moger, chief executive of BCD.

Even Nathan’s Famous is struggling, reporting an 8 percent decline in sales to $20.5 million in its third quarter ending Dec. 27 compared to a year ago.

But the wiener interest does reflect Burger King’s efforts to answer McDonald’s big comeback — and a shrewd play by 7-Eleven and Checkers to ride on Burger King’s marketing investment.

“Burger King is trying to find something to differentiate itself from McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Taco Bell, which don’t offer hot dogs,” said Nomura analyst Mark Kalinowski.

At the same time, competitors see an opportunity.

“If Burger King is going to spend millions to launch hot dogs, we are going to ride on their advertising coattails,” said Terri Snyder, chief marketing officer of Checkers, a 30-year-old franchise with 55 stores in the New York metro area.

“We see this is an opportunity to put our hot dogs back on the map.”

There’s another issue at play as the fast food industry pumps out one low-price promotion after another, including pizza chains offering pies for $5 and “buy one/get one free” offers.

Low-priced commodities, including cheese, beef and chicken, are driving some of these value combos.

“We have more power to promote because our costs are so low,” said Snyder.