McDonald's: $18 Big Mac was 'exception'
McDonald’s is fighting back against viral tweets and media reports that it says have exaggerated its price increases.
In a post on the company’s website Wednesday, McDonald’s U.S. President Joe Erlinger said reports suggesting the price of the average Big Mac has doubled since 2019 were false. McDonald’s said the average U.S. Big Mac was $4.39 in 2019 and now costs $5.29, a 20.5% increase.
Erlinger acknowledged that he and many franchisees were frustrated by a post on X last summer about a Big Mac meal in Connecticut that cost $18, calling the price “an exception.”
McDonald’s saw a marked slowdown in store traffic in the first three months of this year as inflation-weary customers in the U.S. and other big markets ate out less often.
“It’s clear that we — together with our franchisees — must remain laser-focused on value and affordability,” Erlinger said.
Motherfucker acting like the price increases are modest while charging 3.29 for a fucking Hash Brown. I get it, your customers eat McDonald's so it's easy to assume they're stupid, but you can be pretty fucking stupid and still realize that the total price of your meal is ridiculous.
They also ditched the $1 any size drink pricing.
When they dropped the $1 iced tea, I knew shit got real.
You can't get dirty water for $1 anymore? What a ripoff.
Hey it's all good, not actually doubled! The 2% cost of living adjustments should cover it. /s
You got money? I just got a pizza party.
With food costs changing as they have, you likely got more value from the pizza party. That slice of pepperoni is worth at least $8.
Meanwhile McDonald's CEO was paid $19.2mm last year, which was 8% higher than the year before that.
This is less than half the amount of Big Mac-flation, so it's actually a bargain!
They're passing the savings onto the consumers, right?
I’d like to thank McD for improving my diet. It used to be cheap and quick. Now it’s neither and they support all kinds of shit.
I was at a Pro-Palestine protest a few weeks ago and one of the companies to boycott was McD. I deleted the app then and there and won’t go back.
I have quite a nice list of companies I avoid these days for all sorts of reasons and my life isn’t any worse. I suppose the most inconvenient is Amazon but you can’t put a price on morals.
Greatly appreciate your solidarity 🥰
That's the issue with Wendy's for me right now. They're closest to my house of any food, and they have the 5 dollar biggie bag, which has gotta be the best deal in fast food right now.
Do burger flippers at McD's really earn 40% more compared to a few years ago?
Depending on how minimum wage has gone up regionally thats a big maybe.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state
Nonetheless it's gotten quite expensive. It made a nice post-bar snack, however there are now many better options at the price point.
I never go to McDonalds without using a code from the app. $2 breakfast sandwich? Cool. 20% off entire order? Cool. It's gotten to the point that using the app is necessary to get reasonably priced food. Without it, you're overpaying.
A situation specifically engineered to get people downloading their app and forking over tracking data.
And waiving their rights to join a class action lawsuit against McDonald's, don't forget that :D
Shelter or Island if you use Android. Let's you install the apps in a separate profile, and have them effectively disabled when not in use.
Ooh, that's good to know about. I've been meaning to look into ways to do just that for a while now. Thanks!
Exactly. I guess at this point, I'm ok with some certain datapoints being collected. Mostly what they'll get from me is that I occasionally like a Sausage Egg McMuffin on my way to work. lol
The app wants location data too, so they probably know where you are at all times and other things you like based on where you go.
You can limit when an app is allowed to access your location in Android. But I'm guessing it's used for finding the nearest restaurant to do mobile orders.
Any clue what permissions the app asks for?
Location, Camera/photos, ( I assume for something like QR scanning), notification, audio.
And that's exactly why I don't go there anymore.
Having to let McDonald's into my phone via an app so that I can get less terribly priced food is a goddamn scam.
That's basically the situation with almost every fast food restaurant these days, some casual dinning places and even grocery stores.
Yeah no way am I paying $4.50 for a single double cheeseburger but with a 2 for 1 deal it's worth it.
Same with taco bell. There is a build your own box combo for $6 on the app that has two main items, a side item, and a drink. The same combo purchased in store is $12.
They're trading out low-value customers for high-value customers. It's Business 101. I've done it with my old PC repair gig.
For the same revenue, do you want a bunch of people paying low prices or a few people paying high prices?
In any case, I'm all for higher fast-food prices. Maybe this will drive a culture shift towards healthier, less fattening food.
The problem with that logic is that McDonalds has not upped the value of their product. I didn’t take Business 101, but I’m pretty sure it’d be considered bad business to try and sell the same piece of shit you’ve always sold for a higher price than you typically sell for.
Business 101, the real goal is to try and sell a cheaper to produce piece of shit you've always sold, while simultaneously raising the prices. Now that's building value 😎
Going with that logic, McD’s should cut costs by doing away with their septic system & just feed all of that shit directly back into their supply chain.
They could have a hose running back to the kitchen that plops some shit right on the bun with each flush!
If you’re lucky, you get to eat the same burger twice!!
You sound like a straight-shooter with 'upper management' written all over ya!
Nono no.
You see, that's covered in the "Ethical Business 101".
High value customers don't eat at Mcdonalds.
Problem is the price of ingredients for cooking at home have gone up too, and with the value of labor for more workers falling in comparison, the cost of cooking at home is at best keeping pace.
It's a safe assumption to make that the customers bearing the high prices are largely only doing so because they go to mcdonalds out of habit. Eventually they'll shake out of that habit and mcdonalds will be left with dropping revenues, which is what we're starting to see now. If mcdonalds wants high-value customers, then they'd have to offer high-value products and services, but they do neither.
Business 101 would be identifying an under-served customer base and appealing to them. What mcdonalds is doing is just squeezing their existing customers outside of the base that mcdonalds is known for (wanting cheap and convenient food). It works until the customers stop coming, then mcdonalds has to work twice as hard to get them back because those customers have moved onto other restaurants which they've found out offer better products and services and/or better prices.
McDonald's business model isn't that, though. They're a volume business. They want to cut costs and sell as many as they can. They can't really compete against the "fast casual" segment on quality.
Exception? That's almost how much any McDonald's meal costs here in California too, and it's not like that price is limited to a single location. The only way they are actually a good deal, is if they happen to have a good deal going on in their app. Shit, even the $1, $2, $3 Menu has nothing under $4 anymore.
the price of the burger reletive to other chains isnt as egrigious. the price increase is mostly in the cost of the fries and drink which have inflated.
i learned about it when i had to compare burger and burger combos from various joints in my area.
Just because everyone is screwing you doesn’t mean it’s not egregious
i didnt say it was not egregious
You're right about the price in comparison. But it's always been seen as the lowest acceptable quality, even in comparison to other fast food. So it needs to be priced much cheaper to justify it, not just comparable.
The McDonald’s across from my apt building recently closed despite having a line around the corner of the block for weekend drive through in the mornings.
I got got by this location last year. Pulled off the highway and accidentally spent $19 for a quick meal.
Boycott!
I wouldn't eat that gmo trash anyways.