An $18 Big Mac meal sparked a revolt against high prices. Companies are finally listening
Many people believe it’s an astounding $18 after a post on X of McDonald’s menu prices at a rest stop in Connecticut went viral and made national headlines. (Narrator voice: It’s not.)
Now, almost a year after the post, a top McDonald’s executive wants to set the record straight. In a recent letter, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said $18 for a Big Mac combo was the “exception” and not the norm across all 13,700 restaurants in the country.
The average price of a Big Mac in the US was $4.39 in 2019,” Erlinger said in his recent letter. “Despite a global pandemic and historic rises in supply chain costs, wages and other inflationary pressures in the years that followed, the average cost is now $5.29. That’s an increase of 21% (not 100%),” he added.
Until these assholes stop taking in record profits each year & their ceos get more money than some countries generate they can fuck off on saying wages are a problem. The working poor deserve every penny they can get.
Agree. None of these CEOs have any groundbreaking ideas either. It's all the same strategies for short term profits rather than longer sustainable growth.
They’re paid in stock, so line must go up because MONEY.
That’s just it, as a business owner, some years may be good, and some years may be bad.
So some years your profit should be less.
That doesn’t mean you’re going under. Less profit is still profit. That means everyone (including yourself) has been paid and you have money left over.
But because CEOs are paid mostly in stock, the profits have to rise every year, for no necessary reason besides “I like money”
And eventually that’ll break, and it’ll happen all at once.
Did anyone else feel like this article just reads like an ad for their new value menu?
Yes. There should probably be some sort of disclaimer about how much Rotten Rons paid for this incredibly in-depth reporting.
They're scared. Continue to avoid McDonald's and they'll keep lowering prices. We have the power because we have the money they want and can choose where to spend it.
And as much chain fast food as possible. They're all doing it to varying degrees.
With the way things are going for the lower and middle classes, that’s a bold statement..
I see what you're saying but the fact is any money we have is the money these types of companies are after, they're not expecting rich people to keep McDonald's afloat. They're relying on commuters in a hurry, busy moms with whiny toddlers, people too tired after a day of work to cook for themselves etc. Voting with those dollars, however limited they may be, is the most powerful form of influence the lower class has.
I've been doing my part for over 15 years now.
I've only had to go 2 or 3 times on roadtrips when they were literally the only option, always late at night.
Excellent! I used to go there a lot until I got tired of overpaying
I would admit I used to get McDonald's quite a bit for lunch because it was pretty cheap. But, where I live a Big Mac meal is on average about $16 right now and I can get a burrito bowl from Chipotle with a drink for $13.
I'm not saying Chipotle is high quality food but I don't think anyone's going to argue it's not better quality than McDonald's, so why on earth would I pay more for McDonald's?
They overreached on their price gouging and now they're just trying to backpedal because they're losing money.
Started eating at Culver's recently. Same price as McDonald's but tastes like actual good quality hamburgers.
Plus Culver’s always has ice cream
Pretty sure Chipotle is owned by McDonalds.
Invest in real food. It is the foundation of your body.
It is not. McDonald's was an early investor but hasn't been for a long long time (almost 20 years now), but the idea has stuck around.
Chipotle is a publicly traded company.
I dunno.... sugar is sugar, carbs are carbs, protein is protein, your body is not prejudiced as to where those components comes from
Sugar is carbs
The 3 macros are carb fat protein.
Chiptle is real food... Mcshit ain't.
I don't got to chiptle because customer service is shite tho
Wait, who got more money dumping into their savings?
I got 2 stimulus checks for $1200. I didn't even have to ask, they just showed up. Did you not get those?
That's not a lot in this context of savings, just about 2 months' rent or less for a lot of people.
Many people don't have anywhere near 2 months rent in savings.
Um, everyone...1500 per kid and then like 3k on top of that then another 6500 check later
Out of curiosity: How much do you make and what are your monthly expenses?
Assuming you didn't lose your job
No kids here... Didn't see a penny. But I'm happy those that needed it got it. 😊
Lowered prices to $5 and still making profit.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-much-profit-mcdonalds-makes-on-its-new-5-meal-e2bbbd2c
"Available for a limited time." How magnanimous of them.
A Mac is worth $3.00. The ingredients cost them $1.60.
Love how they compared the $18 combo to the average price of just the sandwich, it’s just insane to me.
Thank you. This should have been a top comment as it needs more direct attention.
Went on a trip recently and we always stop by a McDonald's for breakfast and holy crap, a freaking hash brown was almost three bucks.
I get having to pay workers more but that's just some bullshit price gouging there because there's no way in hell what workers are still there are getting paid that much better in order to justify a the dollar hash brown.
They also have less workers per store now as they employ tablets for ordering, I believe, and some cooking processes have been simplified or removed.
They gauged a little too much and boasted about record profits a little too loudly, and now have to deal with backlash. Too bad, so sad. 🙄
No they aren’t.
Imagine working for two hours to be able to afford a single fucking Big Mac meal!
Now imagine working for two hours and then having to eat a Big Mac.
But a $15 minimum wage will cause prices to skyrocket! …. Prices have skyrocketed, wages remain stagnant.
It's not that we can't afford to pay you $15 an hour, or even $30 an hour, but if we did that then we couldn't give that money to the shareholders. You see, they've purchased a certificate which entitles them to the wealth created by your labor. We assure you we can imagine it must be somewhat uncomfortable to live in constant grinding poverty, but you can understand how our hands are tied here. They have a certificate. What are we supposed to do, ask a rich person to be a teeny tiny bit less rich? That's just crazy talk.
We promised those shareholders that we’d pay you as little as we can….. you wouldn’t want to make us liars, would you?
Fiduciary duty is one of the dirtiest phrases on the planet…
I can make a hamburger and fries in like ten minutes active cooking time for £3, and it'll have proper beef and be perfect.
What is even happening at Burger King?
Imagine not buying overpriced, unhealthy junk food.
That's crazy, i can't comprehend. Americans told me that junk food is cheaper than actual food, so obviously i believe that.
Peasants are not buying our over priced trash!
Why would they do such a thing?
No way to know, out some PR on it!
For me, the most egregious example was huggies diapers increasing prices while production costs went down.
username checks out