The Big Mac set in Japan is ¥750 right now. Which converts to $5.07.
Does McDonald's America think each restaurant is a theme park or something?
The Big Mac set in Japan is ¥750 right now.
And Burger King is even cheaper.
It baffles my mind that people would pay $18 USD for that shit. I visited the US last year and while prices in general had definitely gone up since the last time I was there, there is absolutely no justification to pay $18 for McDonald's. It's crazy.
It is insane that a meal at Red Robin with bottomless fries is actually less expensive than McDonald's.. I literally don't go to these types of restaurants unless there is some app deal because fastfood retail prices have gone insane.
I don't know where they're getting this $18 price from as my local McDonalds aren't charging anywhere near that much for any of their meals.
Australia pricing. It's around $12 in the states
Someone was able to bypass the paywall and said it's some McDonalds at a rest stop in Connecticut, which is just an outlier like any gas station charging $1.50/gal more because they're right off a busy freeway exit.
You can get some proper good food for that price in a normal restaurant here in Austria.
I live in Texas and had a sweet potato hash with pulled pork, kale, and a poached egg for lunch yesterday for $15. If $18 for a McDonald's meal is true, people would be crazy to go there, there are a ton of more affordable and way better options.
Same in America. You can at least get a decent lunch that was made in a proper kitchen, with good ingredients. Maybe not dinner.
In Australia it is $12.80 AUD for a large Big Mac meal which is $8.36 USD. For $18.5 USD I can get a much better burger and still a meal deal at either Five Guys or Grilld.
Small big Mac meal is $12.80, Large is AUD$14.40, USD$9.39 pretty sure.
Been a while since I have been now that kids are not interested in it, but that still translates to about to half the price of the US prices.
They kind of used to be. The big old play areas are mostly gone. One in my area even had an N64 in one of those bubble kiosks. Gone. I can't imagine why kids these days still give a shit about Micky D.
They look like this now. Pretty much the most inoffensively hostile environment imaginable.
Bland yet uninviting
It clearly sends the message, “Come on in, then get the fuck out as quickly as possible.”
I think they are/were trying to rebrand away from being a place to get cheap low quality burgers.
Well that does not work if you only increase the price.
Now they're a place to get overpriced low quality burgers.
Can't read the article without effort, but I very much doubt numbers and the context is missing. Every one I've been to here on the East Coast USA has been about $12.
Which is still way too much for fucking McDonald's.
Not really a big Mac will feed ya for a half day and it's a great quick snack meal if you are on the run. I make it a point to hit them up every once in a while for breakfast too. People hate on McDonald's way too much.
A big Mac will not feed anyone for half a day. It's all bun.
Thank god we didnt raise minimum wage, otheriwse the price of big macs would have sky rocketed!!!!
Chipotle posted a few years back that raising the minimum wage to $15 (more than double current minimum wage) would increase the price of a burrito by about 30 cents.
I think the idea that minimum wage hikes contributed to this is silly given that they’ve mostly eliminated cashier positions. Everything is a kiosk now. Also, McDonald’s workers in Europe make a decent wage, have sick and vacation time, and other decent benefits and the prices there are lower than in the US.
I live in Denmark, Europe. One Bic Mac meal is 9.39 USD incl taxes.
The minimum salary in McDonals is around 3500 USD per month for a standard 37 hr/week, including pension.
This is every month, not affected by holidays, sick leave, paid vacation... It comes with 5 or 6 weeks of paid vacation per year, and virtually unlimited sick leave.
Yeah, I also don't understand why McDonald's says they can't raise salaries or improve working conditions, because it will make the price go up. So why is it expensive now?
(Yes, taxes are high here. But we also have a lot of stuff that is tax paid, that evens it out somewhat.)
Yeah, I also don't understand why McDonald's says they can't raise salaries or improve working conditions, because it will make the price go up.
They say that because Americans are dumb enough to believe it and not get mad at McDonald's for price gouging. A LOT of companies over here have been doing the same thing lately.
This is the answer.
Who the fuck pays $18 to eat at McDonalds?
The only way I can justify eating at McDonald's is by using their app to get free fries n such. Usually I can get out of there with lunch for between 5 and 10 bucks.
Even so, the value of Wendy's Biggie Bag blows McDonald's pricing out of the water, if I'm choosing to have fast food, I might as well have that.
I really like a sausage muffin with cheese, but fortunately for my health, I can never make it there early enough to get breakfast.
For real. Most of the best burgers I've had were cheaper than that... In Copenhagen of all expensive-ass places.
I just ate the big Mac meal like 30 minutes ago. And in one of the most expensive states, it was $11.93 large.
As if they weren't the ones setting the price so high. They're actually paying attention because people are finally starting to not pay them.
But the hedge fund managers sent them letters saying their job is to gouge customers explicitly looking for inexpensive meals because wE NeEd MOAAAAAAR!
If they‘re already losing costumers (we‘re talking about McD costumers here. People who have been loyally buying their junk for their entire life) then it‘s already too late. People who already turned their back on a product that‘s mainly driven by brand power will not return if you just reduce prices a little again. That‘s because it took a lot more crap for them to leave than they‘re willing to come back for once they‘re gone. If McD is really openly considering to lower prices, they‘re in deep trouble.
This kind of thing always seems to have a huge delay. Eventually enough people figure it out to make a dent, but it's going to take 18 months to hit that point.
Oh, and every fast food place expects you to use their app, or they'll charge you 50% more. And you have to do their dance of what to order and which deal applies this week.
Just don't go there anymore. If we all got on the same page and normalize boycotting corporations for the slightest reason we could hit them where it hurts; their profits. It's the only way we can fight back against corporate greed.. Use the capitalist system they have used to divide and conquer against them. Make them fear us.
[boycotting] is the only way we can fight back against corporate greed
this is a symptom of a greater problem in the united states. boycotting is never going to be as effective as legislative change because boycotts take a monumental amount of effort to organize and it's very easy for people to lose interest/move on as time passes. the government needs to start doing something about these companies being too greedy (e.g. break them up, force price caps, nationalize them, etc)
because boycotts take a monumental amount of effort to organize
It really doesn't. If you don't like something about a company, tell them and don't spend your money there. It does not need to be organised. The greater issue is not that it requires monumental effort but that people are not even willing of minimal effort if it affects their every day life. "Sure Amazon is bad... But I can't live without prime..."
If you don't like something about a company, tell them and don't spend your money there.
That's not a boycott, it's an individual change of spending habits
It's not a boycott if you're alone
I belive that it is. As far as I know there are no size requirements to qualify for a boycott
here's the full sentence you're quoting:
boycotting is never going to be as effective as legislative change because boycotts take a monumental amount of effort to organize and it’s very easy for people to lose interest/move on as time passes.
sure, you can simply decide to do a one-person boycott of a company, and that wouldn't take much effort at all to organize. but when it comes to actually changing the behavior of a company, the actions of one consumer are not going to be nearly as effective as a piece of legislation. so, you'll probably need to get many people to band together and collectively decide to stop buying a company's products. this leads back to the "monumental effort" part of the sentence.
also, in order for people to decide that they don't like what a company is doing, they need to first be told that the company is doing those things. who's going to tell them?
I'd argue that if people do not like something a company does, and simply stop buying from it, it's the same as an organised boycott. I assume that I won't be the only one disliking the companys actions and that there will be more who do the same.
People simply need to realise that as consumers, we have the power to change things. It's not too different to voting. Your actions count, even though they may seem small. If we all react instead of maindleslt consuming, companies will listen. They may not react but they will listen.
They already know everything about their consumers and adjust their products accordingly to maximize sales. If people start writing to them that they have stopped buying their products or services because of this or that, they will definetelly notice
Sure. But for a successful boycott you need hundreds of thousands to millions of participants over weeks to months. Can you organize that? You're taking for granted the type of publicity campaign needed to organize a boycott like this and then you'd need to actually find enough people who care enough and have the willpower to participate. No one's going to care if 100M people boycott a place that were already not going there. You need to convince those who regularly patronize that business.
The conondrum you describe in interesting.
You argue that boycott only is effective when it is organized, and when the public realizes that the company is doing something bad, beacuse of the organized boycott. I argue that boycott will happen naturally without organisation when customers realise that a company does something that they don't like.
The key in both is, that people know, that the company is doing something bad. This can be something bad to environmet, something bad to its employees, something bad to animals etc. From what i have noticed, this is enough for people to stop shopping in one place and find somewhere else to do their shopping. No orgonized boycott or legislations involved. The latest example I have noticed, was a pretty large local boycott of fast growing chicken meat in supermarkets. These are chicken who grow from 50 grams to 2Kg within 6 weeks.
There were no legislations, no organised boycott. Many people just refused not only to buy them, but even to shop at the stores that had them. They have now gradually been removed because people didn't like them being sold.
Gotta cook at home.
Any alternative options run $5 for 800 calories in San Francisco, besides home cooking?
Ah! Taco Bell does have ‘em beat:
Anywhere else I think you’d need [app] coupons to achieve parity, though I could be wrong.
I swear Domino's pizza is the best calorie to dollar ratio here. You can get a pizza that's probably more than your daily calorie requirement for under $5 if you buy something like a Hawaiian at lunch time.
Just checked and a deep pan pepperoni is over 1200kcal and is AUD7 (USD4.60).
A bottle of oil is more than your daily calorie requirements and is probably cheaper.
Ding ding ding!
Have to use one of their permanent coupons, otherwise it’s more than twice as expensive ($18.99).
Has between 2550-2640 calories as built, so:
Taco Bell: 3.38/420=0.008
Domino’s: 7.99/2600=0.0031
.8 cents per calorie versus .3 cents per calorie. What a deal! (Health evaluation not included :) )
Omg a cheesy bean and rice burrito used to be like $1.29 or so just a few years ago.
Used to be 99c and had pico on it. I still will eat them but they're not the same :(
It's also the absolute only thing they listen to. We've seen it time and time again, they'll go back on their promises, actively harm their own customers, lie and make excuses on social media, and more for that tiny little bit of extra profit...
Gotta love the new MacCrums Value meal pack! It comes with 5 crumbs in a convenient ketchup packet still half full of ketchup 😄!
Translation: shrinkflation incoming
Can't wait for the Mini Mac...
Translation: violenceflation incoming
When you can't afford a Big Mac, just eat the rich
We need to resurrect Jonathan Swift so he can write another best-selling satire about this nonsense. Right after he goes ballistic over nobody else doing that job for at least half a century.
Well, this is the fault of providing that one-time Covid relief payment to people years ago. Duh.
For environmental reasons, we won't add the buns for take away orders, because everyone has already so much bread at home
Our family was priced out of fast food in the US about two years ago. It's both too expensive and much worse than it was in the past. We got generally priced out of family dining before that, so this was just the natural progression.
I work harder than ever and we just keep sliding down the economic scale. We lost the class war.
I've found fast food in the US is actually quite a bit more expensive and worse quality than locally owned places. I realize not everywhere has access to those options though, especially outside urban areas
Whatever, don't care. Won't be lured in to eat their crappy food. I could gather more sustenance from sunlight more cheaply and with better service.
Bagged lunches unite!
"We have burgers at home" gang!
I keep patties/fries in the freezer and have an easily accessible grill and air fryer for when that urge hits. The only thing I need to get is the buns.
We rarely eat at McDonald's these days. The prices pushed us out along with the poor quality food.
During the pandemic I just got really good at cooking and food prep. Air fried cauliflower! Air fried green beans! Air fried jalapenos! There's so many good things to cook, looking back on fastfood is honestly bland.
(Air fry black beans for a pretty good beef crumble imitation - great for walking tacos and wraps)
It better get much further than spitting distance from what carryout at a local pub buys me price-wise. Currently it's essentially the same price whether I go get a hand-formed burger and fries with actual fresh lettuce and tomato from the local pub as it is if I get a meal from McD.
They were only ever winning on cost and speed, and now they can't even compete there.
And yet I still see queues stretching round their drive through. I don't understand who is still paying so much for lower quality food.
Maybe parents whose kids see mcds as their treat?
I mean you don't need that much people to fill a drive through.
With bigger cars, you can fill it even faster.
Fair, but the question is still relevant. Why is anyone there when there's better quality food for the same price?
If my kid ever sees McDonald's as a "treat," I've failed them.
What should be a "treat" based on your views?
Just wondering not judging or anything.
Activated Almonds, I'm sure.
Something of higher quality. Like good chocolates, a nice meal, ice cream, breakfast for dinner... Maybe it's pretentious, but I'd prefer my daughter see places like McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, etc as quick alternatives when you just don't want to cook or need a snack. Not as a treat you should really be looking forward to.
If you tell your kid McD is something special then whenever you pass a McD it will feel a craving and want it. This is how brand obedient consumers are made. If instead you let them have McD for a week or two they will see the food for what it is.
Fsst food chains hate this simple trick
Yeah kids hate chicken nuggets
The speed has especially taken a shit in recent years.
What happened to the rows of burgers behind them? Now you have to wait like 10-15 minutes for it, while a bunch of delivery guys crowd around.
Greedflation strikes again.
That's more expensive than me going to "better" fast food places like Chipotle, Panda Express, etc. Which is silly because McD's is only a choice for me when there's nearly nothing else I trust to eat.
Well, it's a rest stop, so I'd imagine it's also more expensive than you going to a McDonald's.
You trust to eat McDonalds?
When it's that, gas stations, and local places that look shady on the road, sure? The only thing McD's really has going for it is they maintain franchise consistency in their food.
Well, that and Big Macs are delicious...
Usain Bolt eats McDonalds when overseas that’s how reliable it is.
If the finest dining in an area is a McDonald's, I just skip a meal.
I wouldn't call any of those options better. Idk about your taste if food if you like cold mostly rice burritos, or cold mostly rice and katsup chicken. I've been priced out of fast food because of these rising costs for a couple years now and making my own food is quite a bit healthier and cheaper even though I hate cooking.
I've generally found McDonald's, Burger King and other similar fast food places to be at price parity with Culver's, so the choice becomes a very simple "do I want to eat Culver's?" Since I might as well get much better food for the exact same dang price
That's as expensive as an actual restaurant
I can get a bison burger at a halfway respectable restaurant that actually tastes like food a person would eat for that price. What a scam, but then again, I haven't seen anything close to that in any McDs near me.
In what hell is a big Mac meal $18.
I bought a triple quarter pounder meal + happy meal for $17 2 days ago.
You say that like $17 is a reasonable price to pay for 2 preprocessed garbage burgers, 2 little cardboard cups of fries, and 2 cups of sugar water.
Yes. And I completely disagree with your description of the food. You people have been programmed to believe the food is much worse than it is. Almost all of my burgers come out fresh. I'm not sure what you mean preprocessed. It's pure old regular ground beef salt and pepper. The fries are certainly a step down from beef tallow days but magnitudes better than the frozen oven fries or doing a double fry at home.
I'm more than happy to trade on occasion. It's a lovely little treat filled with nostalgia.
I've never seen such a distinct projection as your comment which starts off as "you people have been programmed (against)" and you ending with you own "nostalgia" towards the same product.
You admit you've been programmed to have a pleasant feeling when consuming this product and yet cannot rather than accept that others do not have this programming, jump past this obvious state and accuse others of having been programmed against your beloved product experience.
Very intriguing and illustrative example on the effects of marketing to mould the human mind and trigger its defenses.
It can absolutely be both. You can enjoy the nostalgia while making objective observations. I already posted my observation of lower quality fries, but you have seemed to ignore it and tried to make it a binary thing.
Because you are programmed to hate them and can't make an objective decision.
Have you considered you're programmed to think everyone but you is programmed?
You seem to have no problem expressing your knowledge on the exact motivations behind other's decisions. This is a signal that does not favor you having high emotional intelligence.
That you cannot tell the difference between my theory and your certainty is another such signal.
How much profit is McDonald's Corp making in the US? In
Germany (Munich in particular, which usuay is the most expensive city for everything) a big Mac meal is around 9,79€ (although there's always a coupon in the app for some free nuggets or something). The workers are paid decently, they have full health insurance (including dental, eyes, etc, because everybody gets those), unlimited sick days and a minimum of 24 vacation days.
The fuck you guys are doing over there?
Funneling all our money into the hands of the already rich.
It's a privilege to provide all that freedom to the hard-working innovators that make this country great! (Heavy sarcasm)
Exploiting the poor people.
We live to serve our corporate overlords.
Not that much, that's for sure.
Dolla dolla bill
McDonald's didn't make profit on the food. They make money on the land value and franchise fees. I'm more saying I completely disagree with you but I think there is a more accurate way to frame where money is going. McDonald's healthcare is far better than what you'll get working at smaller food service business.
For what's it worth, my big ac meal is only 10.6€.
I remember when what you ordered would have been around $7 total. Wasn't that long ago either.
Geez, and I thought our 11 euro meal was expensive here in the Netherlands…
The company really has lost track of why people went there in the first place. They used to be cheap and fast; that’s what mattered. Nobody gave a shit that the food was just OK or that you ate it off a plastic tray while sitting in a plastic bench seat.
But in the 90’s, things went downhill. They made the restaurants ‘fancy’ and added a lot to the menu. Which meant you were now paying more for food and waiting longer to get it. Before the self order kiosks were installed, the staff also couldn’t keep up with menu changes, which meant more order errors as well.
They also invested more in things like healthy options and added specific McCafe coffee corners to sell better coffee. As if that was something we went to McD’s for…
They really need to get back to basics. A ten item menu, sold cheap, in a who-gives-a-shit what it looks like restaurant.
I generally agree with your post except for -
and added specific McCafe coffee corners to sell better coffee. As if that was something we went to McD’s for…
Australian here. In the last 40 years or so we have morphed (somehow) into notorious coffee snobs. Possibly due to a large number of Italian migrants in the 1950's - 1970's who wanted a decent espresso , who knows? But I digress.
McCafe coffee isn't the best coffee around, but it's a consistent quality that means you can go to nearly any McDonald's in Australia and get the same without playing the dreaded guessing game of "will this coffee be undrinkable dishwater?" that you do when visiting random cafes.
Coupled with their efficiency in drive-thru operations it means you can grab a coffee with a known quality in a fairly well known timeframe, something that is sorely lacking in your average cafe.
Fair enough, you might not always have a decent, consistent chain nearby. Especially if you’re not in a larger city.
Here in the Netherlands we’re certainly spoilt for choice in that regard. You can get decent coffee just about everywhere. So it doesn’t really add much in that regard.
Australia doesn’t really have cafe chains. We just have a bazillion small cafes. Most sell coffee that is good or better, so I’m not sure what the person above it talking about, but most cafes can’t handle the volume of customers that a McDonald’s can, and virtually no cafe has a drive through. So McCafé was a success.
I worked at the 2nd or 3rd biggest McDonald’s (by revenue) in Australia for a couple of years and I can assure you that plenty of people wanted the McCafe coffee and cakes. The morning rush was ffffffffffffffucking insane.
With regards to healthy options, my reading of it was that they include it on the menu knowing that most people won’t order it - but people like the fact that they could order it if they wanted to (while scarfing down their triple cheese burger with extra bacon).
The absurdly large menu they have these days is a disaster though. I pity the people that have to work there now.
In Canada, McDonalds is the best chain to go to for a decent cheap coffee. Our national chain, Tim Hortons, went downhill maybe a decade or two ago, and Starbucks is too expensive, lol
They can do whatever they want but a competitor should fill in the void, but that's also not happening, all the other big names are just as bad and no new kids on the block anywhere. Have you tried the five guys in Utrecht? It's really nice but you leave with a 30€ per person bill for some basic stuff, it's mad.
So glad I live in the land of in n out. Fuck McDonald's.
Because there are huge barriers to competition, including advertising. And if someone overcomes those obstacles, why not match existing prices?
You don't have to talk to collude on prices.
They didn't lose track. People are now addicted to the salt and sugar bomb. They know it and capitalize on it.
Even here in Seattle, you can get one or two real burgers for that price.
Exactly. McDonald's is such garbage.
They replaced all of their cashiers, to "save the consumer money" buy just increased the prices anyway.
Absolute waste of money. Always has been, but especially is now.
Next month they're releasing the Smellinator. For $6.99 you get a napkin that smells like a Burger... Enjoy!
burgers are made out of napkins anyway.
Anybody get past the paywall to see where it's with $18? I just pulled up the menu for nearest McD and a medium Big Mac meal is $8.98 where I live. Which now seems like a heck of a deal.
I just pulled up the menu for nearest McD and a medium Big Mac meal is $8.98 where I live. Which now seems like a heck of a deal.
This whole post is a psyop commercial for McD
/kinda s but not really
$11.99 here in Chicago.
Maybe somewhere dumb like Rock N Roll McDonald's or San Francisco.
It's too early here. I am not permitted to view the lunch menu at 4:20am.
This New York Post article is the source for the reference to $18 in the Fortune article. The price was seen at a McDonald’s franchise location in Connecticut.
“A McDonald’s at a Connecticut rest stop is charging $18 for a Big Mac combo meal — and fast-food fans aren’t lovin’ it.
“This was at a rest stop, but these McDonald’s prices are nuts right???” wrote Sam Learner after posting a photo of the menu on Twitter on Tuesday.
The McDonald’s — located off Interstate 95 in Darien, one of the country’s wealthiest towns in upscale Fairfield County — also charges $19 for a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Bacon meal or a Quarter Pounder Deluxe, both of which include medium fries and a medium soft drink.
Other eye-popping prices on the menu include $18 for a McCrispy sandwich, $18.29 for a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets and $16.59 for a Filet-O-Fish sandwich.
A cheeseburger, usually found on the $1 menu, is going for $17 for two.
On Grubhub, the items are even more expensive.
A Big Mac meal would set the customer back $21.59 while a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal costs $22.79.”
Yeah, rest stops (or services as we call them over this side of the pond) are always overpriced compared to normal places. Costs are different, and they usually have a captive audience. The same goes for airports, but everyone is used to getting ripped off at the airport.
Every day I thank the gods I learned how to cook at home
I like to cook but some days I'm out of the house 5am - 9pm and I work six days so weekly food prep is hit and miss.
It's all the fast food joints. I'm in Canada and I took my wife and daughter to burger king the other day. 3 whopper meals and a couple of apple pies later and it comes out to almost $60 with tax, shit is insane
Should have come out to about $47 for 3 whopper meals with 3 apple pies after tax. You're paying someone to make and bring you food. It's a luxury.
Edit: I don't understand Lemmy sometimes. Are the downvoters disagreeing with my statement that restaurants are luxuries? Wild.
Do you have a point?
My point is that the person I was replying to was lying about the cost of the food. The original post is about the cost of fast food. I contend that as long as people treat fast food as a necessity and not a luxury (which it very much is) then the market will decide how much is too much money. Clearly people are still paying for trash food at elevated costs, then complaining about it later. I further contend that this doesn't do shit to incentivize McDonald's to lower their prices.
The original comment said they took their family to Burger King and then you made up that they had it delivered and that was why it cost what it did.
I'm not sure why you decided to make that up when it didn't fit the comment, nor why you expected a full itemized list in a copy to price compare against, but ok.
I guess they deserve to be paid extra for not making you walk into their kitchen and get the food yourself.
No I never said anything about delivery? Lmao I just looked up BK prices in Canada. They said 3 Whopper meals and 3 apple pies. They created the itemized list, not myself. Thanks for coming out.
It's a luxury to eat fast food now? Used to be that buying your kid a happy meal was a good, cheap solution to dinner, now it's a luxury? By the way 3 $15 meals plus tax does come out to over $55, I was off by 5, sorry I offended your corporate dick sucking sensibilities
"It’s a luxury to eat fast food" yes.
Yes, eating food cooked from a restaurant is a luxury. This concept has been lost along the way of the last couple of decades.
When I was a kid, that idea of "going out to eat" rather than having home-cooked food, was an occasional luxury instead of a regular staple of the diet. That was back in the last century.
Now we have an obesity epidemic. People need to remember that restaurant food, including fast food, is actually a luxury.
Gosh, I can't see how any of those things are connected...
Yes. Having someone prepare and bring you food, and then clean up after you is a luxury, not a right.
Lemmy trends young. They really do think fast food is "normal" food. You GenX as well? For us eating out was a special treat, not another Tuesday.
While I'd argue that fast food prices are through the roof, I'd also argue that it's a luxury. I simply won't pay until they come down.
Fast food joints are necessities for the working poor and not luxuries.
At their skyrocketing prices, poor people will starve. :(
Where on earth is a Big Mac $18? I’m not paying to read that article.
Prices at McDonald’s are still expected to increase—albeit at a slower pace of 2% to 3%, versus last year’s 10%
Yea that's not gonna help them any.
My guess to what they'll do? Hit all the menu items with the Shrinkflation™ Ray®.
“I think what you’re going to see as you head into 2024 is probably more attention to what I would describe as affordability,” Kempczinski told analysts.
He followed with, “I don't jnow what this word means, but I have people who are going to tell me. Then I will decide if that term can aid us in our ceaseless quest for continually increased percentage of profit growth, to benefit our shareholder overlords by adding numbers to their financial advisors’ spreadsheets.”
I had no idea it got so expensive. It's been ages since I had any interest eating there.
I can't read the article because of the paywall and don't care enough to circumvent it or look into it more, so I don't know if they accounted for it, but prices actually vary from one McDonald's location to another, a big Mac doesn't cost the same around the country.
I haven't done an exhaustive comparison, again I don't care that much, but I was curious enough to check online ordering at the only McDonalds that's open around me right now (it's 1 AM and almost nothing is 24/7 around here since the pandemic, which is a real bummer for night shifters like me, but I digress)
A large big Mac meal from there would cost me 10.39, a medium meal 9.49 (I guess small doesn't exist anymore because those are the only 2 options)
I don't live in a super expensive are, but it's not the cheapest either, so I suspect probably around that $10 mark for a big Mac meal is probably a more realistic average.
I have a feeling they're cherry picking that $18 big Mac from a swanky neighborhood in NYC or someth.
I'm in NYC and a big mac meal is $13 including tax in midtown according to their app. The one in the article is at some rest stop in CT and is almost certainly some franchise owner gouging, which is the real reason prices are so high.
Yeah $18 sounds much higher than the $10 meal that’s probably par for the course in today’s fast food economy
Apparently it's at a rest stop on the interstate
It's not. This article is just tossing in random numbers and quotes take something out of context.
The vast majority of customers are paying about $12 for the big burger meals.
They're might be a McDonald's charging$18 but it's an edge case.
I had a crazy-busy day about 2-months ago and found myself hitting up a McDonald’s drive-thru for an order of fries just to tide me over for the drive home.
I didn’t pay attention to the pricing—it was only fries—and when I got to the window I handed them a five, fully expecting a couple of bucks in change.
The attendant just looked at me. I laughed as I realized a regular order of fries was more than five-bucks.
And yet, I STILL am hard pressed to believe a Big Mac meal is currently $18…
The price of fast food is basically tied to how well the economy is doing, so I think they’re saying they’re going to donate to Republicans so that they can destroy the economy again.
Introducing the new McCardboard, made out of 100% recycled cardboard!
This is happening outside the US as well.
Fast food places aren’t fast or cheap anymore. Big Mac and Whopper meals are about 10€
For 2€ more I can get a real burger at an actual restaurant.
Food costs and employee costs have gone up. They are not immune. They just have a poorer product. When the difference in cost between high quality and average quality is less of a value difference.
If a big Mac is $2 and a burger at a nice place is $5, lots will get the big Mac. If a big Mac is $8 and the nice one is $11, lots will get the nice one.
Not only that, bit as the staff cost goes up, there are even more people who will say, screw it, I'll cook my own.
Big Mac combo should cost $6.99 imho
With the McDonald's app they had a $6 Big Mac medium combo deal but they recently changed it to a medium double cheeseburger meal for $6.
In-N-Out is what McDonalds was 40 years ago.
They would be if their fries stayed hot and crispy for more than 35 seconds.
I'm not familiar with in n out. Most chain burger places cost their fries in chemicals to make them crunchy longer. A natural cut fry becomes unappetizing like 10 minutes after it's out if the fryer.
There are trade offs with each way.
One is "cleaner" or maybe purer
One has a better customer experience
In-n-Out has famously "bad" fries for 2 reasons:
they single fry, not double fry. This is the classic way fries are fried and actually the big innovation that made McDonalds fries so famously good. Double frying results in a crispier and better tasting fry at the cost it being worse for you. Also let's them transport them easier en masse
they go light as fuck on the salt (some locations I've been to didn't salt at ALL though that may have been a mistake during a rush), to the point they provide salt packets to salt your own fries, which many people don't do.
I think they might also fry theirs in peanut oil like 5GBAF do, but I'm uncertain on that front.
Personally I think their fries are some of the better ones but you gotta salt em
The fries are fine if you eat there, but yeah, I'll take double fried fries over single any day.
double fry
I worked McDonald's when I was 16 (37-years ago 😢) and we didn't do that.
Worked a famous bar-and-grill in college and they taught us that, but we called it "blanching". You could damn near serve hour-old fries, still crispy.
Is blanching the wrong term?
They're fried before they're packaged and sent to the franchises who do the actual end frying
Blanching is the same as frying but instead of an oil you use water and then also sink or rinse it in cold water to quickly halt the cooking. Doing that with fries would ruin them, but I don't think it's wrong enough if a term to care. If someone knows what blanching is and you say you did it to your fries with oil they'll get what you mean
They soak them in sugar water to keep them crunchy when deepfried It's an old practice.
This is a podcast transcript. I listened to it years ago. It's what I'm basing my ideas on.
So a second-rate burger joint instead of a third-rate joint?
Dick's is where it's at.
I don't believe that a Big Mac meal hit $18, except maybe at one or two locations that are outliers. I can't read the article though because it's paywalled.
They've paid attention to affordability so far. They're paying close attention to how much they can charge before people can no longer afford it.
Like all gougers do.
You're describing essentially every business ever.
Hell, more than business even. You presumably wouldn't voluntarily take a pay cut, no? McDonald's isn't going to voluntarily charge less than they can either.
Every business gouges their customers? Ok. Sounds about right.
I'm a human. McDonalds is a legal fiction. I don't care how much money they make. You care about nothing else.
Essentially every business charges an amount just under that which would cause their average customer to switch to a competitor, yes.
McDonald's may be a legal fiction, but the franchise owner who set this particular price is not; he's a very real person exploiting the value derived from being one of very few options at a rest stop. Expecting him to do anything else is not a particularly practical strategy. If this is seen as objectionable, you need to eliminate that scarcity value by either opening the space up to additional competitors or using government to mandate as part of the rest stop leases that profit margins stay within a reasonable level.
There are actual solutions here, but wagging your finger is not one of them.
Don't like being gouged? Don't like others being gouged? Just have enough money to take on the largest fast food chain in the world! Why didn't I think of that?
Or just rant on niche forums I guess; you do you mate.
I mean, you're defending price gouging on the same forums.
I remember when Carl's Jr. came out with what they called "the $6 burger" and it was $9.
Originally it was $3.95, until it got over $6 and they had to change the name
Another challenge that McDonald’s bottom line has had to face is war in the Middle East.
From the McDouble to the Sweet Tea,
And cold fries cooked tallow free
mcdonalds has been inedible garbage for easily the last 25+ years - who eats there?
Lots of people. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean nobody else does either.
The issue isn't the quality of the food and whether or not someone likes it. Restaurants are a luxury, not a right. People who think it's too expensive don't need to eat there. You don't need to eat at McDonalds.
The issue is that for a lot of people it was the only affordable place, and now it's not.
I don't eat McDonald's or really any fast food. The last time I got fast food was a burger King after a 12 hour hike where I got a bit turned around in the woods and ended up getting out three hours after I planned and my regular go to on the way home was closed. The time before that was probably back when I was in college
But there are people who eat it almost every day. Not because they want to, but because it's the only thing they can afford to eat. That being taken away is shocking. Especially paying 18 dollars for a burger fries and drink? At McDonald's quality?
Absolutely. If McDonalds wants to price itself out of its own market that’s their decision, the onus is on consumers to stop patronizing the establishment.
We’ve become a nation of addicts to salt, sugar, and fat, and we’re all the worse for it. People forget that the only way a company lowers prices is if demand drops.
I saw a show where a lady ate couch cushions and she liked the used ones cuz they tasted better.
Y'all eat complete trash and call it food with your one fucking taste bud.
Y’all
Yeees. Throw stones. I'm sure you and whatever demographic you're identifying with have absolutely no skeletons in your closet and nothing easy to mock.
I farted so this cushion should taste extra great for you ma'am.
Other people that exist. You should maybe learn about thrm some time.
McDonalds has a better chicken sandwich then Panera Bread, and I'm not joking.
Panera is a low, low bar.
Granted, but it's not supposed to be that way.
The panera i worked at years ago had no kind of fryer....
They had microwaves though
I bet they microwave their chicken like all their pasta
I wish I could filter Microwave restaurants like this, Applebee's, Chili's, etc. from Google Maps searches.
Nobody. That's why they're struggling and most of their locations have closed.
Oh wait.
So how is in and out able to keep their prices much lower, but with higher quality ingredients and better employee pay?
In N Out is still a privately held company, while McDonald's is public and beholden to shareholders. They're also always slammed, and have a much simpler menu.
I'm not paying $20 for the same shit that was bare minimum of food at $5.
I'll just get my four for $4 from Wendy's thanks.
Even that is four for $5 near me now.
Yup. They got rid of the 4 for $4 and replaced it with the $5 biggie bag or a $6 biggie bag.
It's the same exact items just a dollar extra
Wtf. I thought the big mac was cheap in America. Here I'm complaining about the price and it turns out I'm getting quite the deal.
It's $12 for the meal in most places. The article is garbage designed to rile people up.
I hope my bugmac comes with a table filled with free fresh ketchup stains! Yum yum!
I got food poisoning there the day after Christmas.
Note to self: never go to a fast food restaurant the day after it was closed for a holiday.
Mcdonalds is already on the border of being not worth the price here. Like local hipster joints charge 8 euros for their biggest burgers.
I usually just stop for coffee. It's like $1.25
What the... I use the 30% coupon and buy the big Mac bundle box which has 2 big macs, 2 cheeseburgers, 2 large fries, and a 10 pc nugget in it. Always too much food but super cheap at $16.
For 4 people, right?
1 person, 4 times.
McDonald's keeps surprising well in a car over winter. Just grab a quick burger or some nuggies from the glovebox the next 3 days.
.... Yes.
2 humans and 2 doggos
I want to say that dogs probably shouldn't be eating that stuff, but I guess humans shouldn't, either...
Indeed, but it's cheap. When it stops being cheap compared to healthier options I'll eat healthier.
“Food”
I can live with 100 burgers = rent, if burger=$10, but not $18.
They'll proudly announce a $17.99 Big Mac meal and call it a good deal.
They'll ask for all our data in an app and in exchange we'll get a coupon every Thursday.
Cigarettes are expensive, disgusting and unhealthy too, but people spend a lot of money on it. U really don't get either of it. I think itl's rather pick up smoking tho.
Hmmm, food or lung cancer? What a decision to make. Yeah calling McDonald's food is a stretch but at least it feeds people. Cigarettes are a stupid habit.
If you must drink soda with your hamburger, Mcdonalds probably doesn't feel like an awful deal. No one drinks soda anymore tho. You get a "free soda" with the "value" meal.
You're an idiot if you're still eating fast food voluntarily. Might as well just take up smoking
This isn't the case for me (I'm just lazy sometimes), but some people genuinely don't have the time. Think single parents with children and two+ jobs. It probably hurts to be unfairly lumped into a generalization like that when you're doing everything you can for your family.
I'm sure that wasn't your intention; just wanted to offer my perspective.
Ironically, a lifetime of "there's no time to prepare nourishing meals for my family!" will result in decades of health care that would have been preventable if people just made their family regular food. Not to mention the price of all that fast food could be used to save for something worthwhile. The whole "healthy food is too expensive" myth has been debunked time and again, and simply not having "time" is bull. There's time to prepare meals instead of binging a crappy netflix show or whatever super important thing is preventing families from eating properly.
You clearly are not in a two-person working family with kids (let alone a single parent situation) if you think there is enough time in the day to make sure your kids are getting their massive amounts of homework they are given every day finished after doing your "non-mandatory" overtime, keep the house clean, get the laundry done, get the bills paid and have time to cook dinner every night.
It's not a myth, modern society keeps everyone intentionally so busy that families do not have the time to do what you think is simple.
When my daughter was in elementary school, you know how much time I had to binge crappy Netflix shows? Between zero and half of zero.
So yeah, we go out and get a burger from Wendy's sometimes. Call CPS on us.
The Big Mac set in Japan is ¥750 right now. Which converts to $5.07.
Does McDonald's America think each restaurant is a theme park or something?
And Burger King is even cheaper.
It baffles my mind that people would pay $18 USD for that shit. I visited the US last year and while prices in general had definitely gone up since the last time I was there, there is absolutely no justification to pay $18 for McDonald's. It's crazy.
It is insane that a meal at Red Robin with bottomless fries is actually less expensive than McDonald's.. I literally don't go to these types of restaurants unless there is some app deal because fastfood retail prices have gone insane.
I don't know where they're getting this $18 price from as my local McDonalds aren't charging anywhere near that much for any of their meals.
Australia pricing. It's around $12 in the states
Someone was able to bypass the paywall and said it's some McDonalds at a rest stop in Connecticut, which is just an outlier like any gas station charging $1.50/gal more because they're right off a busy freeway exit.
You can get some proper good food for that price in a normal restaurant here in Austria.
I live in Texas and had a sweet potato hash with pulled pork, kale, and a poached egg for lunch yesterday for $15. If $18 for a McDonald's meal is true, people would be crazy to go there, there are a ton of more affordable and way better options.
Same in America. You can at least get a decent lunch that was made in a proper kitchen, with good ingredients. Maybe not dinner.
In Australia it is $12.80 AUD for a large Big Mac meal which is $8.36 USD. For $18.5 USD I can get a much better burger and still a meal deal at either Five Guys or Grilld.
Small big Mac meal is $12.80, Large is AUD$14.40, USD$9.39 pretty sure.
Been a while since I have been now that kids are not interested in it, but that still translates to about to half the price of the US prices.
They kind of used to be. The big old play areas are mostly gone. One in my area even had an N64 in one of those bubble kiosks. Gone. I can't imagine why kids these days still give a shit about Micky D.
They look like this now. Pretty much the most inoffensively hostile environment imaginable.
Bland yet uninviting
It clearly sends the message, “Come on in, then get the fuck out as quickly as possible.”
It looks like a McMansion kitchen/dining.
I guess that's why "Mc" is in the term.
Originally mcmansion meant they were like the low quality fast food of houses. But it seems like we have some convergent evolution happening now.
I don't necessarily blame them as workers would have to go in and hose urine out of the play structure each night.
Nothing worth doing is easy, they say 🤣
That explains why I married such a difficult woman. lol
Coming in hot with the boomer jokes over here lmfao go lose a cold war, old ass 🤪
Cold war is what I call losing the fight for blankets to the wife and cat. lol
Nice lol
Yes.
I think they are/were trying to rebrand away from being a place to get cheap low quality burgers.
Well that does not work if you only increase the price.
Now they're a place to get overpriced low quality burgers.
Can't read the article without effort, but I very much doubt numbers and the context is missing. Every one I've been to here on the East Coast USA has been about $12.
Which is still way too much for fucking McDonald's.
Not really a big Mac will feed ya for a half day and it's a great quick snack meal if you are on the run. I make it a point to hit them up every once in a while for breakfast too. People hate on McDonald's way too much.
A big Mac will not feed anyone for half a day. It's all bun.
It's also awful
🤷♂️ gets me there
Same in the PNW.
Thank god we didnt raise minimum wage, otheriwse the price of big macs would have sky rocketed!!!!
Chipotle posted a few years back that raising the minimum wage to $15 (more than double current minimum wage) would increase the price of a burrito by about 30 cents.
I think the idea that minimum wage hikes contributed to this is silly given that they’ve mostly eliminated cashier positions. Everything is a kiosk now. Also, McDonald’s workers in Europe make a decent wage, have sick and vacation time, and other decent benefits and the prices there are lower than in the US.
I live in Denmark, Europe. One Bic Mac meal is 9.39 USD incl taxes.
The minimum salary in McDonals is around 3500 USD per month for a standard 37 hr/week, including pension.
This is every month, not affected by holidays, sick leave, paid vacation... It comes with 5 or 6 weeks of paid vacation per year, and virtually unlimited sick leave.
Yeah, I also don't understand why McDonald's says they can't raise salaries or improve working conditions, because it will make the price go up. So why is it expensive now?
(Yes, taxes are high here. But we also have a lot of stuff that is tax paid, that evens it out somewhat.)
They say that because Americans are dumb enough to believe it and not get mad at McDonald's for price gouging. A LOT of companies over here have been doing the same thing lately.
This is the answer.
Who the fuck pays $18 to eat at McDonalds?
The only way I can justify eating at McDonald's is by using their app to get free fries n such. Usually I can get out of there with lunch for between 5 and 10 bucks.
Even so, the value of Wendy's Biggie Bag blows McDonald's pricing out of the water, if I'm choosing to have fast food, I might as well have that.
I really like a sausage muffin with cheese, but fortunately for my health, I can never make it there early enough to get breakfast.
For real. Most of the best burgers I've had were cheaper than that... In Copenhagen of all expensive-ass places.
I just ate the big Mac meal like 30 minutes ago. And in one of the most expensive states, it was $11.93 large.
As if they weren't the ones setting the price so high. They're actually paying attention because people are finally starting to not pay them.
But the hedge fund managers sent them letters saying their job is to gouge customers explicitly looking for inexpensive meals because wE NeEd MOAAAAAAR!
If they‘re already losing costumers (we‘re talking about McD costumers here. People who have been loyally buying their junk for their entire life) then it‘s already too late. People who already turned their back on a product that‘s mainly driven by brand power will not return if you just reduce prices a little again. That‘s because it took a lot more crap for them to leave than they‘re willing to come back for once they‘re gone. If McD is really openly considering to lower prices, they‘re in deep trouble.
This kind of thing always seems to have a huge delay. Eventually enough people figure it out to make a dent, but it's going to take 18 months to hit that point.
Oh, and every fast food place expects you to use their app, or they'll charge you 50% more. And you have to do their dance of what to order and which deal applies this week.
Just don't go there anymore. If we all got on the same page and normalize boycotting corporations for the slightest reason we could hit them where it hurts; their profits. It's the only way we can fight back against corporate greed.. Use the capitalist system they have used to divide and conquer against them. Make them fear us.
this is a symptom of a greater problem in the united states. boycotting is never going to be as effective as legislative change because boycotts take a monumental amount of effort to organize and it's very easy for people to lose interest/move on as time passes. the government needs to start doing something about these companies being too greedy (e.g. break them up, force price caps, nationalize them, etc)
It really doesn't. If you don't like something about a company, tell them and don't spend your money there. It does not need to be organised. The greater issue is not that it requires monumental effort but that people are not even willing of minimal effort if it affects their every day life. "Sure Amazon is bad... But I can't live without prime..."
That's not a boycott, it's an individual change of spending habits
It's not a boycott if you're alone
I belive that it is. As far as I know there are no size requirements to qualify for a boycott
here's the full sentence you're quoting:
sure, you can simply decide to do a one-person boycott of a company, and that wouldn't take much effort at all to organize. but when it comes to actually changing the behavior of a company, the actions of one consumer are not going to be nearly as effective as a piece of legislation. so, you'll probably need to get many people to band together and collectively decide to stop buying a company's products. this leads back to the "monumental effort" part of the sentence.
also, in order for people to decide that they don't like what a company is doing, they need to first be told that the company is doing those things. who's going to tell them?
I'd argue that if people do not like something a company does, and simply stop buying from it, it's the same as an organised boycott. I assume that I won't be the only one disliking the companys actions and that there will be more who do the same.
People simply need to realise that as consumers, we have the power to change things. It's not too different to voting. Your actions count, even though they may seem small. If we all react instead of maindleslt consuming, companies will listen. They may not react but they will listen.
They already know everything about their consumers and adjust their products accordingly to maximize sales. If people start writing to them that they have stopped buying their products or services because of this or that, they will definetelly notice
Sure. But for a successful boycott you need hundreds of thousands to millions of participants over weeks to months. Can you organize that? You're taking for granted the type of publicity campaign needed to organize a boycott like this and then you'd need to actually find enough people who care enough and have the willpower to participate. No one's going to care if 100M people boycott a place that were already not going there. You need to convince those who regularly patronize that business.
The conondrum you describe in interesting.
You argue that boycott only is effective when it is organized, and when the public realizes that the company is doing something bad, beacuse of the organized boycott. I argue that boycott will happen naturally without organisation when customers realise that a company does something that they don't like.
The key in both is, that people know, that the company is doing something bad. This can be something bad to environmet, something bad to its employees, something bad to animals etc. From what i have noticed, this is enough for people to stop shopping in one place and find somewhere else to do their shopping. No orgonized boycott or legislations involved. The latest example I have noticed, was a pretty large local boycott of fast growing chicken meat in supermarkets. These are chicken who grow from 50 grams to 2Kg within 6 weeks. There were no legislations, no organised boycott. Many people just refused not only to buy them, but even to shop at the stores that had them. They have now gradually been removed because people didn't like them being sold.
Gotta cook at home.
Any alternative options run $5 for 800 calories in San Francisco, besides home cooking?
Ah! Taco Bell does have ‘em beat:
Anywhere else I think you’d need [app] coupons to achieve parity, though I could be wrong.
I swear Domino's pizza is the best calorie to dollar ratio here. You can get a pizza that's probably more than your daily calorie requirement for under $5 if you buy something like a Hawaiian at lunch time.
Just checked and a deep pan pepperoni is over 1200kcal and is AUD7 (USD4.60).
A bottle of oil is more than your daily calorie requirements and is probably cheaper.
Ding ding ding!
Have to use one of their permanent coupons, otherwise it’s more than twice as expensive ($18.99).
Has between 2550-2640 calories as built, so:
Taco Bell: 3.38/420=0.008
Domino’s: 7.99/2600=0.0031
.8 cents per calorie versus .3 cents per calorie. What a deal! (Health evaluation not included :) )
Omg a cheesy bean and rice burrito used to be like $1.29 or so just a few years ago.
Used to be 99c and had pico on it. I still will eat them but they're not the same :(
It's also the absolute only thing they listen to. We've seen it time and time again, they'll go back on their promises, actively harm their own customers, lie and make excuses on social media, and more for that tiny little bit of extra profit...
So smaller portions. Got it
Gotta love the new MacCrums Value meal pack! It comes with 5 crumbs in a convenient ketchup packet still half full of ketchup 😄!
Translation: shrinkflation incoming
Can't wait for the Mini Mac...
Translation: violenceflation incoming
When you can't afford a Big Mac, just eat the rich
We need to resurrect Jonathan Swift so he can write another best-selling satire about this nonsense. Right after he goes ballistic over nobody else doing that job for at least half a century.
Well, this is the fault of providing that one-time Covid relief payment to people years ago. Duh.
For environmental reasons, we won't add the buns for take away orders, because everyone has already so much bread at home
Our family was priced out of fast food in the US about two years ago. It's both too expensive and much worse than it was in the past. We got generally priced out of family dining before that, so this was just the natural progression.
I work harder than ever and we just keep sliding down the economic scale. We lost the class war.
I've found fast food in the US is actually quite a bit more expensive and worse quality than locally owned places. I realize not everywhere has access to those options though, especially outside urban areas
Whatever, don't care. Won't be lured in to eat their crappy food. I could gather more sustenance from sunlight more cheaply and with better service. Bagged lunches unite!
"We have burgers at home" gang!
I keep patties/fries in the freezer and have an easily accessible grill and air fryer for when that urge hits. The only thing I need to get is the buns.
We rarely eat at McDonald's these days. The prices pushed us out along with the poor quality food.
During the pandemic I just got really good at cooking and food prep. Air fried cauliflower! Air fried green beans! Air fried jalapenos! There's so many good things to cook, looking back on fastfood is honestly bland.
(Air fry black beans for a pretty good beef crumble imitation - great for walking tacos and wraps)
It better get much further than spitting distance from what carryout at a local pub buys me price-wise. Currently it's essentially the same price whether I go get a hand-formed burger and fries with actual fresh lettuce and tomato from the local pub as it is if I get a meal from McD.
They were only ever winning on cost and speed, and now they can't even compete there.
And yet I still see queues stretching round their drive through. I don't understand who is still paying so much for lower quality food.
Maybe parents whose kids see mcds as their treat?
I mean you don't need that much people to fill a drive through.
With bigger cars, you can fill it even faster.
Fair, but the question is still relevant. Why is anyone there when there's better quality food for the same price?
If my kid ever sees McDonald's as a "treat," I've failed them.
What should be a "treat" based on your views? Just wondering not judging or anything.
Activated Almonds, I'm sure.
Something of higher quality. Like good chocolates, a nice meal, ice cream, breakfast for dinner... Maybe it's pretentious, but I'd prefer my daughter see places like McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, etc as quick alternatives when you just don't want to cook or need a snack. Not as a treat you should really be looking forward to.
If you tell your kid McD is something special then whenever you pass a McD it will feel a craving and want it. This is how brand obedient consumers are made. If instead you let them have McD for a week or two they will see the food for what it is.
Fsst food chains hate this simple trick
Yeah kids hate chicken nuggets
The speed has especially taken a shit in recent years.
What happened to the rows of burgers behind them? Now you have to wait like 10-15 minutes for it, while a bunch of delivery guys crowd around.
Greedflation strikes again.
That's more expensive than me going to "better" fast food places like Chipotle, Panda Express, etc. Which is silly because McD's is only a choice for me when there's nearly nothing else I trust to eat.
Well, it's a rest stop, so I'd imagine it's also more expensive than you going to a McDonald's.
You trust to eat McDonalds?
When it's that, gas stations, and local places that look shady on the road, sure? The only thing McD's really has going for it is they maintain franchise consistency in their food.
Well, that and Big Macs are delicious...
Usain Bolt eats McDonalds when overseas that’s how reliable it is.
If the finest dining in an area is a McDonald's, I just skip a meal.
I wouldn't call any of those options better. Idk about your taste if food if you like cold mostly rice burritos, or cold mostly rice and katsup chicken. I've been priced out of fast food because of these rising costs for a couple years now and making my own food is quite a bit healthier and cheaper even though I hate cooking.
I've generally found McDonald's, Burger King and other similar fast food places to be at price parity with Culver's, so the choice becomes a very simple "do I want to eat Culver's?" Since I might as well get much better food for the exact same dang price
That's as expensive as an actual restaurant
I can get a bison burger at a halfway respectable restaurant that actually tastes like food a person would eat for that price. What a scam, but then again, I haven't seen anything close to that in any McDs near me.
In what hell is a big Mac meal $18.
I bought a triple quarter pounder meal + happy meal for $17 2 days ago.
You say that like $17 is a reasonable price to pay for 2 preprocessed garbage burgers, 2 little cardboard cups of fries, and 2 cups of sugar water.
Yes. And I completely disagree with your description of the food. You people have been programmed to believe the food is much worse than it is. Almost all of my burgers come out fresh. I'm not sure what you mean preprocessed. It's pure old regular ground beef salt and pepper. The fries are certainly a step down from beef tallow days but magnitudes better than the frozen oven fries or doing a double fry at home.
I'm more than happy to trade on occasion. It's a lovely little treat filled with nostalgia.
I've never seen such a distinct projection as your comment which starts off as "you people have been programmed (against)" and you ending with you own "nostalgia" towards the same product.
You admit you've been programmed to have a pleasant feeling when consuming this product and yet cannot rather than accept that others do not have this programming, jump past this obvious state and accuse others of having been programmed against your beloved product experience.
Very intriguing and illustrative example on the effects of marketing to mould the human mind and trigger its defenses.
It can absolutely be both. You can enjoy the nostalgia while making objective observations. I already posted my observation of lower quality fries, but you have seemed to ignore it and tried to make it a binary thing.
Because you are programmed to hate them and can't make an objective decision.
Have you considered you're programmed to think everyone but you is programmed?
You seem to have no problem expressing your knowledge on the exact motivations behind other's decisions. This is a signal that does not favor you having high emotional intelligence.
That you cannot tell the difference between my theory and your certainty is another such signal.
How much profit is McDonald's Corp making in the US? In Germany (Munich in particular, which usuay is the most expensive city for everything) a big Mac meal is around 9,79€ (although there's always a coupon in the app for some free nuggets or something). The workers are paid decently, they have full health insurance (including dental, eyes, etc, because everybody gets those), unlimited sick days and a minimum of 24 vacation days.
The fuck you guys are doing over there?
Funneling all our money into the hands of the already rich.
It's a privilege to provide all that freedom to the hard-working innovators that make this country great! (Heavy sarcasm)
Exploiting the poor people.
We live to serve our corporate overlords.
Not that much, that's for sure.
Dolla dolla bill
McDonald's didn't make profit on the food. They make money on the land value and franchise fees. I'm more saying I completely disagree with you but I think there is a more accurate way to frame where money is going. McDonald's healthcare is far better than what you'll get working at smaller food service business.
For what's it worth, my big ac meal is only 10.6€.
I remember when what you ordered would have been around $7 total. Wasn't that long ago either.
Geez, and I thought our 11 euro meal was expensive here in the Netherlands…
The company really has lost track of why people went there in the first place. They used to be cheap and fast; that’s what mattered. Nobody gave a shit that the food was just OK or that you ate it off a plastic tray while sitting in a plastic bench seat.
But in the 90’s, things went downhill. They made the restaurants ‘fancy’ and added a lot to the menu. Which meant you were now paying more for food and waiting longer to get it. Before the self order kiosks were installed, the staff also couldn’t keep up with menu changes, which meant more order errors as well.
They also invested more in things like healthy options and added specific McCafe coffee corners to sell better coffee. As if that was something we went to McD’s for…
They really need to get back to basics. A ten item menu, sold cheap, in a who-gives-a-shit what it looks like restaurant.
I generally agree with your post except for -
Australian here. In the last 40 years or so we have morphed (somehow) into notorious coffee snobs. Possibly due to a large number of Italian migrants in the 1950's - 1970's who wanted a decent espresso , who knows? But I digress.
McCafe coffee isn't the best coffee around, but it's a consistent quality that means you can go to nearly any McDonald's in Australia and get the same without playing the dreaded guessing game of "will this coffee be undrinkable dishwater?" that you do when visiting random cafes.
Coupled with their efficiency in drive-thru operations it means you can grab a coffee with a known quality in a fairly well known timeframe, something that is sorely lacking in your average cafe.
Fair enough, you might not always have a decent, consistent chain nearby. Especially if you’re not in a larger city.
Here in the Netherlands we’re certainly spoilt for choice in that regard. You can get decent coffee just about everywhere. So it doesn’t really add much in that regard.
Australia doesn’t really have cafe chains. We just have a bazillion small cafes. Most sell coffee that is good or better, so I’m not sure what the person above it talking about, but most cafes can’t handle the volume of customers that a McDonald’s can, and virtually no cafe has a drive through. So McCafé was a success.
I worked at the 2nd or 3rd biggest McDonald’s (by revenue) in Australia for a couple of years and I can assure you that plenty of people wanted the McCafe coffee and cakes. The morning rush was ffffffffffffffucking insane.
With regards to healthy options, my reading of it was that they include it on the menu knowing that most people won’t order it - but people like the fact that they could order it if they wanted to (while scarfing down their triple cheese burger with extra bacon).
The absurdly large menu they have these days is a disaster though. I pity the people that have to work there now.
In Canada, McDonalds is the best chain to go to for a decent cheap coffee. Our national chain, Tim Hortons, went downhill maybe a decade or two ago, and Starbucks is too expensive, lol
They can do whatever they want but a competitor should fill in the void, but that's also not happening, all the other big names are just as bad and no new kids on the block anywhere. Have you tried the five guys in Utrecht? It's really nice but you leave with a 30€ per person bill for some basic stuff, it's mad.
So glad I live in the land of in n out. Fuck McDonald's.
Because there are huge barriers to competition, including advertising. And if someone overcomes those obstacles, why not match existing prices?
You don't have to talk to collude on prices.
They didn't lose track. People are now addicted to the salt and sugar bomb. They know it and capitalize on it.
Even here in Seattle, you can get one or two real burgers for that price.
Exactly. McDonald's is such garbage.
They replaced all of their cashiers, to "save the consumer money" buy just increased the prices anyway.
Absolute waste of money. Always has been, but especially is now.
Next month they're releasing the Smellinator. For $6.99 you get a napkin that smells like a Burger... Enjoy!
burgers are made out of napkins anyway.
Anybody get past the paywall to see where it's with $18? I just pulled up the menu for nearest McD and a medium Big Mac meal is $8.98 where I live. Which now seems like a heck of a deal.
This whole post is a psyop commercial for McD
/kinda s but not really
$11.99 here in Chicago.
Maybe somewhere dumb like Rock N Roll McDonald's or San Francisco.
A few cents cheaper in San Francisco actually…
Until you add the soda tax!
https://youtu.be/GDFaEBjA7PU?si=K-ktLgL8BPHGx1jY
It's too early here. I am not permitted to view the lunch menu at 4:20am.
This New York Post article is the source for the reference to $18 in the Fortune article. The price was seen at a McDonald’s franchise location in Connecticut.
“A McDonald’s at a Connecticut rest stop is charging $18 for a Big Mac combo meal — and fast-food fans aren’t lovin’ it. “This was at a rest stop, but these McDonald’s prices are nuts right???” wrote Sam Learner after posting a photo of the menu on Twitter on Tuesday. The McDonald’s — located off Interstate 95 in Darien, one of the country’s wealthiest towns in upscale Fairfield County — also charges $19 for a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Bacon meal or a Quarter Pounder Deluxe, both of which include medium fries and a medium soft drink. Other eye-popping prices on the menu include $18 for a McCrispy sandwich, $18.29 for a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets and $16.59 for a Filet-O-Fish sandwich. A cheeseburger, usually found on the $1 menu, is going for $17 for two. On Grubhub, the items are even more expensive. A Big Mac meal would set the customer back $21.59 while a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal costs $22.79.”
Yeah, rest stops (or services as we call them over this side of the pond) are always overpriced compared to normal places. Costs are different, and they usually have a captive audience. The same goes for airports, but everyone is used to getting ripped off at the airport.
A place in Connecticut
Agreed, I have no clue what they are on about.
Every day I thank the gods I learned how to cook at home
I like to cook but some days I'm out of the house 5am - 9pm and I work six days so weekly food prep is hit and miss.
It's all the fast food joints. I'm in Canada and I took my wife and daughter to burger king the other day. 3 whopper meals and a couple of apple pies later and it comes out to almost $60 with tax, shit is insane
Should have come out to about $47 for 3 whopper meals with 3 apple pies after tax. You're paying someone to make and bring you food. It's a luxury.
Edit: I don't understand Lemmy sometimes. Are the downvoters disagreeing with my statement that restaurants are luxuries? Wild.
Do you have a point?
My point is that the person I was replying to was lying about the cost of the food. The original post is about the cost of fast food. I contend that as long as people treat fast food as a necessity and not a luxury (which it very much is) then the market will decide how much is too much money. Clearly people are still paying for trash food at elevated costs, then complaining about it later. I further contend that this doesn't do shit to incentivize McDonald's to lower their prices.
The original comment said they took their family to Burger King and then you made up that they had it delivered and that was why it cost what it did.
I'm not sure why you decided to make that up when it didn't fit the comment, nor why you expected a full itemized list in a copy to price compare against, but ok.
I guess they deserve to be paid extra for not making you walk into their kitchen and get the food yourself.
No I never said anything about delivery? Lmao I just looked up BK prices in Canada. They said 3 Whopper meals and 3 apple pies. They created the itemized list, not myself. Thanks for coming out.
It's a luxury to eat fast food now? Used to be that buying your kid a happy meal was a good, cheap solution to dinner, now it's a luxury? By the way 3 $15 meals plus tax does come out to over $55, I was off by 5, sorry I offended your corporate dick sucking sensibilities
"It’s a luxury to eat fast food" yes.
Yes, eating food cooked from a restaurant is a luxury. This concept has been lost along the way of the last couple of decades.
When I was a kid, that idea of "going out to eat" rather than having home-cooked food, was an occasional luxury instead of a regular staple of the diet. That was back in the last century.
Now we have an obesity epidemic. People need to remember that restaurant food, including fast food, is actually a luxury.
Gosh, I can't see how any of those things are connected...
Yes. Having someone prepare and bring you food, and then clean up after you is a luxury, not a right.
Lemmy trends young. They really do think fast food is "normal" food. You GenX as well? For us eating out was a special treat, not another Tuesday.
While I'd argue that fast food prices are through the roof, I'd also argue that it's a luxury. I simply won't pay until they come down.
Fast food joints are necessities for the working poor and not luxuries.
At their skyrocketing prices, poor people will starve. :(
Where on earth is a Big Mac $18? I’m not paying to read that article.
https://archive.ph/YVMfq
If you follow the linked NY Post article in the article, you can find out that it is a McDonald's at a rest stop in Connecticut.
Again, not paying to read an article.
If you'd like to read it (and almost any other article) without paying I'd recommend this:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/view-articles-reader-view-firefox-android
I could access the entire thing with a single click
Awesome! Thanks!
Growth is slowing. So their sales are still going up, just not as fast as the CEO would like so he could get his 5th yacht by Friday.
Archive link
Yea that's not gonna help them any.
My guess to what they'll do? Hit all the menu items with the Shrinkflation™ Ray®.
“I think what you’re going to see as you head into 2024 is probably more attention to what I would describe as affordability,” Kempczinski told analysts. He followed with, “I don't jnow what this word means, but I have people who are going to tell me. Then I will decide if that term can aid us in our ceaseless quest for continually increased percentage of profit growth, to benefit our shareholder overlords by adding numbers to their financial advisors’ spreadsheets.”
I had no idea it got so expensive. It's been ages since I had any interest eating there.
I can't read the article because of the paywall and don't care enough to circumvent it or look into it more, so I don't know if they accounted for it, but prices actually vary from one McDonald's location to another, a big Mac doesn't cost the same around the country.
I haven't done an exhaustive comparison, again I don't care that much, but I was curious enough to check online ordering at the only McDonalds that's open around me right now (it's 1 AM and almost nothing is 24/7 around here since the pandemic, which is a real bummer for night shifters like me, but I digress)
A large big Mac meal from there would cost me 10.39, a medium meal 9.49 (I guess small doesn't exist anymore because those are the only 2 options)
I don't live in a super expensive are, but it's not the cheapest either, so I suspect probably around that $10 mark for a big Mac meal is probably a more realistic average.
I have a feeling they're cherry picking that $18 big Mac from a swanky neighborhood in NYC or someth.
I'm in NYC and a big mac meal is $13 including tax in midtown according to their app. The one in the article is at some rest stop in CT and is almost certainly some franchise owner gouging, which is the real reason prices are so high.
Yeah $18 sounds much higher than the $10 meal that’s probably par for the course in today’s fast food economy
Apparently it's at a rest stop on the interstate
It's not. This article is just tossing in random numbers and quotes take something out of context.
The vast majority of customers are paying about $12 for the big burger meals.
They're might be a McDonald's charging$18 but it's an edge case.
I had a crazy-busy day about 2-months ago and found myself hitting up a McDonald’s drive-thru for an order of fries just to tide me over for the drive home.
I didn’t pay attention to the pricing—it was only fries—and when I got to the window I handed them a five, fully expecting a couple of bucks in change.
The attendant just looked at me. I laughed as I realized a regular order of fries was more than five-bucks.
And yet, I STILL am hard pressed to believe a Big Mac meal is currently $18…
The price of fast food is basically tied to how well the economy is doing, so I think they’re saying they’re going to donate to Republicans so that they can destroy the economy again.
Introducing the new McCardboard, made out of 100% recycled cardboard!
This is happening outside the US as well.
Fast food places aren’t fast or cheap anymore. Big Mac and Whopper meals are about 10€
For 2€ more I can get a real burger at an actual restaurant.
Food costs and employee costs have gone up. They are not immune. They just have a poorer product. When the difference in cost between high quality and average quality is less of a value difference.
If a big Mac is $2 and a burger at a nice place is $5, lots will get the big Mac. If a big Mac is $8 and the nice one is $11, lots will get the nice one.
Not only that, bit as the staff cost goes up, there are even more people who will say, screw it, I'll cook my own.
Big Mac combo should cost $6.99 imho
With the McDonald's app they had a $6 Big Mac medium combo deal but they recently changed it to a medium double cheeseburger meal for $6.
In-N-Out is what McDonalds was 40 years ago.
They would be if their fries stayed hot and crispy for more than 35 seconds.
I'm not familiar with in n out. Most chain burger places cost their fries in chemicals to make them crunchy longer. A natural cut fry becomes unappetizing like 10 minutes after it's out if the fryer.
There are trade offs with each way.
One is "cleaner" or maybe purer One has a better customer experience
In-n-Out has famously "bad" fries for 2 reasons:
they single fry, not double fry. This is the classic way fries are fried and actually the big innovation that made McDonalds fries so famously good. Double frying results in a crispier and better tasting fry at the cost it being worse for you. Also let's them transport them easier en masse
they go light as fuck on the salt (some locations I've been to didn't salt at ALL though that may have been a mistake during a rush), to the point they provide salt packets to salt your own fries, which many people don't do.
I think they might also fry theirs in peanut oil like 5GBAF do, but I'm uncertain on that front.
Personally I think their fries are some of the better ones but you gotta salt em
The fries are fine if you eat there, but yeah, I'll take double fried fries over single any day.
I worked McDonald's when I was 16 (37-years ago 😢) and we didn't do that.
Worked a famous bar-and-grill in college and they taught us that, but we called it "blanching". You could damn near serve hour-old fries, still crispy.
Is blanching the wrong term?
They're fried before they're packaged and sent to the franchises who do the actual end frying
Blanching is the same as frying but instead of an oil you use water and then also sink or rinse it in cold water to quickly halt the cooking. Doing that with fries would ruin them, but I don't think it's wrong enough if a term to care. If someone knows what blanching is and you say you did it to your fries with oil they'll get what you mean
They soak them in sugar water to keep them crunchy when deepfried It's an old practice.
This is a podcast transcript. I listened to it years ago. It's what I'm basing my ideas on.
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/772775254
It was a fascinating listen.
So a second-rate burger joint instead of a third-rate joint?
Dick's is where it's at.
I don't believe that a Big Mac meal hit $18, except maybe at one or two locations that are outliers. I can't read the article though because it's paywalled.
https://archive.ph/YVMfq
Yeah. That def seems to be the case.
They've paid attention to affordability so far. They're paying close attention to how much they can charge before people can no longer afford it.
Like all gougers do.
You're describing essentially every business ever.
Hell, more than business even. You presumably wouldn't voluntarily take a pay cut, no? McDonald's isn't going to voluntarily charge less than they can either.
Every business gouges their customers? Ok. Sounds about right.
I'm a human. McDonalds is a legal fiction. I don't care how much money they make. You care about nothing else.
Essentially every business charges an amount just under that which would cause their average customer to switch to a competitor, yes.
McDonald's may be a legal fiction, but the franchise owner who set this particular price is not; he's a very real person exploiting the value derived from being one of very few options at a rest stop. Expecting him to do anything else is not a particularly practical strategy. If this is seen as objectionable, you need to eliminate that scarcity value by either opening the space up to additional competitors or using government to mandate as part of the rest stop leases that profit margins stay within a reasonable level.
There are actual solutions here, but wagging your finger is not one of them.
Don't like being gouged? Don't like others being gouged? Just have enough money to take on the largest fast food chain in the world! Why didn't I think of that?
Or just rant on niche forums I guess; you do you mate.
I mean, you're defending price gouging on the same forums.
I remember when Carl's Jr. came out with what they called "the $6 burger" and it was $9.
Originally it was $3.95, until it got over $6 and they had to change the name
From the McDouble to the Sweet Tea,
And cold fries cooked tallow free
mcdonalds has been inedible garbage for easily the last 25+ years - who eats there?
Lots of people. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean nobody else does either.
The issue isn't the quality of the food and whether or not someone likes it. Restaurants are a luxury, not a right. People who think it's too expensive don't need to eat there. You don't need to eat at McDonalds.
The issue is that for a lot of people it was the only affordable place, and now it's not.
I don't eat McDonald's or really any fast food. The last time I got fast food was a burger King after a 12 hour hike where I got a bit turned around in the woods and ended up getting out three hours after I planned and my regular go to on the way home was closed. The time before that was probably back when I was in college
But there are people who eat it almost every day. Not because they want to, but because it's the only thing they can afford to eat. That being taken away is shocking. Especially paying 18 dollars for a burger fries and drink? At McDonald's quality?
Absolutely. If McDonalds wants to price itself out of its own market that’s their decision, the onus is on consumers to stop patronizing the establishment.
We’ve become a nation of addicts to salt, sugar, and fat, and we’re all the worse for it. People forget that the only way a company lowers prices is if demand drops.
I saw a show where a lady ate couch cushions and she liked the used ones cuz they tasted better.
Y'all eat complete trash and call it food with your one fucking taste bud.
Yeees. Throw stones. I'm sure you and whatever demographic you're identifying with have absolutely no skeletons in your closet and nothing easy to mock.
I farted so this cushion should taste extra great for you ma'am.
Other people that exist. You should maybe learn about thrm some time.
McDonalds has a better chicken sandwich then Panera Bread, and I'm not joking.
Panera is a low, low bar.
Granted, but it's not supposed to be that way.
The panera i worked at years ago had no kind of fryer....
They had microwaves though
I bet they microwave their chicken like all their pasta
I wish I could filter Microwave restaurants like this, Applebee's, Chili's, etc. from Google Maps searches.
Nobody. That's why they're struggling and most of their locations have closed.
Oh wait.
So how is in and out able to keep their prices much lower, but with higher quality ingredients and better employee pay?
In N Out is still a privately held company, while McDonald's is public and beholden to shareholders. They're also always slammed, and have a much simpler menu.
I'm not paying $20 for the same shit that was bare minimum of food at $5.
I'll just get my four for $4 from Wendy's thanks.
Even that is four for $5 near me now.
Yup. They got rid of the 4 for $4 and replaced it with the $5 biggie bag or a $6 biggie bag.
It's the same exact items just a dollar extra
Wtf. I thought the big mac was cheap in America. Here I'm complaining about the price and it turns out I'm getting quite the deal.
It's $12 for the meal in most places. The article is garbage designed to rile people up.
I hope my bugmac comes with a table filled with free fresh ketchup stains! Yum yum!
I got food poisoning there the day after Christmas.
Note to self: never go to a fast food restaurant the day after it was closed for a holiday.
Mcdonalds is already on the border of being not worth the price here. Like local hipster joints charge 8 euros for their biggest burgers.
I usually just stop for coffee. It's like $1.25
What the... I use the 30% coupon and buy the big Mac bundle box which has 2 big macs, 2 cheeseburgers, 2 large fries, and a 10 pc nugget in it. Always too much food but super cheap at $16.
For 4 people, right?
1 person, 4 times.
McDonald's keeps surprising well in a car over winter. Just grab a quick burger or some nuggies from the glovebox the next 3 days.
.... Yes.
2 humans and 2 doggos
I want to say that dogs probably shouldn't be eating that stuff, but I guess humans shouldn't, either...
Indeed, but it's cheap. When it stops being cheap compared to healthier options I'll eat healthier.
“Food”
I can live with 100 burgers = rent, if burger=$10, but not $18.
They'll proudly announce a $17.99 Big Mac meal and call it a good deal.
They'll ask for all our data in an app and in exchange we'll get a coupon every Thursday.
Extra BIG Ass Fries
Cigarettes are expensive, disgusting and unhealthy too, but people spend a lot of money on it. U really don't get either of it. I think itl's rather pick up smoking tho.
Hmmm, food or lung cancer? What a decision to make. Yeah calling McDonald's food is a stretch but at least it feeds people. Cigarettes are a stupid habit.
If you must drink soda with your hamburger, Mcdonalds probably doesn't feel like an awful deal. No one drinks soda anymore tho. You get a "free soda" with the "value" meal.
You're an idiot if you're still eating fast food voluntarily. Might as well just take up smoking
This isn't the case for me (I'm just lazy sometimes), but some people genuinely don't have the time. Think single parents with children and two+ jobs. It probably hurts to be unfairly lumped into a generalization like that when you're doing everything you can for your family.
I'm sure that wasn't your intention; just wanted to offer my perspective.
Ironically, a lifetime of "there's no time to prepare nourishing meals for my family!" will result in decades of health care that would have been preventable if people just made their family regular food. Not to mention the price of all that fast food could be used to save for something worthwhile. The whole "healthy food is too expensive" myth has been debunked time and again, and simply not having "time" is bull. There's time to prepare meals instead of binging a crappy netflix show or whatever super important thing is preventing families from eating properly.
You clearly are not in a two-person working family with kids (let alone a single parent situation) if you think there is enough time in the day to make sure your kids are getting their massive amounts of homework they are given every day finished after doing your "non-mandatory" overtime, keep the house clean, get the laundry done, get the bills paid and have time to cook dinner every night.
It's not a myth, modern society keeps everyone intentionally so busy that families do not have the time to do what you think is simple.
When my daughter was in elementary school, you know how much time I had to binge crappy Netflix shows? Between zero and half of zero.
So yeah, we go out and get a burger from Wendy's sometimes. Call CPS on us.
Sucks to be you, I guess. I'd rather live a long life without the bowel cancer and gout.