“Even though we’re pushing through pricing, the consumer is tolerating it well,” he said in October analyst call.
normal way to talk about ‘fellow’ human beings
There’s a burger place near me which makes a great burger - good quality ingredients, interesting toppings, great fries and they’re cheaper than McDonalds. Given McDonald’s prices on ingredients will be substantially cheaper, and their volume higher, this is just pure greed.
My local burger places are just like that. Absolutely bonkers what people with a routine will tolerate if the change is slow.
Some people are open to trying new things, they want the excitement of trying out a new restaurant or take out, they want to try types of food they’ve never eaten before.
Then there are the other type. They behave in the same way as children do, they want what they like, and will not take a risk on something new, even on something as pedestrian as a burger.
I’ve worked with a 50 year old man that gets upset if there isn’t a nearby Chick-fil-A. He eats the same thing every day. By his other behaviors I assume it’s undiagnosed OCD or something so we don’t give him shit about it.
My former coworker got the exact same thing from chipotle every single day. Nothing wrong with him, just really liked his routine. Some people are like that.
This seems pretty black and white. Ironically.
I love trying new food. But sometimes I just want to order something where I know what I am going to get.
You’re bi.
I don’t understand how McDonald’s does so well in Australia, since our traditional takeaways do such good burgers and better chips (fries) a home cooked version true to the fish and chip place original
Though my partner prefers the burger “plain” which omits the bacon, egg, and pineapple
It’s a good thing we haven’t raised the Minimum Wage! Otherwise they may have Raised their prices!
The legal minimum wage hasn’t risen, but the real minimum wage has. Around here, in a poor little redneck town, you’re getting $10-$12 to start at McDonalds.
I mean, I think part of the recruitment policy for each workplace is to state “We’re above minimum wage by a decent margin!” But if minimum wage were bumped up to $10, that would no longer be the case, and McDonalds would be doing little to differentiate themselves - at least until they offer $15-$18.
“Some customers are fed up and pushing back”
But continuing to buy things from them, yeah? Companies are not going to change until people stop buying from them.
Nobody needs McDonald’s. I’m not even sure most people actually want McDonald’s. Just stop going, seriously.
I hate McDonald’s. I eat McDonald’s. If I get into some tiny town or get off work in a tiny town at 11pm or later it’s often the only place open.
What I don’t understand is people who eat there by choice. I sometimes work with a guy who will go to McDonald’s by choice, even with better/cheaper options, three times a day.
I wonder how much of McDonald’s average franchise net income is from road warriors.
God damn. What fucked up nightmare is this if your ONLY choice is this toxic shitty unhealthy food?
You poor fucking bastard. Your health will pay for that in time.
You can get $1 breakfast sandwiches and $2 mcchicken with free fries in the app. I definitely use it when I want the cheapest lunch or breakfast option
Lol who tf has the McDs app?
A ton of people work poor jobs or unfortunate hours and have their health suffer for it. No need to rub it in, he clearly doesn’t think it will be healthy.
I worked for McDs in high school, around 2008. Big Mac meal used to be $6.08 with tax, $1 menu used to be $1.06 with tax. I went the other day and was shocked to see how much everything costs now plus I have to order via a screen (which I find bizarre, but maybe I’m just old now).
I also feel like working there used to be kind of fun. I’d take the order from the drive thru/take the money, kitchen would secretly prioritize drive thru orders (everything is timed), and window person would get the order together. Now it seems like they take 1 or 2 drive thru orders at a time and make the line wait until those are done.
Seems like fewer people working & prices went up - and I’m sure those poor folks working are making minimum wage. It’s just sad all around.
would secretly prioritize drive thru orders
Fucking knew it! Thanks for confirming
Well metrics are collected for both dining and drivethru but dive thru was always pushed hard as the thing to maintain timing wise. That’s when we figured out the smile button. A no charge but very abusable button that would count as an order. Ring a smile and wait 10sec and clear it. Ring one every 3 orders to be sly to corporate… When your having wait time issues and you could clear them and have them count even before clearimg the order before it. Easy way to knock the occasional 5 to 10 minute order down that skewed my hours metrics.
That’s pretty funny, was ordering a smile actually a thing? What happens?
I think the idea was to add it as an additional argument on the order when when inputting an order as an ask me button or potentially just as a cheeky little Easter egg but it would ring up as no dollar charge nothing more really. But tracking was on individual orders and since you could ring a smile and summit it as a order "pay for it " $ 0.00. And then wait 10 to 20 seconds and you could dismiss the order as fulfilled. Each hand off station in the store has a set of screens that show what the order is and what’s coming next for a couple of orders. You can dissmis orders out of order buy using a keypad. So a small coffee order can be dismissed while leaving the 15 filet of fish order up as a reminder. Any time you would see a order for a smile. You would hunt that order down as soon as you saw it and dismiss it. It became a huge joke about how many smiles per hour were being done during district meetings. Can’t imagine corporate ones.
so you order on a touch screen that has been used by every nosepickin’ customer before you and then chow down on food you eat with your hands? Sounds delicious.
Well yeah, how else will they post profits every quarter until the end of time?
It is so sickening how capitalism normalizes stripping people of their humanity
People are just wallets that cry sometimes
Poke poke C’mon… Quit crying! I want some money!
the customer is tolerating it well
Sure am! It’s been over four years since I’ve had McDonalds (or any other fast food restaurant). Prices are absurd and the food is meh at best.
I do get a craving for McDonalds fries that I give into probably once or twice per year. Usually I’ll get a Big Mac combo, or a couple McMenu sandwiches. The other surprising factor aside from the absurd price is how mediocre the flavour has gotten. While it was never culinary art, it somehow tastes even less like food than I remember just years ago.
I’m disappointed every time.
It probably hasn’t changed a whole lot over the years, it’s just that the cravings make it sound so much better until you have it again. I’m the same with KFC, I get massive cravings and remember how good it was last time, then when I get it I end up regretting it and being disappointed, then the cycle happens again
Tho that’s my personal experience yours could differ
A relative lost most of his taste during Corona. Good thing though, he can eat food so spicy that everyone else falls into pain coma.
We lose taste buds over time, so probably nothing tastes as good as it used to. 😉
It’s easy to tolerate price increases on products when you don’t buy that product. The thing that concerns me though, is that if people stop buying McDonald’s and instead buy canned beans… is my chili going to get more expensive because McDonald’s wants 3 dollar hash browns? I’m pretty sure the answer is yes.
Pro tip, if you have access to a stove and several hours of free time to spare for cooking-- dry beans are super cheap!
Extra pro tip: put them in a bowl or pan of boiling water the night before to make them cook quicker the next day. Extra extra pro tip put bicarbonate of soda in the water to make them cook quicker.
You can also soak them in the fridge for 24 hours to rehydrate them if you want a more passive way to prep them.
It’s truuuuee. I actually cooked my first pot of dry beans in a crock pot over the course of like 8 hours the other week, and it was very satisfying.
Getting an Instant Pot was my game changer for dry beans.
They won’t tho. If these people could just buy other things they would have already imo. I stopped going to McD’s when their prices got to high for me. That’s why they’re making a big stink about it, because they still want McD’s but don’t want to pay so much.
It’s one hash brown Michael, what could it cost?
Here’s some money. Go see a Star War.
Inflation and wage theft are absolutely out of control in this country. I’m a barista. My store makes $1600 in a eight-hour day. Mine and all of my coworker’s wage in there probably adds up to about $50/hour on average. So the profit margin is ridiculous. And these businesses have the gall to think they can make MORE MONEY. No, fuck you. At some point the human beings doing the hard work need to get a bigger cut.
make sure you count utilities and rent for the building and supplies etc, its still ridiculous but slightly less so
And franchise fees. They take a percentage of gross. I really don’t know why anybody gets involved with that stuff.
Yeah of course there are operating expenses, but you have these same companies buying the lowest quality equipment and products they can get away with as well. It’s inexcusable.
What most irritates me about this - plus layoffs to increase profits- is that the corporate numbnuts overlook the fact that every employee they stiff is a customer. Everyone is someone’s customer. A customer who has a shrinking amount of disposable income to spend on white goods, new clothes, eating out etc. They think hurrah, with AI we’ll be able to sack our creatives! Next thing they’re whining because there are so many homeless people on the streets. There’s a link! It’s exasperating.
ngl if you think being a barista is hard work you’ve never really worked hard
I’ve literally worked in the oil field throwing pipe wrenches around, and it was usually easier than what I see some food service employees putting up with lol
It’s brutal. More draining than any other retail job I’ve worked, and I’ve been in warehouses, unloaded trucks. Especially near a airport or hospital some locations do business NONSTOP. And the customers? FIENDING for sugar and caffeine in the form of some obscure, brand new tiktok hack that uses ingredients we probably don’t have in stock and is made the total opposite of how a reasonable person would want it. It’s like any other job, a lot of people DO put in hard work and most of those get nowhere but burned out.
Thank you for what you do. On top of that there’s cultivating the place’s atmosphere, which isn’t easy. I used to do homework and study at coffee shops all the time in college
Right back atcha - atmosphere is SO important to the higher-ups, and it really is a big challenge to maintain given the low pay, early mornings, demanding customers and scammy, if all-too-normalized business practices.
It’s one of the few times I’ll agree with a higher-up’s priorities. There’s a very significant difference between a fast, bustling coffee shop atmosphere and a laid back one. The former makes me think of an airport or mall kiosk – or most Starbucks, honestly. You go in, you get your drink, you get out.
The laid back, homey atmosphere is definitely my favorite though. That’s where you can actually catch up with friends or play a board game, read a book, or get homework/work/studying done.
And a big part of that is you guys. It’s a nice surprise when a barista at the place I usually go to recognizes me and knows what I want to order. Or they’ll strike up a conversation or tell me that technically, the butterbeer latte can be ordered year round.
You guys are some of my favorite people :). Don’t let haters talk you down.
I’ve worked a lot of jobs. I much preferred moving furniture and pulling carpet to my work as a barista. It’s still a physical job where you are on your feet all day but with the added stress of dealing with entitled customers.
Now that I’ve moved on dealing with other humans is still the worst part of my job. Leave me alone and let me fix shit and I’m happy.
LOL McDonald’s hasn’t seen my shadow in 10 years at least
I’m more surprised that they thought they could double prices, but yet somehow still very noticeably drop in quality. McDonald’s quality drop isn’t quite as bad as say, Taco Bell and others but wow, seems like hubris is in the air lately with these corporations’ executive boards.
I actually don’t hate the burgers McDonald’s has now. They are hot, and often hit the spot for me.
HOWEVER, a double quarter pounder meal is now like $10, and it’s just not worth it when I have other options next door or across the street that sell better food for about the same price.
Just think of all the hundreds of millions of people who won’t be affected by this because they refuse to eat at MacDonald’s regardless of their prices.
I heard about this and lmao no deal mcdicks.
Hash brown is 99 cents. Figure it out. We can see your market value.
I vow to not buy a McDonald’s hash brown until it is below $1
Honestly where I live I can get a ni e pub meal for about the same price as one of their burger meals.
Fun fact: In Germany, the big US fast food companies are in a constant price war. They hand out vouchers at least once a week and offer big discounts online and in their apps. Because if they didn’t their restaurants would be utterly empty. For the price of €12 for a Big Mac menu, I can go straight to a pretty good restaurant and have a Schnitzel with French Fries, a salad and a beer.
Especially Burger King and McDonalds are doing that all day. Subway and KFC a lot less.
Then there are Turkish and German fast food restaurants. They often have prices so low they simply don’t have to lower then to beat the US chains. And to be honest, before I buy a burger for €5 I buy a Kebab or Shawarma which beat every burger in taste and amount of food. German fast food restaurants often sell grilled chicken, all sorts of fish, fried sausages and so on. And yes, we consider Pizza German Food nowadays. And the Italians agree, especially when talking about Pine-Apple Pizza or Pizza with pulled pork. They are usually cheaper than anyone else and the food is huge and easy to eat fast. German Fast Food makes all others look like slow food, you can easily stuff yourself in two minutes.
Some prices:
-The Croatian canteen in our town hall serves good Balkan cuisine from €5. A glass of tap water for €0.50. And it is a nice place, not looking like a canteen at all. Tips are included in these prices.
-I have a ton of vouchers of 50% voucher for Chicken McNuggets, Big Macs and Salads. I don’t visit McDonalds too often as they require to order from a needless complicated touch screen but when I do I sometimes take a voucher “Two Big Macs for €5”.
-a company I work for sometimes orders the “business menu” from Burger King which is something like “20 burgers of your choice and 2kg of fries” for €70. As the boss often invites his worker I am just happy with whatever I get.
-the local furniture store offers 50% vouchers for a a complete fish dish on Friday for €5 in his nice restaurant.
-they also offer Chinese and German Food often at 50% vouchers which equals to €4-€5 for a complete meal. And every day they have some cheap East European soup dishes like Borscht, Flaczki, Gulasch and so on for €2-3 and it is always a HUGE amount of food.
Seriously, if you open your eyes you would be surprised how many really cheap and great restaurants are around.
Americans were told sometime in the 1970s that fast food = freedom.
It feels like the days of 5EUR döner are in the past now. I see for 7 or 8 EUR sometimes.
Especially the much higher quality and freshness of food in Europe in general.
And to be honest, before I buy a burger for €5 I buy a Kebab or Shawarma which beat every burger in taste and amount of food.
Compared to a BK or McD’s burger then yeah absolutely. But compared to burgers in general? Much closer call. If you haven’t had a really good cheeseburger, then you’re really missing out.
Fast food burgers should have a different name, the difference is so stark.
I know what you mean. A couple of years ago I bought a “Sandwich”. Man, it was THE BEST Sandwich I ever ate. It was just “from Heaven”. It was totally worth €10. And no, it wasn’t from Subway or the Kind. It was tiny Bavarian Restaurant pretty unknown outside its town. To bad it made a GREAT name meanwhile and nowadays charges like twice as much for anything.
And to be honest, before I buy a burger for €5 I buy a Kebab or Shawarma which beat every burger in taste and amount of food
Man, I miss doner kababs so much. I haven’t quite found anything similar back stateside.
A buddy came over here and fell totally for Turkish and Arab food in Germany. Seriously he started to sell Kebab and Döner on the US West Coast and got ludicrous rich. His trick, he doesn’t use Turkish or Arab names for his food. He sells it as “Yummy Wraps” and other fancy names and people stood half around the block to buy it.
Y’all aren’t boycotting?
Idk about boycotting but I’ll tell you that I haven’t had McDonald’s since I went and it was like $20+ for two people for some breakfast sandwiches (meals). I’d rather buy the frozen ones or just have none. Like everyone else, we don’t have a ton of extra money and if we do go out, we want our value for our time.
I got used to thinking about money being time. If you make 15/hr then one meal is roughly one hour. Don’t think of your dollar, think of how many hours something costs.
There was an article on here the other day about the $20 big mac meal. Basically McDonald’s is trying to exploit higher grocery prices, assuming more consumers will go to them instead. But they seem to not realize that charging as much as a douchey hipster restaurant for a burger and fries while being literally on par with frozen food is a losing proposition. It’s like they forgot they’re still in competition with the entire rest of the restaurant industry and that their prices have to stay below grocery prices to be competitive with groceries in the first place.
Hilarious, not gonna lie.
and that their prices have to stay below grocery prices to be competitive with groceries in the first place.
What? You can get enough ingredients to make 4 burgers for that much at a grocery store. You just have to make it yourself. The entire concept of fast food is that you’re paying more for the convenience.
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I was being generous in their favor. Basically steel-manning their argument.
Insane how little it costs to rent a human.
It’s a lease-to-own
“time is money” etc and inversely
When/where was this? My wife and I just had breakfast sandwiches with sides and drinks, each, a week or so ago and it was like $8 total for both.
I’m stunned people are bitching about fast food prices. Just don’t? FFS, what do you expect?!
“I keep buying and prices keep going up!”
Yeah. That’s how it works. Have you considered maybe stop giving them money?
“I can’t! I’m helpless and have excuses!”
But but, people of limited means don’t have any option but to…overpay for fast food? Yeah that’s it. There’s just no competition in the food game at all… You’re forced to eat big macs even if they’re $3500 a mac… Because that’s the only option you have as a poor person I assume…or something.
A lot of people are time-poor (have kids, long work hours, multiple jobs, etc). McDonald’s used to be pretty competitive-priced compared to cooking from home. I remember when their cheeseburgers were something like $0.70, and I often would get 4 of them on my break (I was in highschool, and worked 6 hour days after school, so I obviously didn’t have time to cook).
That’s the unfortunate side effect of rampant inflation where wages stay stagnant as markets decline. Look at how many restaurants and fast food places closed last year. I’m lower middle class and I have stopped getting fast food entirely. Every time I pass by on the way to and from work I just see the total for the meal in my head and drive past them now because it’s just not worth the overall financial damage. I honestly don’t know how everyone else is affording even Taco Bell meals regularly every week. I used to work there years ago and the food was significantly better back then, and way cheaper than other food sources. Where the hell did they all go so wrong this past year? Greed? There’s gotta be a price gouging greed mechanism in there somewhere.
That’s the unfortunate side effect of rampant inflation where wages stay stagnant as markets decline.
Markets aren’t declining though. That’s kind of the whole point isn’t it? These corporations are making record profits every quarter, yet workers wages are stagnant, and prices of their products have gone way up.
They’re doing great while also doing everything they can to make sure that the people doing the actual work don’t see a dime of it.
In high school, cheeseburgers were 0.39 and used ate 17 of them during lunch and my buddy ate 21. We didn’t go back for a long time after that haha.
Been wondering the same thing about apple products since the iPhone.
There’s this one McDonald’s on this busy road where we live and I jokingly started calling the right lane the “McDonald’s lane” because so many cars in that lane were always turning in. I realized earlier this week that these days most cars drive past instead.
Here it’s Popeye’s… which they seem to have at least maintained a decent quality/price ratio. Their wait times are atrocious though. Zaxby’s is even worse, but they at least have a big enough parking lot to stay out of the road. That line has taken a half hour to move up 1 car length before.
