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I assume that part of the reason for that is because once people stop buying it’s hard to convince them to come back with just a .50 decrease. Hash browns here are $2.19. There is no reason for a hash brown to be more than .99. Bit now that i don’t buy McDonalds anymore even if they dropped the price to .99 i wouldn’t think about going there, because im out of the habit.
Dunkin Donuts has a $6 meal deal with a Bacon/Egg/Cheese Bagel, a coffee, and Hash Browns for $6. It's like... priced just low enough where if I'm out dropping my kid off at school I'm like "fuck it, might as well".
Last time I hit up McD's for breakfast, I got a bacon egg cheese meal... like $15... it was greasy, I felt like shit after even with an OJ which was extra. Never again. Lemme get that wawa 2 for $4 sizzli.
it used to be two hashbrowns for a dollar. like i can get hash browns for around 40 cents each from the local restaurant supply store and that isn't even buying in bulk, just for a single pack of 20. they could get the price way lower.
It’s even crazier when you start thinking about their fries. Like a small fry is equivalent to like 1/3 of a large potato. It costs like $1, so that fry is essentially worth 33¢ but they’re charging damn near $3 for it now. Usually in restaurants the rule of thumb is cost of ingredients multiplied by 3 (cost of ingredients, overhead and profit) decide the price. Hell I’d ok if they said let’s multiply the cost by 4 since with the economy being so shit and the cost of shipping has driven prices up. That would still make a small fry only $1.32. And thats using the price of a single potato, factor in what kind of discount they receive for buying in bulk, you realize real fast how large their profit margin actually is on these items.
Not to
Mention the last time I went to McDonald’s and got a fry I asked for ketchup and the woman disappeared for 4 minutes and came back and handed me one ketchup,
Pretty sure she had to go through vault doors like in Get Smart to get it.
Everything is stupidly overpriced. I went out for lunch on my birthday recently and got a decent burger. Three times the size of a Macca's burger, half the price. It even tasted better and was given to me quicker.
What's crazy is they used to be sold for $0.50 each because they're made from the leftovers from french fry production! It's all the leftover bits and imprefections chopped up and formed. I cannot believe they are now a revenue generator.
Some empty suit was at a board meeting one day and wowed the other c suite assholes by showing them a graph of revenue if they were priced at 2.79 and everyone clapped and gave him a bonus.
I can get a 20 pack of nearly identical hash browns from Aldi for $5.50 (I am actually surprised it's that much). Toss those bad boys in the air fryer for 10 minutes and you can barely tell the difference.
And now they're discussing "dynamic pricing" where the price will fluctuate even more, and inevitably obviously tick upward even faster.
It's just so short-sighted. Yeah they may squeeze out a little more profit for the shareholders in the immediate Quarters, but once a customer is priced out or swears off the company they generally aren't coming back. As the guy above said.
In no world should their products cost as much as they do now. And there is literally no novel "product" they can offer at this point to reshape the company, it's just a fast food restaurant.
McDonald's will be studied as it exemplifies Late Stage Capitalism at it's core. There is no room left to grow the company, the market is over-saturated, they're pricing out most of their clients, and they are required to keep increasing prices without any sort of justification just to appease shareholders. They fucked up their business model years ago, it's a house of cards. No publicly traded company can last forever, or keep profits increasing forever, unless they consistently innovate, and fast food just cannot do that.
True. Their marketing researchers should already know this and just how devastating that last comment you made, is. “Out of the habit” hard to reverse that.
They aren't even fast anymore. I've been to three different McDonald's in the last 6 months (we have a kid who is a really picky eater) and had to wait around 20+ minutes for his food each time. Every single location had a long drive thru line and not enough staff to service the restaurant. The food is expensive and mediocre. The service is slow. The restaurants are sterile and empty. The current McDonald's model is great for shareholders but terrible for the customers.
Or hiring another employee so that the food is fast again. Or paying the employees that they do have enough to give a shit about the customers. Or really anything that would actually solve the underlying issues.
They will literally spend billions to not solve a pretty cheap problem to solve. Every asshat on that board of executives wants to do their own project or come up with the next cool slogan or TV ad, but nobody wants to solve the problem.
Sometimes I think rich people are rich because they're stupid enough to confuse other stupid people to let give their money away to fund crazy ventures.
Won't someone think of the shareholders!?!?!?!? Those poor defenseless people can't even afford a summer and a winter yacht. They're living like savages with only one
We joke about this, but it's unironically the case. The US screwed the pooch hard when they set in law that a corporation's primary duty is generating value for its shareholders, because now if they don't do it, they can be sued in court for it. We are seeing the end-result of this incentive: a corporate culture that only cares about raising stock prices and profits year after year after year, where both the product and the consumer are just a means to an end, and where irrational hype-based stock prizes and IPOs are not only acceptable, but desirable.
It's not even fast anymore. Fuck me, but my kid was hungry and it was late so we went through the drive through. Legitimately 25 mins. I got 2 Hot and Spicy sammies, two med fries, and chicken nuggets. Drive through was ass long, then they had me pull into the spot on the side and wait there. Unbelievable.
It's really different from place to place isn't it. In my neighborhood McDonalds is super fast and consistent but every single Wendy's takes 10-15 minutes per car.
Yup. And the "poor" franchisees who only had a few locations many of them couldn't afford the bigger and bigger fees McDonald's was charging them for "rent" and licensing and shit (all while providing fewer and fewer support services to franchisees), so many of them have been gobbled up by larger franchisees. Like none of this is good for "small businesses" or the competition capitalism is supposed to provide. None of this is benefitting consumers. If nothing matters but the bottom line of the ultra rich minority, the game ends pretty fuckin fast. Their greed and short-sightedness would be impressive if it wasn't so horrifyingly destructive.
Read an article yesterday about their new scheme w dynamic pricing. They're rolling that out to franchisees whether they want or not. Be vigilant because they're going to try fuckery depending on what they've gathered about you.
I will continue to be vigilant about just not eating at McDick's. I've only been there once in the last year and all the visit did was remind me why it had been years since my previous visit. It's just that crappy of an experience and value.
Ya that's why I use the app too. When I see the price that it comes out to, I simply cannot justify going to McDonald's of all places if I'm paying that much. I might as well get myself some proper food.
"They" have too many *cooks in the kitchen. They are forgetting the core of fast food success. Thievery from their competitors and slave wages for employees
It started with people's obsession with their shitty fries. After that, they felt like all their products were golden and marketed them as such. People want fast cheap food, and kids want their toys. Meanwhile McDonald's thinks they're culinary elites.
It started with people's obsession with their shitty fries.
I will never understand why people are so obsessed with Mcdonalds fries. Unless you eat them within about two minutes of coming out of the oil, they are absolutely horrible! Easily the worst of all the fast food restaurants.
This is the issue with a lot of fast food these days. The main one that makes me sad is Taco Bell
I used to just swing in and make an impulse buy because it's going to be like $5 so why not
Price is high enough now that it kills the impulse. I'm always like...I should really just keep driving and eat some of the food I already have at home
It’s crazy when nowadays you can go to an actual authentic Mexican restaurant, get REAL tacos, burritos, etc., and often times spend LESS than you would at Taco Bell.
Whenever I'm out and need to grab lunch I go to an actual restaurant instead of grabbing fast food. It's around $15 for that crap and for that money I can get Korean or Mexican at a mom and pop. Even lunch at the Chinese buffet is cheaper and I can eat little bits of whatever I like.
Exactly. There’s a Mexican spot 5 minutes from my house that I go to once a week, and I always get the Burrito Gordo (which is a delicious and massive 8” burrito stuffed with grilled chicken, chorizo, rice, refried beans, and topped with white queso and pico de galo 🤤) and a drink for under $20, and of course, the free chips and salsa!
I have a Mexican supermarket around the corner from me. Dollar tacos on Tuesday, although it's been a while they may be $1.50. I found a picture from 2020 when I bought parillada (grilled beef, onion, jalapeno, chorizo mix) with 2 sides and 3 tacos. This was $11.22.
I frequent several Mex spots near my office. $12-$14 for a huge authentic burrito and Mexican coke. Always satisfying. Last time I went to Taco Bell, in the same neighborhood, $16. And I felt like shit
Bro, there's this Mexican place in my city that always has buy one get one deals. Sometimes it's three hefty chicken tacos and then with the deal you get six, and it only costs $10.99. And it's legitimate, authentic Mexican food. It's such a deal over bottom-of-the-barrell food ingredients from places like Taco Bell that barely pass food inspection regulations.
They aren't investing anything into their restaurants. It's all going to AI so that every McDonald's will charge you something different based on what they think you will pay.
Literally just make everything bright red and yellow, bring back the Play Places and free refills on the 1000% marked up soft drinks, and maybe put in a Switch 2 kiosk with Mario Kart, then drop the prices to something reasonable for the tiny sandwiches they sell. Back in business. Nobody wants McDonald’s to be fine dining. We want it to be cheap and fun.
That's the thing I don't get either. When's the last time they redesigned? How many times have they done it? Here's the thing. Ain't no one that goes there gives a shit. Make sure its clean. I'm not eating there for the atmosphere. Hell, I'm not eating there.
If I go inside it's because the drive through is stacked. I'm in there long enough to get my shit and gtfo. Most people are. The dining areas area mostly empty every time I'd go in one. Of those that are there, a number of them are doing the same thing I am.
If you actually want a vibe, bring back that old school vibe. BK, hope you're listening too.
Making bulk food at home has kept me from going out. I eat out maybe twice a month now and I’ve damn near almost lost my will to. With the price of gas, I don’t even want to make the trek somewhere even if I’m feeling lazy. Had to essentially get past the “idk what I want” mentality and just eat what’s in the fridge. Sort of a “just want to be full and satiated” rather than getting what the mind desires.
CEOs and the like have been sued by shareholder for making decisions that don't make the company more profit. Those courts pretty regularly rule in favor of the shareholders. Making a decision that might reduce your share value (like reducing profits) could leave you in a precarious position.
Not saying CEOs are good people, but the system is bad too and needs reform.
Imagine if McDonald's just said fuck it and redesigned themselves to be back during the 90's, with Play Places and Video games and cheap fast food? Bring back the dollar menu and $1 large drinks. It's not meant to be high brow food, just be what you are, cheap food you get fast and stuff kids love so you cater to kids in the restaurant.
“You order off the extra-value menu like an insect, you round-up to the Ronald McDonald foundation like an insect, you ARE an insect… whose total is $23.00 at the next window.”
If McDonalds were to launch today in its current state as a new brand no one had heard of or had a habit of going to, I am 100% confident it would be bankrupt in 6 months.
Constant fucking price increases have to end somewhere. Since covid we're getting screwed. Google, a fucking trillion dollar company, increases the price of youtube premium every 6 months now
They've also turned their restaurants into sterile dead zones that feel like you're eating your meal in some Backrooms liminal space. And no refills, no condiment stations. Just horrible.
I’m old enough to remember when McD’s looked like a little kids fever dream. Bright and colorful with artwork and statues of their mascots everywhere. And the play area! Ball pit, tubes and jungle Jim’s!
In other words. FUN!
Mom and/or dad had a long hard day at work and REALLY didn’t feel like fixing dinner? McDonalds! Everyone got fed, and the kids got a toy and wore themselves out in the play area. Everyone’s happy, everyone wins.
I’m a child of the 1970s, and before the ball pits and climbing tubes they had more of a playground outside, and indoor chairs were shaped like food or characters. I had a birthday party there as a preschooler and Ronald McDonald showed up. It was a huge exciting treat for us to go there. It’s so sterile and unappealing now. Also, the food is just not good anymore.
I worked for a manufacturing company owned by a private equity firm. We had massive turnover rates. They "couldn't figure out why". For context, we were on our 2nd year of wage freezes meanwhile the private equity firm was bragging about meeting and beating revenue records. Management held meetings to discuss the reasons why but at the beginning of the first meeting, claimed they wanted to know any reasons people would leave EXCEPT for wages. Everyone knew it was wages. Management knew it was wages. They'd say it off the record but the private equity firm refused to budge. After several more months of this, the private equity firm lifted the wage freeze. Once lifted, I got my first raise after 3 years....3%. I left. Last I heard, this company of about 100 people when I had started, had 38 openings. And still, dicking with people's wages.
They're not even trying to fill the positions. They're switching to automation. However, their automations engineer is one of my closest friends and he's paid about $20k-$30k less than the position normally pulls. He found this out and is in the process of finding a new employer. They'll be in quite the pickle once he leaves.
Anytime someone’s having a problem with service anywhere. I remind them that everywhere has people doing the work of three people for the pay of less than one, and I haven’t seen anyone push back on that idea yet.
4.50 for a small fry, before tax, in Canada. My question is how are they even still in business with prices like that. I can get a 10lbs sack of potatoes for cheaper.
You remolded them to look like Russian gulags and raised the prices. This isn't gong to work. Deep fry the apple pies, bring back the good fries cooked in tallow make the Sichuan sauce permanent and fix the damn ice cream machine.
There's an entire generation of corporate leadership that has never seen anything but the cheap debt + enshittification = profit era where profit was easy to come by. They're literally clueless once they have to actually work for their money.
I love diet soda. Recently it became ~$15 for a 24-pack of Diet Pepsi. Unfortunately Coke is the exact same price. One would think under capitalism that competition would occur. However, both companies know that if the other drops their price, they too would have to drop their price to not lose market share and they both end up losing. So rather than compete they have an unwritten agreement to maintain the same price point. Coke will be the market leader to increase their prices first, and Pepsi follows suit because they know they can afford to do so.
One would think under capitalism that competition would occur.
Thank the pairing of 401(k) and Index Funds for what is happening in the US.
The long given advice that index funds were the best value of performance v. cost (and it was great advice for a very long time) means a lot of retirement money was put into them.
When someone has their 401(k) funds (and an number of institutional investors do too) put into a S&P 500 index fund, it means Blackrock / Vanguard / State Street (the three biggest trustees for index funds) have to go out and buy shares of both Pepsi & Coca Cola since they're both part of the S&P 500. Those three alone own, on behalf of others, 22% of the S&P 500.
Index funds across the board owned 3% of US stock market shares in 2000, 16% in 2021, and 25% in 2026.
When Blackrock, Vanguard, or State Street exercise the votes in those shares -- or even don't vote but just talk to the directors -- they literally don't care if Pepsi is gaining market share from Coca Cola or not.
Perhaps it is clearer to use for an example other S&P 500 companies, Ford & GM.
Compete on quality? That costs money. Compete on price? You're leaving money on the table.
We've seen a remarkable decline in the serviceability and quality of cars certainly since Covid and it was trending that way before; combined with a significant increase in prices and a focus on upper-middle class and the higher end of middle class consumers. They'd rather sell fewer SUVs at much higher margins than many economy cars with thin margins.
Ford & GM today have 30% of the US car market share. The big investors literally don't care if Ford has 13% and GM 17% which is today's number, or Ford has 12% and GM 18%, or Ford has 5% and GM has 25%. It is all the same pie to the investors -- they aren't picking which company they think can perform best, they are legally forced to buy the shares according to the weighted index of the market capitalization in the S&P 500.
What they do care is whether that 30% share of the US car market is generating 10% net margins or 20% net margins. So they don't want the companies to compete on any basis that reduces profits. They own all the companies that are in competition.
If someone swears they'll never buy another GM car, they're just going to buy that car from someone else the big investors also own.
It was $5 for a Coke at The Cheesecake Factory last night. Our local BDubs is $4 for Pepsi.
I know that fountain prices have gone up and it's not "15 cents per 20 oz" or whatever it used to be, but seriously, it's like they found that people will order it no matter what so they just keep raising the price to see if there's actually a breaking point.
Makes me glad that I basically only ever drink water at restaurants.
It has been YEARS since i've ordered a soft drink when dining out for just this reason. Water is fine and free. I'll waste my money on the food but 4.95 for a fountain soda is not worth it in my book.
Researchers: "Data shows the price point is the problem."
CEO: " Could it be our prices are too high?...No that cant be the problem... I know, let's redesign the stores! That will justify the price increases we have planned for next quarter!"
The ravenous need for profits to increase year over year to infinity is not sustainable. Businesses today are never satisfied. What's wrong with a grotesquely profitable venture just being grotesquely profitable every year? Why is it viewed as a failure if profits do not increase but rather stay at or near it's previously grotesque level? Maybe this is the bottom? Maybe this is the point where we collectively say enough and they're forced to tweak ever so slightly in the other direction just to pacify us. If so, they'll probably hold that level temporarly until the economy is doing better and begin the profit chasing game again.
Morons in suits will never cease to amaze me. They will leave no stone unturned, except the one that has a giant sign next to that says "lower your prices". Now they're spending more to continue lose money. Morons.
Maybe 2-3 times a year I go to McDonald's. Sometimes the cravings are stronger than reason but I basically always regret it afterwards. Shitty quality and way too expensive
I'm in the same boat friend. I know it's poison but like you said 2-3 times a year I'm like "fuck it I'll go get a big mac" because I just want a cheap fast burger. After paying half my paycheck for 1 god damn burger I usually learn my lesson for another 6 months.
The guys in charge are aware all they need to do is make the menu cheaper, but that would mean approaching the investors and saying "there's nothing I can do, you won't make as much money this year." It's much safer to propose some bullshit initiative, no matter how much it will cost vs how little it will accomplish, because it gives the illusion of doing something.
It's like they're not learning anything. Not looking to their competitors who are succeeding.
All they can think about is cost cutting and keeping prices the same or higher to keep their profit margins and investors happy.
They've deterred people from coming in and eating. They've turned their drive-thrus into parking lots. They've lowered quality and increased prices. They've reduced staff to the detriment to everything. And their answer to their problems is more over priced menu items and more expensive automation. It's not add more people to improve service times and improve quality to get people back in.
Meanwhile places like Chick-fil-a are packed and their drive-thru runs like a finely tuned conveyer belt powered by people.
So $8.5Bn investment without realising people don't want your shit at crazy prices, then try to get that money back by raising prices further?!? They are banking on addiction right here.
so what you’re really saying mcdonald’s is, you’re spending 8 billion on ai ‘upgrades’ bc that will make senior leadership look good in shareholder meetings. let’s just be transparent bc that’s what you mean and everyone knows it. yawn
The bar & grill down the street from me offers a cheeseburger & fries for $11 and it's bigger and substantially higher quality than the slop I would otherwise get from McDonald's and I can have a beer with it if I want to, idk what McDonald's thinks it's doing
Man, not sure if anyone else has had this experience but going to a McDonalds is the most bleak, cold experience ever now.
You order at a kiosk, get your food then, if you decide to sit and eat on site, you are welcomed to the most sterile looking gray washed seating area ever. And you get to pay a ton of money for this experience as well.
Not worth it. It used to be a decently priced fast food option but not anymore.
Raising the cost has actually made me healthier since I choose not to eat fast food anymore. So maybe they're just trying to get everyone off of fast food 😌😌😌
it used to be workable when it was yea the food sucks but it's cheap and quick
now the food is even worse
the service is not fucking quick
and the price good god has skyrocketed so many restaurants don't understand when you increase prices and food quality goes down and ontop of that service quality goes down you are going to close down eventually that's just the reality
i was going to say, it's a commodities business, not a restaurant. the food quality is secondary to just turning enormous quantities of meat and grain into money.
That said, I worked at McDonald's back in the day (after school job) when we cooked fresh patties on the grill and made tallow fries- it wasn't great food, but what you paid for it felt fair. Not anymore.
no one wants nicer restaurants people prefered the old dingy mcdonalds when the prices were a quarter of what they are now.
people line up to buy from food trucks that are parked on the curb of dirty ass streets / parking lots some dull pastel seat cushions and repainted millennial grey walls in mcdonalds isnt improving anything
Last weekend i decided to try the special items of the menu because i was curious of what they were and was long time since i had mcdonalds
My order was 1 burger by itself, 1 burger menu (ordered the menu so i could get the new drink too) and 1 side of 4 pieces of some sort of mac n cheese triangles with a setzuan sauce
All that was 30 euros, the first burger didnt taste bad but technically had a hashbrown in it that was mushy not crunchy, the second burger tasted like shit and i had to throw it out, it was literally horrible, the mac n cheese things tasted bad too like there wouldnt be any reason you order that over some nuggets or fries and the sauce was kind of bad too, the only thing that didnt taste bad was the drink but it wasnt anything of the other world
30 euros for food that tasted bad, and then they wonder why theyre in the situation they are
And they'll continue to go bankrupt because nobody wants to spend $20 on garbage quality food. The entire appeal of fast food was that it's fast and cheap. Take one of those away and why not eat somewhere better?
I cannot comprehend how this business is sustainable. Their food quality has tanked so much over the past 20 years and the service is abysmal. The people that work there act like they’ve had their humanity sucked out of them with a silly straw by a killer clown. All while charging premium prices. I refuse to eat there ever again, and so should you.
Bring back the 5 dollar 20 piece nuggets and maybe I'll entertain going back. 10 bucks should get me any regular main, a stuffed large fry because skimping on a potato is wack, and a standard 16oz soda.
I spent my absolute most money at mcdonalds when they offered $1 sodas. it was literally always worth going. picking up a small fry or something i wouldn't have otherwise. it was completely downhill once they took that away
I hope it fails. I hadn't eaten there in decades but then heard they did vegan stuff so I thought I'd give a try. What I received was basically clinical depression in a box. The burger looked like it had been in someone's shoe for a week and the fries were so limp they were begging for viagra. It was the first time in years I asked for an immediate refund.
I was a chef and that shit was genuinely insulting to food. If you're going to do it, do it properly or don't fucking bother.
Its is just filth anyway. Now you want people to spend high prices for low quality filth. You have lost you're market by being greedy. There is no value in the product.
I don't go because 90% of their stores are disgusting. The floors are sticky and none of the menu screens work. There is no one to take your order and the kiosks are so dirty I don't want to touch the screens. The staff are underpaid and don't give 2 fucks about you or the quality of their work. The food is salty as fuck and gross. And you got 50/50 chance of actually getting what you ordered.
I agree that it’s messed up, but look at it this way… McDonald’s corporate is NOT in the food business, it’s in the real estate business. Assume it holds over $120 Billion in real estate (conservative estimate). Spending less than 7% of its real estate values on improvements is just updating and upkeep which it will write off over 15-20 years.
McDonald’s franchisees, on the other hand, ARE in the food business. If McDonald’s drops prices, it hurts franchisees and the stock price (not saying it’s right, it just is). By improving stores, the bet is that it will shore up demand and they won’t have to drop prices. Big corporate finance isn’t logical, it’s just business (which does not equate to quality food at all).
They made the food worse quality and more expensive – enshittification. No one wants to pay more for less and/or worse. We aren't interested in padding more PE dudebros' pockets for a bad experience. This isn't rocket surgery.
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