$3 for a single McDonald's hash brown? Some customers are fed up and pushing back
$3 for a single McDonald's hash brown? Some customers are fed up and pushing back
Corporate America may be bumping up against the limit of its power to keep raising prices as consumers in some markets cry uncle.
"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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is how supply and demand and inflation are supposed to work. Prices get inflated because the supply is low and the demand is high. We’re now at the tipping point where the market is saying it’s too much. We should have been saying it was too much, via our wallets, years ago.
Cry all you want about corporate greed but it’s largely unregulated so the supply for their wallet still counts as supply. If you’re still paying for it, they’re going to keep raising the prices. What’s something worth? What someone will pay for it.
Why is beef still expensive? Because people keep buying it. https://www.marketplace.org/2024/01/10/if-inflation-slowed-down-in-2023-why-is-my-grocery-bill-so-high/
That's the McConomy
(badum tsst)
As someone who works in a mom and pop restaurant, I understand this. McDonalds is huge and buys/manufactures in bulk, sure, so their prices are gonna be cheaper, but their costs are still going up like the rest of us. It kills me to keep seeing our menu updates, but food is fucking expensive now. I'm not saying that McDonalds isn't pulling down a tidy profit, and if food costs dropped they probably wouldn't drop their price, but I don't put the price increase solely on them. Food costs are rising all over, and it's killing the business. I have a spreadsheet from 6 years ago when I first started analyzing our costs, and my most recent sheet shows anywhere between 150 and 200% increase across the board. That's absurd. So, blame McDonalds for whatever you want, I won't stop you, but make sure to aim some hate at the production side of things as well.
I'm overweight, not especially healthy, and even back in the day when I was dirt poor and on heroin (I'm good now, for 17 years, thanks) I never ate that shit. It just made me miserable every time and my stomach was never full. Even simple sugar cubes were a better short term solution back then, used to put 12 in my coffee.
I’m so mad about it I haven’t been there in a decade.
McDs is one of a handful of optuons I have so I cant really boycott; however, today I found a dastardly trick: the order kiosks suddenly switched medium and large so you will accidentally order the large size. Almost got me, but not quite
Not for me. My fast food intake has drastically shrank. Better for my health anyway
What I hate most is that they removed the mcchicken biscuit... makes no sense for me to go there for breakfast now
For the longest time I knew fast food junk was not good for you so I ate less of it.
During the pandemic I completely avoided fast food.
It's been three years now and I haven't gone to any fast food at all.
Now I can't rationalize eating it any more.
It isn't healthy, it isn't food, it has no nutrition, it has too much of the things that degrade your health. It's also prepared by people being paid as little as possible to maximize the profit to the people who do the least in the transaction.
From a health point of view is like investing in degrading your body .... it's like investing in rust for your car or pouring tiny amounts of water or sugar in your gas tank ... it's paying a premium for an unhealthy body in the future.
And now it costs more ... it costs more to ruin your health. So you spend a lot of money now to ruin your health and then spend a lot more money to fix your unhealthy self when you get older.
When you look at it over a lifetime, it's far cheaper to just not eat fast food
If you have an alternative to McDonalds and you still eat McDonalds anyway, get some self-respect.
While McD is gouging their customers hard, I'm still considering restaurants as a luxury.
I'll do my hashbrowns in the toaster-oven in the morning and make myself a "McMuffin" at home for dirt-cheap.
Like any other businesses you won't make them change their price unless their cashflow is impacted. Want to send a clear message? Stop going, and you may end up not coming back later because you'll see all the money you wasted. Or at least make it a rare treat, not a habit.
Sausage biscuit is still a buck. I’m kinda shocked it’s stayed that cheap.
I admit it's been a while since I've been to a McDonalds, but it can't have been more than a couple of years and hash browns were definitely way less than that. Maybe a dollar.