Looks like McDonald’s is reaping what it sowed. Shit food at shit prices and no one wants to buy?! SHOCKER.
I haven’t gone to McDonald’s in YEARS and I’m not missing anything!
Ever since the big Mac meal went over $10, I was out. That was years ago and now it’s even worse. I’m also not a sucker for using their god-damned app so I can get a $1 small fry and a free q-tip. If I’m not happy with your prices at the drive-thru, then I’m just not going there.
Their burgers are also filled with soy filler, won’t even fill you up anymore.
McDonald is not a food company, it’s a real estate company.
All the posters complaining about the food quality are missing the point. They could sell cardboard and for years their bottom line would be unaffected until franchisees started failing en masse.
I don’t see how that’s relevant. They still want to sell food. They can coast for a while, but this isn’t good for them regardless.
But their bottom line was affected. That’s the point of this post.
Last time I went to McDonalds it was almost as much as a decent pub burger.
Why wouldn’t I just go there and get twice the quality unless I was close by and totally pressed for time?
McDonald’s has long forgotten what is supposed to be. Cheap, low quality food. Now it is expensive, low quality food. Like you said…you can get a better burger at a restaurant for the same price if not lower. Longhorn Steakhouse has a burger lunch special for $9.99
Just before COVID they had started to do a bit of a rebrand. They drove the prices up a little they had a decent chicken sandwich that was made of chicken breast. They brought in better buns the burgers were still s*** but the quality was a lot higher and the price was moderately higher. After COVID hit they scrapped all the fancy stuff for the menu and kept the high prices then inflation hit and they doubled those high prices.
The Whataburger sweet g spicy burger combo is all of like $12 and change after tax. And that’s the large size.
And their food is actually pretty good.
Whataburger
They always decent fasr food that was better than mega corps had to offer. Goot o see them still fighting the good fight lol
They aren’t, this guy is on crack. They got sold off, and their quality has suffered quite a bit.
Thanks for heads up. I feeling boomer right now
You’re much older than a boomer Mr. Sun Zu
Also there are fast food alternatives to McDonalds as well.
IMO, Wendy’s has much better burgers. Haven’t had Carl’s Jr’s in a long while but I remember their “$6 Burgers” were pretty good.
Burger King, the meat quality seems to have gone downhill. Like an unchewable but in each meat patty. They used to be my favorite.
Edit: the “$6 burger” is now called the thick burger since it now costs more than $6
I had Five Guys for the first time ever last year and I was surprised by how good their burger was. The prices were a little shocking, but the food was not bad.
The only reason I’ve only ever eaten at 5guys once is the fact that the place is just stupid with peanut shells.
Went to Five Guys and made the mistake of ordering the Grilled Cheese.
It was a burger bun, turned inside out, with a sad slab of half-melted American cheese between the pieces.
Never going back.
Just don’t get the grilled cheese. Their burgers are fuckin bomb though.
And their Cajun fries are pretty damn good, too.
Dairy Queen has a $6 meal deal with a burger, fries, drink, and a sundae. All of it far better than MCD.
There’s also an option of chicken strips instead of burger if you want chicken instead of beef
Welcome to Carl’s Jr!
Fuck you. I’m eating!
Please come back when you can afford to make a purchase!
I’m baitin’
i haven’t been to mcd in years, but my parents were sick with covid and requested i pick up some mcdonalds for them-- JFC how could i have ever thought it couldn’t get any worse–what a fucking shitshow
McDonald’s is on the boycott list for the Palestinian genocide. I’m really curious if that had any effect.
I would think it’s not that much inside the US but McDonald’s has a large global presence.
I boycotted McD due to this list, UK, and I really don’t miss it. It also got hella expensive and the service got worse.
I must say, boycotting things has had no Ill effect on my life and in fact I likely spend less money than before.
It’s funny, because for a brief moment McDonalds had a spike in popularity when they reopened after COVID.
When they fully reopened their stores, it became clear as day that many of them had downsized in terms of staff. When your fast food is as fast as a standard burger place, it’s not fast…
And they got rid of the only things I used to order. All day breakfast, and the chicken strips. U can keep the over processed nuggets Ronald. The strips were the shit. Just an actual piece of chicken, breaded and deep fried. They said they were only temporarily reducing the menu bc Covid, well, here we are 4 years later with the same shitty reduced menu. Not only that, but the bullshit that’s on the menu is 3x more expensive. Those 2 things brought me.back after a long hiatus. I had started another, but I will say I grabbed a $5 meal the other night with a friend after a few drinks because it was the only thing open and they finally offered a cheap deal that they absolutely were not advertising because they didn’t want people to buy it so they can go see? Price isn’t the issue. Prices will increase until morale improves. Long story short, fuck McDonald’s.
I’ve been boycotting McGenocide, KFC, Coca Cola, etc. for 10 months now and it’s not like it’s any effort at this point. I’m healthy and wasn’t planning on eating that garbage until Palestine is free. And at this point why would I ever eat it again? Shit food, unhealthy, expensive, supporting genocide. Why would I go back to it?
From the article:
“Industry traffic has declined in major markets like the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Germany. In several markets, we also continue to be negatively impacted by the war in the Middle East,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said on the company’s earnings call.
So it does seem to be working to some extent.
My household has boycotted them due to this so there’s definitely some of us.
I guess “consumer pullback” is one way to describe what’s going on with the economy…
and “consumer saying ‘hey waitaminute, i don’t actually need half the bullshit they’re telling me i can’t live without…’”
The headline uses that term because consumer spending, across the economy as a whole, is up and a healthy amount. The “pullback” appears to be in select subsectors where price increases have drastically outstripped core inflation and/or specific companies who have done so without regard for competitors’ pricing.
Thank you.
It shouldn’t (still) surprise me, but it always does…when people do drastically misunderstand or misinterpret economic information.
In fairness, this is a new development as far as economics goes. It’s very unusual that a fast food burger is as expensive as a sit down restaurant. Which is why we’ve used things such as the Big Mac index for understanding purchasing power. Prior to this, it was assumed that fast food was a kind of essential item that arrived at its lowest cost.
What other consumer spending is up? Does that include rent and groceries? I mean, is that “increase” I spending not due to ridiculous amounts of “inflation” (read: corporate profits)?
(Can’t read the posted article since it blocks adblockers apparently)
(Can’t read the posted article since it blocks adblockers apparently)
Real personal consumption expenditures is the most commonly used metric for “consumer spending” and it is adjusted against inflation. That is the number which is seeing 0.3-0.5% growth month over month, in 2024. There are other ways to measure consumer spending which are not adjusted against inflation or may only target baskets of goods.
Some talking heads on NPR were discussing the economy and how this was “the first time Millenials were seeing inflation” and how the economy is just waiting for consumers to “adjust”. This in the context of them also basically saying there needs to be more unemployment so wages don’t get higher.
It’s like victim blaming or something, corporations went on a price gouging spree during the pandemic and now we all have to learn to deal with it so Wallstreet can go back to business as usual, and they’re getting all pissy that people’s response is simply finding ways to spend less, instead of giving up their last nickle.
Funny how they never talk about corporations needing to tighten their belt or “adjust their expectations” to paying higher wages.
I don’t care other than economy is a powerful predictor of election outcome. I think we are due for a market contraction, and I’ve been out of work for 4 months, but I’m hoping it can hold on for another quarter.
Consumer spending continues to show growth and be positive. This is a McDonald’s and fast food generally contraction due to the industry’s greed – pricing of fast food has outstripped actual inflation drastically.
Best of luck finding work.
I’m with you, in that I smell a recession. I don’t think it will be cataclysmic, but we have a lot of things pointing to some shrinkage:
Consumers are unhappy with greedflation
Housing is fucking expensive and no one has extra cash on hand
Multiple reports of a large percentage people not being able to make bills or worried about making them.
Not to mention the mounds of debt people are dragging around that they are unable to pay off
My mound is small, but it certainly weighs on me. I can’t imagine how people worse off would feel.
I stopped going to McDonalds around 2004 after seeing Super-Size Me (which didn’t really convince me of anything other than what I already knew; Fast food in general is gross).
A few years later, I was hanging out with some friends and someone wanted a drink or something, so we walked in, and the smell was overwhelming, and disgusting. It wasn’t different, it was the exact same McDonalds smell, it was just gross as fuck.
About a decade after that, I was dating someone who wanted some of their fries (they were having a bad day and wanted comfort food). So I drive over there, just order the fries (everything else she wanted was already at home), and head home. The entire time, my car was filling with this gross, oily, I-don’t-know-what smell of those fries. It occurs to me that I could only define it as “smelling like McDonalds”.
Mind you, I’ve gotten fries at Wendy’s, Jack in the Box, Arby’s, etc. None of them smell gross. They smell like salty potatoes (except any place that has curly fries; they all seem to be from the same supplier, and they’re gross).
I haven’t been back to McDonalds in probably another 10 years, but I can only imagine that my first reaction would be to wretch, and my second reaction would be to leave. I have no idea how they fucked things up so bad, I had them all the time as a kid. I still eat Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwiches, they’re fine. wtf.
I’m betting what your smelling is the “beef flavor” (actually made of wheat and milk) in their fry seasoning. McDonald’s once used beef fat to cook their fries, so when they switched to vegetable oil they started throwing “beef flavor” on their fries to replicate the meaty flavor.
I agree with that, but to me the McDonalds smell smells like piss from someone who is dehydrated. It’s so gross. 🤮
I’m in Canada and I tell my kids about the days when McDonald’s jr chicken or cheeseburgers were a $1 regular price. I even remember McDonald’s doing a $1 big Mac promotion. I ate like 50 big Macs that month
Seems like the accountants all across the drive through world have forgotten that the reason cheap food was so popular is that it was CHEAP food.
Ironically even though their main menu items and combos have gone crazy price-wise in the last couple years, McDonald’s is one of the few fast food places I still frequent for lunch because if you use the app you can still get a decently filling meal for 6-7 bucks; 2 double cheeseburgers BOGO $1, large fry (free), large drink at regular price. Not great, but 6 something bucks. The quarter pounder combo meal I used to get has nearly tripled in price in the last 5 years and the Big Mac is not only smaller but way more expensive…
Not sure what they were expecting to happen 🤷♂️
This chart really highlights the problem; since 2014 overall inflation is 31% but MCDONALDS inflation is at 100%!
I went there a few months ago because of some happy meal toy my kids wanted. It was $60 to eat there. We could have went to Denny’s or Waffle House and gotten a massive amount of food for that price.
Instead, McDonald’s started filling their burgers with garbage filler and charging even more for it. My kids got home and were still hungry. Never going there again.
Denny’s
Uh, have you been to a Denny’s lately? Their prices have gone crazy lately as well.
I haven’t, and now am scared to even go. Don’t want to break the fantasy.
We’ll always have IHOP.
Or Waffle House. If there is a brawl you get your meal for free.
Also might catch a chair to the face, that is also free.
Yeah that’s the less talked about part, you don’t feel full even if you splurge and actually get a large volume of food.
Raising Cane’s is conspicuously absent from that chart. A Box Combo went up 61% over that time period.
I vote with my spending. If I’m doing all the work ordering, then I should see cheaper prices. McDs is double-dipping. Saving on wages and trying to charge more. Nope.
I went to one for the first time in years because I was starving and a shitty hash brown, breakfast sandwich and coffee sounded good. coffee half full, no hash brown and the sandwich gave me a three day bout of food poisoning. never again, I would rather not eat.
McDonalds is expensive as fuck, the food fucking sucks, it used to be I liked going there on occasion, to enjoy some cheap stuff, Cheeseburgers used to be like 1 euros. now they are like 2.50, that’s the price of a frozen pizza at a supermarket that I can just throw in to the oven if I am feeling like eating junk food and I don’t even have to go to the City for it, wait in line at the drive thru,etc.
Value for money is the heart of the problem. The quality has been declining for a good while now. I enjoy the occasional junk food meal on the rare times I need to travel. And McDonalds was almost always been my choice. But it’s been a long time since I have even considered them for that quick stop and go meal.
Inflation or not, I will look for the value I get. I ain’t getting it at McDonalds anymore.
The shrinkflation and price increases would have nothing to do with it all. Mcsmall mac is comical.
It’s like $30 to feed me and two elementary aged children with no drinks. McDonald’s is the most expensive of all the fast food places. Arby’s is much better and often less expensive.
I can get a lunch combo with a burger, fries, and a coke for $8 at a local joint that’s far superior to anything McDonald’s serves. They priced themselves out of being competitive.
I’m not paying $16 for a 10 piece nugget, fries, and a drink. I can pay $12 for more and better food at a sit down restaurant next door.
In before shitty comments about downloading the McDonalds app so you can get discounts while selling your private info
And agree to binding arbitration!
McDonald’s has a pretty shitty loyalty program anyway. They have a very limited selection of stuff you can even spend the points on and you can’t both use points and a daily deal at the same time.
I agree it’s shitty, but you can definitely use points and a deal in the same order. I do it all the time. You cannot do 2 deals or 2 point redemptions in the same order.
There’s a pizza place near my house that does wood-fired NY pizza, two giant slices plus a soda, for $7.50.
I dunno how they’re making those prices work, but that’s the only junk food meal I’m buying these days. I’d pay more for less food of worse quality at any fast food place.
Because good food is cheap to make, especially when buying in bulk like restaurants. Pizza is super cheap to make from scratch, especially when you factor in restaurants buying in bulk. I make pizza from scratch pretty often, the dough is negligible cost wise (bread flour, water, salt, and yeast), the sauce is semi-expensive to make only because I use the fancy san-marzano tomatoes and make almost a gallon of amazing sauce for $18 (mainly the cost of the tomatoes) - for sauce good enough to get from a restaurant you could easily make a lot more for a lot less. The toppings vary in cost obviously, but those are easy to pass the cost on to the consumer.
Soda is also negligible cost wise, the syrup for a very large cup of soda is maybe a few cents for the restaurant, soda has one of the highest markups of any food items.
A large pop at the local Wendy’s is over 4 dollars. You can get a 2-litre from the supermarket for less than half of that. Highway robbery.
In my high-falutin’ local grocery store, 2-liter bottles of soda are $2.89, which is ridiculous enough. It’s interesting that they often have 2-for-1 sales while at the poor people grocery store the soda is over $3 and never goes on sale. At drug stores it’s even more absurd, well over $4 per 2-liter bottle - I just cannot believe people shop at those places at all, especially when they’re literally next door to a much cheaper grocery store.
