Economy McDonald's' prices have doubled in 10 years

I can't imagine eating McDonalds these days, let alone paying for it.
Still over a thousand stores in the country though, so someone's obviously eating that shit, and it can't all be American tourists.
 
evansusmc2 said:
What state do those prices exist? Here in Indianapolis I assure a quarter pounder w/cheese meal does not cost $11.99
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Using just straight currency conversion, that's actually more than I can see on local menus listed for the month (for a large meal $13.90 AUD). Which would be unusual.
 
I happened to go to a McDonald's when I was in Argentina earlier this year. Stuck at an airport, nowhere better to eat.

Didn't expect much, and I was pleasantly surprised. Massive portions, the burger I got was hefty to say the least. Good quality burger compared to what they serve in NA. Reminded me of 90's McDonald's. It wasn't cheap though, but that could be airport related.

They also have all different burgers, much better variety than they offer in USA or Canada. If we had Argentinian McDonald's here, I would probably go once in a while.
 
Ruprecht said:
I can't imagine eating McDonalds these days, let alone paying for it.
Still over a thousand stores in the country though, so someone's obviously eating that shit, and it can't all be American tourists.
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Agreed for the most part. Sometimes when I have to prepare for a hard day of work (usually on an inventory day), I will take advantage of a McDonald's breakfast special. It hits the spot. If I'm in a jam and there's no where else to go I'll do a QPC deluxe but I have to have it with no salt on the burger or the fries.. otherwise it's gross to me.

Wendy's is the best burger in that tier of restaurants IMO. The next tier up would be Shake Shack and Five Guys, and I prefer Five Guys between those 2.
 
I think McDonalds figures they have a Giffen good of sorts. The logic being that the middle-class may have gotten priced out of normal restaurants and now McD is all they can afford for a treat. In my local area that's not accurate though. McD's prices have gone up so much that a lot of normal, much better restaurants are equivalent in price now, so I don't see why you'd pick McD over them. The other fast foods have not skyrocketed in price, so there are substitute goods, of better quality to boot. The only aspect that the golden arches have over them is better coverage, more restaurants all over the place if you don't want to drive a little bit more for a better fast food.

I think people are still purchasing the food because they're used to getting X and Y as part of their habits. A lot of people haven't realized how high the prices have gotten because they remember the old prices in their minds. That will readjust over time. In Canada you're looking at like $30 minimum for a meal for two people. I don't see people keeping up that habit once they get the sticker shock a few times.
 
mixmastermo said:
Agreed for the most part. Sometimes when I have to prepare for a hard day of work (usually on an inventory day), I will take advantage of a McDonald's breakfast special. It hits the spot. If I'm in a jam and there's no where else to go I'll do a QPC deluxe but I have to have it with no salt on the burger or the fries.. otherwise it's gross to me.

Wendy's is the best burger in that tier of restaurants IMO. The next tier up would be Shake Shack and Five Guys, and I prefer Five Guys between those 2.
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Fast food is a kids job here. Usually part timers from highschool (minimum wages are lower for kids), after graduating from a paper round.
I worked at Maccas part time when I was 15-16, and haven't eaten there since. We could cook and eat what we wanted on breaks back then, but by the time I quit it all disgusted me.
These days I just don't eat fast food. Even ignoring the health considerations (and they never used pink slime here, so Maccas is probably even worse in the US), it's just not to my taste. I don't have a sweet tooth and I like my food decently spicy. I can grab real food which is more nutritionally viable and actually to my tastes, quicker and for less money from my local central markets.
 
Has anyone established a correlation to minimimum wage? Since fast food prices are clearly outpacing inflation. Wasn't that the great debate? Here is the progression of the state minimum wage for the dozen most populous states (California actually went up higher because the minimum wage for fast food workers is $20, not $16). Together, these make up roughly half the country's population, and so logically probably also half the fast food franchise locations:

State Minimum Wage Rate for California | FRED | St. Louis Fed

Graph and download economic data for State Minimum Wage Rate for California from 1968 to 2024 about minimum wage, wages, CA, rate, USA, FL, GA, IL, MI, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TX, and VA.
fred.stlouisfed.org
 
BJ@LW&WW said:
i dont care what you do, what you think of the prices, or what you think of the quality of their food.

people are still buying mcdonalds at these prices, and they net 2 billion dollars in income last quarter.
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They already got most highway rest stops, highway exits, train stations, airports, urban neighborhoods, and provide employment to thousands of people who didn’t graduate high school.

Here’s an example of how positive McDonald’s has been for urban neighborhoods:
 
ImCertainOfCirkunov said:
I happened to go to a McDonald's when I was in Argentina earlier this year. Stuck at an airport, nowhere better to eat.

Didn't expect much, and I was pleasantly surprised. Massive portions, the burger I got was hefty to say the least. Good quality burger compared to what they serve in NA. Reminded me of 90's McDonald's. It wasn't cheap though, but that could be airport related.

They also have all different burgers, much better variety than they offer in USA or Canada. If we had Argentinian McDonald's here, I would probably go once in a while.
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Argentina McDicks slaps! Italy McDicks was not as good but you can order McBeer so its a close second.
 
BJ@LW&WW said:
if you think high prices = greed, you simply have no idea how an economy works.

fat americans are willing to pay the prices that mcdonalds charges. so mcdonalds charges it.


and i dont think you know what sustainable means.
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What do you think greed is then? Being greedy doesn't mean that you ask for more money than people are willing to spend and go out of business, it's just the desire to have more and more. Perfectly in line with corporate business goals, and lot of people's goals for that matter.
 
I haven't eaten at a fast food chain in a very long time, but a few weeks ago I bought my brother lunch at a Lafleur.

Fourteen bucks for a large poutine? No thanks.

(all prices CAD)

Restaurant-Lafleur-Restaurant-menu.jpg
 
McDonalds used to be cheap junk food, then people whined it was too unhealthy so they made a bunch of expensive changes to their business model.

Add in inflation and ridiculous salary expectations and you have a bad combination.
 
Renard said:
I think McDonalds figures they have a Giffen good of sorts. The logic being that the middle-class may have gotten priced out of normal restaurants and now McD is all they can afford for a treat. In my local area that's not accurate though. McD's prices have gone up so much that a lot of normal, much better restaurants are equivalent in price now, so I don't see why you'd pick McD over them. The other fast foods have not skyrocketed in price, so there are substitute goods, of better quality to boot. The only aspect that the golden arches have over them is better coverage, more restaurants all over the place if you don't want to drive a little bit more for a better fast food.

I think people are still purchasing the food because they're used to getting X and Y as part of their habits. A lot of people haven't realized how high the prices have gotten because they remember the old prices in their minds. That will readjust over time. In Canada you're looking at like $30 minimum for a meal for two people. I don't see people keeping up that habit once they get the sticker shock a few times.
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Aspirational branding. A lot of the kind of idiots out there who get in arguments about coke vs pepsi or nike vs adidas will also only eat at mcdonalds.

I run a small business and the hardest part is getting my product in people's hands. I generally get great feedback since my product is better than the big companies and literally half the price but the hard part is getting people to even try it.

They're brainwashed by 'aspirational branding' to think buying the expensive shitty product makes them seem 'cool.'

You see it all the time on social media. Big company releases a new shitty, overpriced product and all the lemmings can't wait to buy it and post a picture of them holding it on Instagram to show off.

Just go on Instagram and search #McDonalds and see all the clapping seals posing for selfie with a burger.

Or look at the iphone vs android arguments. The iphone argument 99% of the time is if you don't have an iphone, you're poor. These same people will whine about capitalism and how they can't afford a house. Meanwhile they have a $800/month car payment on a brand new truck they use to go to work every day and buy groceries.

Aspirational branding convinces the customer that they share in the glory of the business so they flock to support the biggest business.
 
The Dick's example doesn't
Chad R. Thundercock said:
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Meanwhile, a local chain of burger restaurants in Seattle called Dick's is selling $3 cheeseburgers and paying its workers $25 per hour.

jc7qpdrvk11d1.jpeg
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If you're comparing the prices to Dick's, the price comparison would be between the same or similar menu item, not the cheapest single item on one menu compared to the full meal from another. In this case, the $3.05 single patty cheeseburger at Dick's would be compared to the single patty cheeseburger at McDonald's, which is $2.55. The "meal" from Dick's would be adding on fries and a soda, and those aren't even the real price because they list one price, and then right underneath it then tell you that they're adding on a "sugar drink tax", and then charging you for ketchup with your fries.
 
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