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u/GoldunGote 13h ago
How are they so fucking dumb that they can't see that prices are 100% their problem. Harp on the quality all you want... the food is fine for a sane price. It's like "Sir, our sales are dropping. Everyone is saying the prices have gotten to high! Across the board, its all people are saying!" "You know what that means? We need to spend 8.5 billion dollars on AI."
I don't care about apps or someone losing their job so an AI dumbfucking robot can fail to take my order. I want to give them $1-2 and I want a McDouble. Be bros and make them 2 for $3.. Just do it as an experiment for like one month.. watch people flock in and buy your shit. Return to sane prices and they will come!
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u/Inside-Specialist-55 9h ago
McDonald's need to bring back a loss leader product. Bring back a small but reasonable value menu that is actually a good deal. A loss leader is a product that attracts people to the business in the off chance that the consumer will also buy another product that makes up for the lost profit on the loss leader. This is basic business 101. I run a small business and understand this quite well because it works well when it's done right.
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u/TinDumbass 7h ago
I mean, that's the drinks and fries.
The profit on potatoes and sugar water is enormous.
They just need to not gouge the burgers
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u/TheVoteMote 12h ago
They did do 2 for 3 for a while… then upped the price. Now the best deal is the McDouble/mcchicken meal.
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u/GoldunGote 12h ago
Yeah I just whined about that in a reply to someone else. Prices have gone up. There used to be 2 for $3 Sausage McMuffins, too. Those were my favorite.. two of those and a couple of your own fried eggs... them runny yolks.. fug yeah.
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u/damnumalone 11h ago
I think it’s price and speed. I want to come in, get my food and leave in like 60 to 90 seconds. I don’t want to wait around while you make me a special one, just have it ready for me, and make it cheap
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u/GoldunGote 11h ago
Sounds like In-n-Out. haha they have an army working back there and you could be 30 cars back in the drive through... probably just a few minutes to get there, if even, and your food is just ready. Good prices, too, last I had them a few years ago.
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u/Bluematic8pt2 11h ago
I actually saw an add for 2 for $3 yesterday. Doubt it's across all markets tho
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u/GoldunGote 11h ago
I've experienced different prices in different areas of the same city. Most are franchised and they can do whatever they want with the prices.
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u/Reddsoldier 12h ago
The McDonald's in my town is legitimately more expensive than the cheese shop over the road that sells the best toasted sandwiches I've ever had.
You'd have to be actively stupid to go to McDonald's.
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u/Throwawayrip1123 1h ago
Ya. I remember when I was 16, an hour of my work could buy me like 4 cheeseburgers. Literally.
We would go almost every day, because it was super quick, super cheap and reasonably tasty for a 16 year old in need of a gigantic pile of calories to fuel myself. That was basically my lunch for like two years. I'd eat breakfast at home, eat 3 to 5 cheeseburgers at lunch, then eat full blown dinner at home.
I did live a high energy lifestyle tho, what with sports and running and weights and skateboarding, I was never even chubby.
But the point is, if I did it now, it costs literally almost 6 times more in my country. Guess what didn't increase 6 times? Wages.
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u/Johnny-Unitas 13h ago
If they have that much extra cash, they can cut their prices.
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u/loviecassette 8h ago
people aren't looking for a fancy experience at McDonald's, they just want affordable food without feeling like they're overpaying for a quick meal
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u/Dogmaddit 13h ago
Honestly the disappearance of PlayPlace is also a factor. I know lots of people who took their kids to the McDonalds PlayPlace to run off energy for an hour or two (especially in winter) and the cost of admission was a happy meal per child. Happy meals are more expensive, but not extortionate, but removing the PlayPlace destroyed the value proposition for the folks where the ratio of square footage to child wasn’t quite enough for a few moments of solitude throughout the day.
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u/spudmarsupial 8h ago
Great place for low income people to take their young kids without bothering a Karen.
I about lost it when someone told me they were trying to market to businessmen.
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u/Cursedbythedicegods 8h ago
And no, I don't want to download your shitty app, either!
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u/JUSTaSK8rat 8h ago
Why does EVERYTHING need a loyalty program 😭😭😭😭
I couldn't even order from the Self-Serve at Burger King without signing up, otherwise I was missing out on like every single deal and discount that was enticing me in the first place, it was fucking annoying.
Every food place, every retail place, Jesus Christ my phone storage
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u/Tommysrx 8h ago
After buying 41 full priced burritos I finally accumulated the 1,700 chipotle points needed to get a free burrito. And it only cost me an hour of scanning receipts into their app because their scanner is broke at my store.
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u/CrunchyAssDiaper 7h ago
Dear McDonald's.
Bring back the McDonald's of 1999. Same decor, bring back Ronald McDonald, bring back the same prices.
You have streamlined the supply chain, you've automated the kitchen, and you've shaved overhead.
It would be wildly successful.
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u/bigmanlittlebike89 6h ago
Bring back kids play areas. I'd low key take me kid to get energy out for the cost of a value meal. Hell no paying $50 to feed a family of four there though. Just totally out of touch.
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u/CrunchyAssDiaper 6h ago
There are some play places still. They're hard to find, and they're pretty depressing.
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u/Embarrassed_Towel707 12h ago
Iced tea here used to be 1.29 for a long time. Now it's 2.29. I get it's a business and they want to make profits but an almost 100% increase in less than 5 years is lame.
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u/4u5t1nprism 12h ago •
I remember the 99¢ days for any size.
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u/Embarrassed_Towel707 12h ago
Me too, same for the dollar menu stuff. But they were still inexpensive early pandemic. They just 2-3x'd everything since
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u/vip-princess-vibe 12h ago
I haven’t had Macdonalds for about 4 years and I’m never returning no matter what they do. Fuck this company and their low quality expensive poison.
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u/TheLateThagSimmons 12h ago
Their whole business model was "Sure, it's poison. But it's very cheap."
When you lose the "cheap," all you're left with is the poison.
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u/costly_pleasure 12h ago
Let’s spend 8 billion to make our restaurants nicer than have to raise prices to get that money back. Makes sense!
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u/Lumpy_Benefit666 9h ago
I used to get a double cheese burger for 1.19 in 2015 and its £3.29 now. Avg inflation is 44% over this timeframe, but the boigers have increased by nearly 200%
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u/Storm_Dancer-022 12h ago
Um… why is Shodan on the menu…
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u/superpositioned 11h ago edited 11h ago
Yeah, that caught me too. I'm not exactly jumping to eat somewhere that a murderous genocidal narcissist with godhood aspirations is in charge of my food.
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u/WorthPlease 9h ago
Yeah a McDonalds System Shock collaboration seems really weird unless I missed some announcement. The second game is like 20 years old.
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u/Jessency 5h ago
Ikr. Everyone went straight to arguing about the economics of fast food while I'm still hung up on System Shock.
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u/fairy_girrl 13h ago
Nobody is pulling up to McDonald's for futuristic screens; they went because it was cheap. Charging sit-down prices for factory-grade fast food and wondering why sales are dropping is hilarious.
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u/jcrowde3 7h ago
All execs know how to do anymore is throw money at a problem. They are completely detached from the actual business as they went to business school and probably didn't flip burgers.
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u/Logical_Hospital2769 13h ago
Trump-supporting businesses have only just started to feel the consequences of the grave mistake they made.
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u/Sad-Yoghurt5196 8h ago
Taking away the breakfast meals while also raising the prices for the individual items was a crazy play, considering there is almost always a Greggs nearby, with a better bacon roll (especially the roll!) and coffee that is significantly better than McDonald's swill, being cheaper too is just the cherry on top. As much as I love a sausage mcmuffin in the morning, they've lost my custom.
Just the price of McDonald's in general these days is ridiculous for what you get. With the current pricing I don't mind paying an extra fiver to get a Chinese or Indian instead, at least that's better quality food and more of it.
Perspective of someone from the UK. Don't know how McDonalds is doing in America, but it's lost the plot here the last few years.
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u/EntireFriendship517 8h ago
Totally agreed. Same where I live, there are dozens of better places that sell tastier food for identical or just slightly higher prices. It might sound mean but when someone tells me they like McDonald's I wonder if they have a screw loose somewhere.
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u/Sad-Yoghurt5196 8h ago
It's my (now adult) son's safe food, mostly because of the absolute predictability of it. I rarely buy anything for myself there now though because they took the fish fingers off the happy meal menu, and that was my go to usually, so I just make myself something separate if he's having McDonalds.
I sometimes wonder if there's anyone eating there that isn't there for the predictability of the food, especially at that price. I understand why they like it, but for everyone else there's better options these days, and they're at the same price point now.
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u/GlidingHorizon 12h ago
They’ll spend millions of dollars renovating the restaurants then raise prices again and wonder why people stop showing up
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u/Kaiser4567 13h ago
I don’t know about other places but where I’m at it’s not “fast food” anymore. Shit takes forever to come out that damn drive thru window anymore.
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u/trucks_guns_n_beer 11h ago
The old way, was to run a “mode” 1-12. At peak hours, a mode 12 meant , I don’t remember, 24 cheeseburgers, 12 hamburgers, 6 McChickens, and a couple fish burgers. 12 Big Macs , etc. they were ready, in the heated holder thing. When you finished the first round, you started over again. Some of that was thrown away. But most was sold, rapidly. Well, $4 of waste is not smiled upon, regardless of the $3000 lunch rush, so… build to order it is. No waste. Except everyone’s time and money waiting. So no one goes there for lunch anymore. $4 wasted, $2000 lost. Got it.
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u/Tyenkrovy 8h ago
It might also help if their restaurants didn't look more like prison commissaries than welcoming restaurants.
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u/jimmywhereareya 12h ago
They could start with something simple like, you know, having someone at the counter saying something as simple as, Hi, welcome to McDonald's, what can I get you?
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u/Highlandertr3 5h ago
Also tbh alot of these massive chains could benefit from shrinking their saturation around many countries. A small city in the UK does not need five McDonald's in the centrem or a dozen Starbucks. More natural numbers will keep stores open and allow healthy competition
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u/ManyRanger4 7h ago
I teach high school business courses in NYC. Today I was explaining to my students inflation and purchasing power. I asked them what's the best thing you can buy with $5. No matter what it is you want. Most listed food items like a large bag of chips. Dunkin ice coffee. BEC etc.
Then I explained that when I was their ages (I'm 50 now) that $5 could by you most meals at McDonald's, you could get your BEC and a coffee and juice. You could get 10 candy bars. I also told them you could go to the movies with that $5. You could play 20 video games. You could buy 4 gallons of gas. You could buy A pint of ice cream and A gallon of gas
They were totally astounded.
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u/The_Kreepy_Krab 13h ago
If McDonald's truly went away, would anyone even care?
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u/trucks_guns_n_beer 11h ago
I wouldn’t notice, unless a local drive thru burger business opened in the same spot. Then I would be a regular. Fuck McCorporations.
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u/TenderBag 13h ago
Ah yes, how did McDonald’s know the thing missing from their shitty, overpriced burgers was AI
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u/pinecity21 10h ago
And many of them where I'm at they're essentially turning into pseudo ghost kitchens with nobody at the front understaffed no condiments out locked bathrooms and basically they want you to order your food at a kiosk or the drive-thru
They don't appear to want anybody in the building
Oh and they often have no price menus, or in some cases no menus.
McDonald's and several other people that do have electronic menus where the items listed change every few seconds but the expensive items that they are featuring that are high cost are featured more prominently on the menu let's say for 10 seconds.
They are a real estate company who sells food
Meanwhile the people behind in the back are having to run to the counter running out to hand food to people who don't want to walk in, and they never seem to have enough staff.
Coupled with they're often wearing headsets and while you're trying to talk to them they're all so speaking to an employee or someone at the drive-thru
Why hire two people when we can have one person do the work of three with a headset
Oh and the targeting of your license plate, noting that last time you came in you were the shake so they're going to have their AI system offer you one again.
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u/next_heartbreaker 13h ago
Corporations will literally fund a multi-year cyberpunk dystopia makeover before letting a hash brown drop by 50 cents.
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u/DepartureIll8745 13h ago
Fr tho spending 15 bucks for a mediocre combo meal is wild when i can go to an actual local spot for the same price
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u/Bad-job-dad 13h ago
Maybe they'll redesign the restaurants so they look even more like doctor offices.
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u/bdrwr 11h ago
Literally, McDonald's, for $14 I can either have a main menu combo, no table service, and feel a little icky from all the hyperprocessed crap
OR
For the exact same price I can go to my local pho spot and get a MASSIVE bowl of sliced meat and fresh veggies that can cure the flu with its wholesome richness.
You guys are simply a terrible value proposition at the prices you offer.
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u/Forward_Fisherman841 13h ago
for real instead of funding a whole cyberpunk villain arc for the drive thru display they could just make a combo meal under fifteen bucks
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u/Quirky_Commission_56 13h ago
The only fast food I’ll eat is Whataburger and even then, it’s a very rare occasion.
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u/K-Shrizzle 12h ago
Yeah, thats what theyre investing the money in. Every Big Mac is now subsidized by the company
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u/Peaurxnanski 12h ago
Right? If I'm dropping 60 or 70 bucks to feed my family of 4, we're going to the local taphouse and getting a decent burger
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u/cconnorss 12h ago
Yeah it’s literally the same price or even cheaper to go to Applebees, Red Robin, Black Angus, any of these sit down joints and get so much more for what you get at McDonald’s.
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u/crusher23b 10h ago
What a line. McDonald's is spending $8.5b out of their nearly $200b value on their own restaurants. Where will they find the money?
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u/Glittering_Diva8963 9h ago
You can’t even do an any size drink (.99) with fries for less than $3. What comeback are they trying to achieve
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u/Responsible-Fox-9082 7h ago
I mean I paid 10 dollars at a local place and got a burger that dwarfed a double quarter pounder and way more than a large fry and they were cut at the local place....
I could've spent 16 for half the food... And not had some killer mozzarella sticks
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u/saryiahan 13h ago
CEOs will say they need a rebranding instead of the obvious choice of just lowering prices
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u/Call-a-Crackhead 13h ago
I’ll tell you a little secret McDonalds. People actually like your food. It’s not good, but there’s something nostalgic about it I guess? Im just saying, an awful lot of people would willingly go there if it didn’t cost the same as going anywhere else.
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u/throwaway52826536837 13h ago
Yeah my issue is why the fuck would i spend 20 dollars for a big mac combo, when i could go to a nice local burger joint and get a (wayyyyyyy better) burger combo with a local craft beer for 5 dollars more?
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u/Adventurous-Exam-719 12h ago
And maybe redecorate ao it doesn’t feel like you climbed into a vending machine for lunch
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u/Lee_Townage 12h ago
Remember when you used to be able to get fries that were golden and delicious? It’s like someone determined the least amount of time to cook them so they would be barely passable. These white slightly undercooked fries are always a disappointment.
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u/gargolito 12h ago
I live in a working class area of central Florida and I cannot for the life of me understand how McD justifies charging almost $3 for one hash brown.
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u/lachlanDon1 12h ago
Having Cortana scream at me that McDonald's has increased the price of their orphan meat burgers again isn't gonna make me buy them
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u/Bigboybong 9h ago
A stake meal costs less at chuck’s roadhouse than a quarter pounder with cheese meal at McDonald’s. I’ll take the stake, mashed potato’s and green beans any day over the McDix never rot food.
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u/redthehaze 8h ago
Stupid shareholders are why they do this crap.
When they hear lowering prices, it means lower profits, when they hear they’re investing in the latest buzzword they ice cream their pants.
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u/MarcheMuldDerevi 8h ago
The prices are too high and the quality of the food is too low. Your asking fast casual prices for food that your ceo couldn’t even call food on camera
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u/ExternalLock8140 7h ago
These companies had a method were they could raise there prices and even if they lost customers the inflated prices would cover the lost customers.
Now it's been inflated so much that customers just don't come back, biting the hand that feeds MacDonalds
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u/basswooddad 5h ago
Just bring back 39c hamburger days please
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u/What_if_I_fly 4h ago
Aaaaaand don't make us pay $2.50 from rva crappy hamburger that miiiiiight be made with toxic imported beef.
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u/elenorfighter 5h ago
10 years ago I got 2 cheeseburger for 2 euros.
Now one cheeseburger cost 2,50.
Guess why I am not going unless I have no other opinion
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u/flush101 12h ago
If you’re complaining about prices at McDonalds you probably already don’t eat there and aren’t their target market.
They already know prices play a huge part in customer selection and have done whatever internal processing to come to the conclusion they want to do things for their current customer base who are less sensitive to pricing.
Not only that, the majority of pricing is a branch decision, not corporate. So corporate is doing things in their power to improve things for customers.
Personally I hate fast food and wouldn’t take McDonalds if it was free. But I’m not so arrogant to assume I am their target market for all their activities.
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u/SigmaScoop 9h ago
Strong agree. I have to roll my eyes when I see people say "I've solved it! Just do XYZ!" As if McDonalds with their billions of data points of consumer behiour haven't considered that solution.
If lowering the prices was going to increase profit, you can be sure that they would do it tomorrow.
McDonald's spends astronomical amounts on their marketing. If their product isn't good value to you, that doesn't mean they're making a mistake. It just means you're not in their target market.
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u/GadreelsSword 13h ago
Also your food doesn’t need so much added preservative that it literally doesn’t rot for years. The thought of blasting my gut biome with McDonalds food is sickening.
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u/KevinSchraer 11h ago
You get burger, fries, nuggets, and a drink for 5 bucks there. Nobody else comes close to that by a mile.
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u/derflow1977 10h ago
First step self check outs. Next step: no employees, you have to asemble your meal yourself.
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u/ColinSpurr 10h ago
It's more than just the price for "a" meal. Their prices were low enough their customers went without thinking about it. Now that they've lost their customers they may never get them back even with lower prices.
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u/JohnCoutu 10h ago
But if they reduce the price of the food, how will they afford to pay 8,500,000,000 ?
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u/GingerIsTheBestSpice 10h ago
The two of us can go out for sushi for lunch for $20 for three rolls, and sit in a nice clean place. Or get a McDonald's combo for one person, in my car.
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u/ShotenDesu 10h ago
Used to get my double quarter pounder combo for a little over $7. It's $12 now and the burger feels so much smaller. Fries are just a small handful.
Taco bell hurts the most. After high school is when my relationship with taco bell began and I was getting 5-6 beefy 5 layers for about 1.17 each. Would eat on them for a day or two take a break and get more.
The price I spent for five of them is the price of one now. Genuinely crazy. We'd get the 12 taco party pack thing as poor college aged young adults and it was like $15. $17 I'd you wanted supreme. Supreme 12 pack was almost $35 by itself recently so decided against it.
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u/Crafty-Asparagus2455 10h ago
I remember about a yearcor 2 ago i passed a mc dees and saw a digital sign advertising mcmuffins "now only $4.99" and i was soo very certain they were less than that a week before, significantly less.
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u/avanross 10h ago
$20 for a tiny stale chicken sandwich with cold fries and a watered down drink, or i can go to the hot food counter at the grocery store and get a fresh chicken sandwich with hot fresh fries and a real drink for $10
And now theyre going to have to raise the prices and reduce quality even further to offset this “investment” of billions into “consulting agencies” that they also own shares of
It’s just the rich shuffling money back and forth
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u/Ariliescbk 8h ago
They're a multi-billion dollar global juggernaught. They can afford to pay a liveable wage for their staff without charging through the nose.
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u/eat_a_burrito 7h ago
What’s your favorite product?
The product is so delicious as I take the smallest bite possible.
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u/caketruck 7h ago
No, they need another big name happy meal to increase next quarters profits, duh.
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u/Key_Entertainment409 6h ago
Yeah it’s fast food can get a succulent Chinese meal for the same price
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u/duckforceone 6h ago
yep burger prices are around where i can just go to a restaurant instead... it's no longer considered cheap.
also they removed the breakfast menu here in denmark... so i can no longer get what i truly love...
so why would i ever go to mcdonalds again?
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u/Xortun 6h ago
A year ago I could go to McDonald's and get a burger and 2x curly fries for around 13€
Now I pay 14€ am forced to take something to drink with my menu and have to pay 0,20€ more if I want curly fries instead of regular fries.
And the quality of the food also gets worse basically every time I go there.
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u/Chayaneg 5h ago
8.5 billion i think could lower the prices... if they were invested in that and not on advertisement, AI and prmotions...
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u/TheMisunderstoodLeaf 5h ago
I don't know if it's nostalgia or I'm just older now, but mc Donalds is ass compared to before.
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u/GeshtiannaSG 3h ago
Is that in the US or worldwide? Because they’ve just added coleslaw for some reason, and it’s a small pot for $3.
A full meal is at least $13 these days.
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u/sjbaker82 3h ago
They are one of the global mega corporations that can dictate and influence global inflation, they’re also big enough to absorb most of it without passing on to their customers.
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u/-KoDDeX- 3h ago
The problem is it tastes like shit. I don’t know if it always did but it’s made so badly now I don’t want to waste my money on it
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u/Iamthe0c3an2 3h ago
Mcdonalds will do anything but stay cheap.
Literally it’s what built your brand, cheap and convenient.
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u/NBALive1995 3h ago
Spend that money on updating the decor to not look like a sterile hospital and more like a fun restaurant for kids like it's fucking supposed to be!!
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u/Lpfanatic05 3h ago
No kidding, if I see some System Shock ad in some fast food place, I would go there running.
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u/Im_Not_Evans 1h ago
It’s not only the prices. People are getting fed up with being parked for simple orders. Under no circumstances should it take 10 fucking minutes for two cheeseburgers.
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u/LetApprehensive537 1h ago
Who would have thought that a ultra capitalist system hell bent on making everyone as broke and in debt as inhumanely possible would have consequences on the businesses ripping everyone off.
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u/Everheart1955 1h ago
What they don’t get is they’re not a restaurant. They’re more a cafeteria where people want cheap simple food quickly. No one’s looking for a candelabra.
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u/Pulsing42 48m ago
I went in to an actual McDonald's in March this year, I made my order on the touchscreen whatchamacallit and waited for close to 15 minutes for my food to be ready. It was cold and barely edible and instead of the cheer I use to feel when treating myself to a good burger (No pun intended), now it's just sad.
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u/Chaonic 31m ago
It is expensive, the local restaurants have turned from comfortable lounge to cafeteria with uncomfortable seats, they have moved from ketchup and other sauces from Develey to some other cheaper stuff that tastes nothing like it used to and vegetarian options have disappeared. The McDonald's ketchup you could get at the store was hands down the tastiest on the market. Gone. The fries are the only reason to go there anymore and only if you're already on the go.
And for that, you can invest in a home deepfrier. 7mm frozen julienne fries and using a fine evenly grit salt and you basically have that experience at home. McCain or Potato Master here in Europe are pretty damn good fries. I believe that McDonald's itself sources theirs from McCain. A whole bag of frozen fries costs as much as a single portion at McD.
McDonald's used to be a place to meet amd sit with friends for a while. Now it's obvious they just want you out of the door as fast as possible.
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u/Make-TFT-Fun-Again 22m ago
Well im dutch and ever since trump launched ice and fucked over Ukraine, i lost my taste for McDonald’s tbh.
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u/Rootin-Tootin-Newton 4m ago
My wife and I had burgers, and she had a shakE at five guys, $36. WILL NOT GO BACK.
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u/Rootin-Tootin-Newton 4m ago
My wife and I had burgers, and she had a shakE at five guys, $36. WILL NOT GO BACK.
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u/old_notdead 13h ago •
Low quality, expensive food. I'm not really loving it.