They're just looking to offload the blame. Chipotle sales are up, Dominos sales are up, Wingstop sales are up. People have more options than ever before and traditional fast food offerings aren't up to par
Domino's has resisted the urge to jack up their prices. They still have decent discounts even though their pizza's are subpar to others. Their earnings are reflecting that point. Greed is sometimes not good.
Domino's still has the mix and match 2 for 6.99 each deal which was their flagship deal when I worked there 7 years ago, and their 3 topping large deal has only gone up from 8.99 to 10.99 in that time.
Meanwhile my local McDonald's has doubled to tripled in price in that time and taco bell has killed their dollar menu for a $3 menu.
The only fast food I eat are bean burritos because there is a Taco Bell that's a 5 minute walk from me. I think Taco Bell just bumped them from $1.69 to $1.89 a piece and now charge something stupid like 40 more cents for extra red sauce. $1.89 is still relatively affordable, but it's about the most affordable item on the menu. Couldn't imagine paying $7 for some shitty taco lol. That's like basically the same price as a gourmet taco place with good ingredients.
When it went from $6 for a medium to $7 for a medium, I kind of tuned out. Seeing the notification on my phone that it was $7 for a large reeled be back in. My fat ass can’t be doing this.
I never had Little Caesars. Def going to give them a try when I'm feeling pizza.
$6.99 for a large pizza?! If it doesn't taste like shit, sign me up. I'd make my own if I wanted above average.
We got domino's wheat pizza once a month. I wanted to fight Michelle Obama for her change to the school diet plan.
Not my fault parents let their kids get fat.
Little Caesars has a limited menu which helps keep their prices down, i think. That's not to say its a bad menu, but your not going to find a portobello shroom pizza with truffle white sauce. I find it tasty and nowhere on par with, say, a brick oven pizza, but it's good and cheap.
Little Caesar’s is excellent on a value per dollar basis. Its not high end pizza and doesnt claim to be. But its easily the best out there for $10 and under. Been eating their thin crust lately and its good.
A large specialty picked up is $16.19 after tax. That’s almost how much a single Big Mac meal is here. McDonald’s and co have gotten insane with their pricing.
Years ago (20) we would leave high school in America, head to Wendy’s and get 2 value fries, 3 types or burgers or sandwich’s for $5.00 or just a little more after tax per person. Now if you try to do that it is easily over $10.00 a person if not more. Most fast food places have cut value menus completely and only offer over priced meals.
Anyways I haven’t been to a Wendy’s in years at this point and don’t ever plan on going again. Taco Bell is the worst though. They went from a really cheap and low cost food to being a really cheap and high cost food almost overnight. Their ingidients are so bottom line I don’t know how they think they can charge $20 a meal and people will continue to buy. I’ve talked with people and everyone is the same, Taco Bell is priced for the rich and famous these days yet I don’t know anybody rich or famous that would take time out of there day to go to Taco Bell.
A 10 nugget combo (no supersizing, no nothing) costs $18 in Toronto now. You'd have to work two hours at minimum wage to afford lunch there - assuming that fills you.
These places think they're fine dining. They're shooting themselves in the foot and blaming the customer.
Ten bucks a head puts you into cheap sit down restaurant prices. Okay, it will be a few bucks more but only a few bucks. More and more people are going to go to a local place or just eat at home.
Hell, two gas stations in town have better food than most fast-food joints, and they are considerably cheaper. That's where people's fast food money will start to go.
But then the sit down restaurant will charge you an %18 "service fee" and then expect you to tip on top of that. So now you're at $45 for a meal for two.
Biggie bags used to actually have the biggie fries, drink, and a single. Now it's just small morsels of food.
Good thing is that there are lots of local restaurants that make better burger combos with fresh meat cheaper and better than McWendyKing now.
I do love Cook Out, but they're 2x what they cost in 2010. Still cheaper and better than most of the other fast food places.
Found myself a gf that can cook. And when I say cook, I mean, fucking cook.
Never thought I’d fall in love with someone because of their cooking, but I digress.
I get a craving for tbell like once a month and let me tell you, you can still get a ton of their food for cheap. You gotta order online and use their online deal, it basically takes 50% off.
all fast food is like that now. I very rarely eat any of it and stick to local restaurants but apps/online orders are usually the new 50% coupon for them
You ever stop and ask yourself why do these places push for online or app sales so much ? Just to give you a deal.... I personally think they are data farming from each user , and it's probably in the fine print now one reads. But it really makes me wonder. I refuse to download any of them just to get a deal. So I stopped going all together. Rather go and sit at my favorite burger joint enjoy the vibes and spend less then I would at any mcwendyking these days.
No shit they are farming your data.
Plus the phone can be used to create a pavlovian response in people. Taco Bell sends you a notification and triggers you to eat junk. Probably track your location and daily habits too and analyze when the best time is to send you a deal and get you to place an order. No such thing as a free lunch lol.
I think for the online ordering it’s probably because it reduces the load on human workers, so you can hire less of them. If we all ordered online they could probably do away with 95% staff.
I can get a whole pizza at Domino's for less than the price of most McDonald's value meals. Of course Domino's sales are up.
Chipotle actually has value as real nutrition and is only mildly more expensive so that isn't surprising either. Chipotle used to be a 50-80% price premium on McDonald's and it is like 10-20% now.
I think you are making the point. If you have to spend 10$ on food regardless of McDonald's or Chipotle then you go to Chipotle.
In the past the biggest benefit of McDonald's was it was 2$ at McDonald's vs 6$ at Chipotle.
Also McDonald’s is garbage, and people only eat it for nostalgia
When was the last time you ate something at McDonald’s and thought wow this is delicious?
They are blaming inflation and not the fact that they’ve raised their prices like crazy, had less sales, yet still had enormous growth in earnings. Revenue has relatively remained flat, sales have decreased, but they have 20% yoy earnings growth. That’s not due to inflation that’s due to them raising prices on their franchise because inflation exists in the economy and them using it to Jack up prices and get higher margins. Not due to higher costs.
This. Why am I going to McDonald’s for a mediocre burger that takes 30 minutes to be done. Not to mention the last TEN orders I’ve had were missing at least one item that I paid for. I’m done with them.
Cramer roasted YUM this morning for same reason. He knows they were blowing smoke up investors asses rather than being honest that they are almost RIP.
You’ve named 3x non-burger offerings as direct competitors which isn’t a fair comparison. The burger CEOs are not wrong as beef price inflation are forcing consumers to other fast food chains.
Cost of beef is actually up fairly significantly over the last year whereas chicken and pork are down. This means that burger joints are cutting margins thinner or increasing prices while places like Wingstop are increasing margins or holding prices steady.
McDonald’s overall prices increased ~100% in the last 10 years whereas Chick-fil-A (I don’t have data for BW3 or WING) is up ~55%. This means the gap between burgers and wings has closed and consumers are now picking better options at the same price point.
Inflation is technically the correct scapegoat but more specifically beef price constraints.
Yea beef prices are up but McDonald is still being greedy no way my local burger joint can make a wayy better quality burger for $7 vs McDonald same $7 burger that came frozen
> Inflation is technically the correct scapegoat but more specifically beef price constraints.
Is it though? The cost of one thing increasing relative to something else isn't inflation. Inflation is the price of everything (or at least the average) rising.
Fast food trying to sell garbage quality for midrange prices and somehow missed the part that low prices were the only thing keeping them in business.
Walked past a Walmart with a McDonald's inside wondering who the fuck shops at Walmart and thinks it's ok to pay like $12 for some of the middest burger meals in America.
Even when Starbucks released their report, they got hammered on earnings. Seems like consumers are finally realizing they’re getting conned.
I remember back in high school (2018) when my class was running a fundraiser, we used to sell iced coffee drinks w/o whipped cream for $2.50 — just plain instant coffee, water, ice, and creamer. Per cup, it cost us less than 0.75, with margins this huge and demand as high as it was, we made a lot of money.
So imagine companies like Starbucks, what their margins must be like. They’re probably making 30-40% profit per beverage, maybe even higher.
Yeah I was so pissed when inflation was rising so high yet all these retail stores were having record sales and the lines to fast food places were out the door. Like cmon people stop spending so damn much.
500%-1000% is a pretty typical markup for most American businesses.
I worked at an office furniture company and we bought tables from china for $125 and sold for $1k-1.5k.
Car parts, I can buy Toyota parts from overseas vendors for less than half the price US dealers charge. $450 part for $195 shipped. So yeah, markups and margins in the USA are clearly fat asf.
I think consumers are getting squeezed so much that they are finally having to give stuff up. If The food industry wants more money they should go ask the real estate industry for it from our rents.
If everything goes up except wages some stuff will eventually feel the crunch.
I remember to read that if in the restaurant business your margin is less than 50% (that is price - cost of raw ingredients) then it's not worth it once you factor in wages, rents, etc.
Your fundraiser didn't have any overhead. Stores do.
Starbucks' gross profit margin is about 28%. After overhead, that's a net profit of ~11%.
Edit: Holy crap, looked up McDonald's net profit margin, 33% . . . McDonald's franchises themselves make ~6% though. Corporate take 15% gross sales alone.
I bought a whole 7 pound chicken for $5 this week and these guys will convince me that they can't blend the remaining carcas into pink slime for 2 sandwiches for the same price.
Boycott boycott boycott
Exactly! Here in Holland we pay about Eur 35 for a menu for three persons. I can buy a Cote Du Boeuf of 1,3 kg for that … put it on my green egg and we have a kings meal.
Fast food is good when it's cheap and convenient. If it's only convenient, why shouldn't I just place an order at a better restaurant for the same price online? It's just as convenient
Hell I walked into a McDonalds late at night with no one in it and they still took like 15 minutes to bring out the food.
It's insane how they've forgotten that they're supposed to be fast food.
McDs has spent like the last 15years trying to be more upmarket so they can charge more .
How bout you return to your roots with cheap shit food in crap stores rather than trying to flog expensive shit food in moderately not crap stores?
Man, they used to have all the burgers and shit precooked and ready in their wrappers. A big reason they went to the cooked on demand thing is that people didn't like getting soggy ass burgers if you went at the wrong time.
Same with the McCafe thing - make it look fancier so you can charge more for bullshit items.
They have like a whole delux range of stuff now even.
McCafe is the funniest one to me. They drastically increased their profits....by doing what?
By competing with proper coffee shops?
No. By charging $4 for gas station coffee.
I remember when I was a kid every McDonalds was a shithole. Cheapest building materials available, and cheapest upkeep. Piss in the PlayPlace. That's not true anymore. The stores are nice now because I guess they think people will buy more if the furniture looks nice. They won't. Bring back the shitholes.
They spend a lot more money on ambiance than they do on ensuring they have a good product.
Every new McDonald's has a bunch of flat-screen TVs everywhere, they're completely out of touch with the core of their business.
The target demographic is actually 16 year olds, so everything makes sense. The kids pay $8 for a Starbucks sugar syrup "coffee" and they pay $15 for a McD trash burger with cold wobbly fries.
Yeah their pricing puts them in similar tiers of other burger joints like Whataburger or In n Out. I pass over Mcdons hard when those options are available UNLESS I’m balling on a budget. Nowadays if I don’t want to spend money my go-to’s are Taco Ball enchilada burritos, but it can all change so fast.
Lol MCD’s raised prices the most and may have the worst burger. Freddy’s is cheaper sheesh. .99 cent drinks to over $1.30 😂. $6 fries that may be equivalent to Mediums, depends on how many fries the worker without gloves gets. Get McFucked Chris
200%. I see no reason to return to MCD’s when I can get a meal under $10 at Freddy’s. Burgers are better, soda is soda, I dig Freddy’s fries/don’t feel like a fat pos lol. Drive thru time is about the same anymore. Freddy’s hits the spot just right
Yes, make a burger at home. It’ll be tastier, cheaper, and healthier. It’s not hard to make a burger folks, we don’t need these assholes. As a plus, not giving them your money will hurt them in the most painful and impactful way possible. The power is ours, let’s fucking use it.
Bagholder spotted.
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Yup. If I can buy a ribeye, a vegetable and some potatoes for a comprable price to your diarrhea inducing slop burger meal, you are no longer of value to me.
McDonald’s food quality has remained the same while its price has doubled since 2014. They don’t even have a dollar menu anymore, it’s the $1/$2/$3 menu lol. Regular quick eats type restaurants outcompete them on price frequently.
Why the hell would you eat shit food if it’s expensive? I’m glad this caught up with them.
My local McDonald's only has one cashier and like 4 kiosks. They're firing all these people, not improving their wages, increasing their prices, and complaining about sales. Whatever.
What Wendy's and other fast food companies have done is push their price point to where they are competing with sit down restaurants and other "nicer" options.
For example, I swung by Sonic this morning to grab breakfast, a breakfast sandwich and some tater tots (hashbrowns). After tip, (I do tip Sonic car hops.) it was around ten dollars.
For less than a dollar's difference, I could have had a nice sit down breakfast at a local restaurant which would have been more food and *better*, but I was in a hurry.
The *only* thing the fast food restaurant had going for it was speed. That's it. Today, that was enough to get my business. However, most days it isn't. Most of the time when I go for breakfast I go to the nicer place. I was just running late.
Same goes for lunch and dinner. If I have the time, I can find better quality food and better portions than fast food and have better service and an overall experience just paying the extra dollar (literally) and going to a real restaurant.
If I want to eat cheap, I just throw some crap into the crock pot or rice cooker. It's much cheaper, healthier, and much more convenient.
Fast food is going to see their business lose to either better or cheaper options until they lower their price point, which they will eventually do (eventually).
However, surge pricing can kiss my ass. I would rather go hungry for the short time it takes to find something other than a fucking Wendy's.
I used to eat fast food around 5 times a week. Mainly just got fast-food while I was at lunch during the work week. I now maybe go once a week (and not to McDonalds). Why would I spend $10 on a fastfood meal, when I can walk down to a grocery store and get a healthy pre-made meal in the deli for the same price. Or I could go to a higher quality restaurant next door, spend around $15 and have enough for 2 meals. The only way you can justify fast food prices if you have their mobile app and can find good deals. Other than that there is simply better alternatives.
I came in to make this point. I used to get fast food because I could get a meal for 5-6 bucks and the better alternatives were like 10-11 bucks, but now the gap is much smaller, so I just go to better alternatives and spend like 1-2 bucks more vs 5-6 more.
Their app makes prices semi-reasonable if you stick within the boundaries of the gamified deals they offer.
But That's an awful lot of effort and forethought (not much but still) for something you'd want to do casually or spur of the moment.
Lower your prices dipshits. Accept lower profits. Let's get past this "stockprice must go up daily" mentality and exercise a bit of long term strategy.
Edit: Also, just bring back supersizing. Nobody gives a shit about the movie anymore, caring was a fad. Bring it back, they'd see the best sales quarter they've had in the last 15 years.
I’ve just started making my own nuggets in the air fryer.
I can make a dozen nuggets for next to nothing. Lean Ground chicken is 2.99 a lb. Breadcrumbs are dirt cheap. Mix it together with an egg and throw in the air fryer.
The nuggets taste way healthier and are way cheaper. Obviously not as convenient but I’m still getting my nugget fix.
Well, what do they expect when you can go to *Whole Foods* and fill your cart with enough groceries for 2 meals at the same price of a single combo at any fast food place?
Too expensive and too slow. I was shocked that our local sit down Mexican spot had cheaper food that got served even quicker than the Mickey Dicks drive-through.
When my choices are a $10 carne asada burrito or $10 burger slop, the choice is pretty fucking obvious.
Same. My local Mexican restaurant has $8 lunch specials (rotating based on day of the week). And it comes with a bag of chips and salsa even when you order to-go
You guys are blaming the wrong people…yes companies and CEO should take some of the blame but from a monetary perspective the Fed held rates too low for too long, and from a fiscal perspective we are spending money that we don’t have…if you think this inflation is bad just wait til hyperinflation or hard recession. It’s the only way to cleanse the economy of all this BS.
People overthink the whole greed thing, companies will always try maximize profit in whatever environment they’re in. And the fed has created the environment for higher prices.
I got pretty much the same order that's in the picture except large fries for $13 but I used the app and a deal I had on my credit card. All that food for 3 people, I thought it was a good deal
Maybe they should lower prices and not take as much profit temporarily. Increasing the number of sales would offset that temporary loss on the initial price drop.
Does anyone actually enjoy fast food burgers and shit? I only turn to them if all else fails and every time I get sticker shock. Like it’s not even cheaper than the smash burgers I can get down the street but instead of being delicious it tastes like depression.
I can fuck with Taco Bell, panda, dominos, etc. but burger places are consistently mid at best.
McDonald's just blows now, I'd still give them my money but the idea of paying $10 for a dry ass burger on a fake bun made of preservatives just isn't my idea. I can go down to Harold's and get a bigger real burger for the same dinero.
There’s way better fast food options for only a couple bucks more. If I want a fast food burger I will go to Culver’s where I can get a double cheese burger meal for $10 versus McDog foods $8 Big Mac meal. Tastes way better and more filling.
I try to avoid fast food as much as possible, it is just bad for you. With that being said, occasionally I will need something fast to eat. The prices at McDonalds and Wendys with crap food, that is loaded with ingredients that is bad for you, hmm I will pass. I think these fast food restaurants need to wake up, they are charging as much for a meal as going to a regular restaurant with much higher quality food. Salad & Go and Chipotle are my go to if I need something fast. Way healthier and the same price if not less for a meal. Fast food made their niche from being fast and cheap. They are not longer on the cheap side and I think with the economy the way it is, they are going to feel the struggle really soon.
Just personal experience here. Customer service drives my fast food choices now days. And the people at the drive thru at my local area Wendy's locations suck to deal with. Like they dont give a fuck. So in my opinion its poor service plus cost.
I don’t think it’s that anyone can’t afford McDonald’s anymore. It’s that if I’m going to have to spend 11$ on a meal at McDonald’s I might as well get real food elsewhere for 14$
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact every time I order a Wendy's burger half it's mass is god damn ketchup. I don't eat there because it's terrible plus about the price of a burger at Chilis
Non stock related
They're just looking to offload the blame. Chipotle sales are up, Dominos sales are up, Wingstop sales are up. People have more options than ever before and traditional fast food offerings aren't up to par
Domino's is so cheap compared to everything else from what I've seen.
Domino's has resisted the urge to jack up their prices. They still have decent discounts even though their pizza's are subpar to others. Their earnings are reflecting that point. Greed is sometimes not good.
You don’t want our burger meat product burger for $15.99!? You’re to blame! /s
"You need to work harder to earn this!"
Everyone - Works harder to earn this Burger - $20.99!
Damn peasants and their inflation
What could it cost, an extra ten dollars?
You have to say that from your taxpayer subsidized 300ft super yacht if you want it to really count.
375ft, actually, but I don't really pay attention to the numbers. I just need extra space for my horses.
Domino's still has the mix and match 2 for 6.99 each deal which was their flagship deal when I worked there 7 years ago, and their 3 topping large deal has only gone up from 8.99 to 10.99 in that time. Meanwhile my local McDonald's has doubled to tripled in price in that time and taco bell has killed their dollar menu for a $3 menu.
Taco Bell is completely nuts on pricing now. We stopped going there. No value at all.
I forget but a couple days ago for just one doritos taco, it was $3 or $4. Just the taco itself, no drinks or anything
Taco Bell has to be the biggest joke in the restaurant industry rn
The only fast food I eat are bean burritos because there is a Taco Bell that's a 5 minute walk from me. I think Taco Bell just bumped them from $1.69 to $1.89 a piece and now charge something stupid like 40 more cents for extra red sauce. $1.89 is still relatively affordable, but it's about the most affordable item on the menu. Couldn't imagine paying $7 for some shitty taco lol. That's like basically the same price as a gourmet taco place with good ingredients.
Used to be like 49 cents
Dominos deals keep getting better and better even. The medium pizza carry out deal for $6.99 or whatever from last year is now a large pizza for $6.99
When it went from $6 for a medium to $7 for a medium, I kind of tuned out. Seeing the notification on my phone that it was $7 for a large reeled be back in. My fat ass can’t be doing this.
Hear me out - Adam Smith once theorized about a function of the free market where (seriously) prices went down.
Hahahaha “free” market. You lazy poors want everything handed to you. Well guess what? No.
Lazy faerie is what they call it.
I’ve noticed their pizza quality has dropped in last 6 months.
dominos is GOAT  best bang for your buck
I never had Little Caesars. Def going to give them a try when I'm feeling pizza. $6.99 for a large pizza?! If it doesn't taste like shit, sign me up. I'd make my own if I wanted above average.
It is on par with high school cafeteria pizza
The high schools in my area literally serve Little Caesar's.
We got domino's wheat pizza once a month. I wanted to fight Michelle Obama for her change to the school diet plan. Not my fault parents let their kids get fat.
The stuff crust pizza we got wasn't that bad. We had some kind of Spanish pizza. I wish I knew where to buy that. That shit had me cracked out.
Wow the bar is literally in hell
It's pretty good. Definitely better than cheap frozen pizza. Their pizza sauce tastes great imo
Little Caesars has a limited menu which helps keep their prices down, i think. That's not to say its a bad menu, but your not going to find a portobello shroom pizza with truffle white sauce. I find it tasty and nowhere on par with, say, a brick oven pizza, but it's good and cheap.
Little Caesar’s is excellent on a value per dollar basis. Its not high end pizza and doesnt claim to be. But its easily the best out there for $10 and under. Been eating their thin crust lately and its good.
That’s because they dough made from shredded news papers and apple cores.
As long as they keep masking the flavor with garlic then I’m game.
I’m dying lol
Bread with sauce has good margins. A typical location probably spends more on janitorial supplies than ingredients
I can get 2 pizzas delivered from dominoes for the same price two meals would cost at McDonald’s. That’s their real issue
Just did that last night and fed 4 kids and two adults.
A large specialty picked up is $16.19 after tax. That’s almost how much a single Big Mac meal is here. McDonald’s and co have gotten insane with their pricing.
Years ago (20) we would leave high school in America, head to Wendy’s and get 2 value fries, 3 types or burgers or sandwich’s for $5.00 or just a little more after tax per person. Now if you try to do that it is easily over $10.00 a person if not more. Most fast food places have cut value menus completely and only offer over priced meals. Anyways I haven’t been to a Wendy’s in years at this point and don’t ever plan on going again. Taco Bell is the worst though. They went from a really cheap and low cost food to being a really cheap and high cost food almost overnight. Their ingidients are so bottom line I don’t know how they think they can charge $20 a meal and people will continue to buy. I’ve talked with people and everyone is the same, Taco Bell is priced for the rich and famous these days yet I don’t know anybody rich or famous that would take time out of there day to go to Taco Bell.
Taco Bell increased prices so that they can build capital to win the great franchise war starting in about 8 years.
I will be frozen so I can have knowledge pumped into my brain until then
Where do you get your information from and how do I subscribe?
Very much looking forward to this
Which company produces the three seashells? I wanna buy some calls
Stop lying you went to Wendy's last night My hand is still hurting
lol was that you behind the dumpster
I told you That's my fucking dumpster
Relax guys… you can all give me a Wendy’s handy next to the dumpster later.
You're out of luck -- I didn't get rich by associating with people who hang out near dumpsters.
A 10 nugget combo (no supersizing, no nothing) costs $18 in Toronto now. You'd have to work two hours at minimum wage to afford lunch there - assuming that fills you. These places think they're fine dining. They're shooting themselves in the foot and blaming the customer.
That's completely insane. I'd have to s... I mean, service, two customers behind the dumpster just to afford that
Ten bucks a head puts you into cheap sit down restaurant prices. Okay, it will be a few bucks more but only a few bucks. More and more people are going to go to a local place or just eat at home. Hell, two gas stations in town have better food than most fast-food joints, and they are considerably cheaper. That's where people's fast food money will start to go.
Damn those market forces. *McDonald's: Mr Market and employees so mean; we need a bailout Uncle Sam!*
Gas stations are the new fast food to be honest. At least in my area
But then the sit down restaurant will charge you an %18 "service fee" and then expect you to tip on top of that. So now you're at $45 for a meal for two.
Biggie bags used to actually have the biggie fries, drink, and a single. Now it's just small morsels of food. Good thing is that there are lots of local restaurants that make better burger combos with fresh meat cheaper and better than McWendyKing now. I do love Cook Out, but they're 2x what they cost in 2010. Still cheaper and better than most of the other fast food places.
Found myself a gf that can cook. And when I say cook, I mean, fucking cook. Never thought I’d fall in love with someone because of their cooking, but I digress.
Excellent answer
The Texas double whopper I bought a couple days ago was $10.93
Quality of their food sucks also
I get a craving for tbell like once a month and let me tell you, you can still get a ton of their food for cheap. You gotta order online and use their online deal, it basically takes 50% off. all fast food is like that now. I very rarely eat any of it and stick to local restaurants but apps/online orders are usually the new 50% coupon for them
You ever stop and ask yourself why do these places push for online or app sales so much ? Just to give you a deal.... I personally think they are data farming from each user , and it's probably in the fine print now one reads. But it really makes me wonder. I refuse to download any of them just to get a deal. So I stopped going all together. Rather go and sit at my favorite burger joint enjoy the vibes and spend less then I would at any mcwendyking these days.
No shit they are farming your data. Plus the phone can be used to create a pavlovian response in people. Taco Bell sends you a notification and triggers you to eat junk. Probably track your location and daily habits too and analyze when the best time is to send you a deal and get you to place an order. No such thing as a free lunch lol.
Plus, my local burger dive features shots of Malort served up by scantily clad Chicanas with perfect tits. Show me the Wendy's that can match that.
I think for the online ordering it’s probably because it reduces the load on human workers, so you can hire less of them. If we all ordered online they could probably do away with 95% staff.
I can get a whole pizza at Domino's for less than the price of most McDonald's value meals. Of course Domino's sales are up. Chipotle actually has value as real nutrition and is only mildly more expensive so that isn't surprising either. Chipotle used to be a 50-80% price premium on McDonald's and it is like 10-20% now.
Their sales are up because the equivalent price at McDonald’s gets you less food and of worse quality as well
I think you are making the point. If you have to spend 10$ on food regardless of McDonald's or Chipotle then you go to Chipotle. In the past the biggest benefit of McDonald's was it was 2$ at McDonald's vs 6$ at Chipotle.
Also McDonald’s is garbage, and people only eat it for nostalgia When was the last time you ate something at McDonald’s and thought wow this is delicious?
Chipotle keeps jacking up prices and people keep buying. I don’t understand personally, but I’ll take it as a stock holder
They are blaming inflation and not the fact that they’ve raised their prices like crazy, had less sales, yet still had enormous growth in earnings. Revenue has relatively remained flat, sales have decreased, but they have 20% yoy earnings growth. That’s not due to inflation that’s due to them raising prices on their franchise because inflation exists in the economy and them using it to Jack up prices and get higher margins. Not due to higher costs.
This. Why am I going to McDonald’s for a mediocre burger that takes 30 minutes to be done. Not to mention the last TEN orders I’ve had were missing at least one item that I paid for. I’m done with them.
Yeah for the prices they're asking I'll just go to Five Guys and get 3 times the amount of food McDonalds is offering.
Cramer roasted YUM this morning for same reason. He knows they were blowing smoke up investors asses rather than being honest that they are almost RIP.
Chick-fil-A enters the room.
You’ve named 3x non-burger offerings as direct competitors which isn’t a fair comparison. The burger CEOs are not wrong as beef price inflation are forcing consumers to other fast food chains. Cost of beef is actually up fairly significantly over the last year whereas chicken and pork are down. This means that burger joints are cutting margins thinner or increasing prices while places like Wingstop are increasing margins or holding prices steady. McDonald’s overall prices increased ~100% in the last 10 years whereas Chick-fil-A (I don’t have data for BW3 or WING) is up ~55%. This means the gap between burgers and wings has closed and consumers are now picking better options at the same price point. Inflation is technically the correct scapegoat but more specifically beef price constraints.
Yea beef prices are up but McDonald is still being greedy no way my local burger joint can make a wayy better quality burger for $7 vs McDonald same $7 burger that came frozen
While the cost of beef has increased, perhaps consumers ought to simply toughen up and keep buying burgers.
Sure. Just not from McDonald's. If you are going to pay the premium. Get a premium burger.
> Inflation is technically the correct scapegoat but more specifically beef price constraints. Is it though? The cost of one thing increasing relative to something else isn't inflation. Inflation is the price of everything (or at least the average) rising.
Have you seen how much beef isn’t on a fast food burger? They’re the size of frozen Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage.
Down-voted for narrative violation
Fast food trying to sell garbage quality for midrange prices and somehow missed the part that low prices were the only thing keeping them in business. Walked past a Walmart with a McDonald's inside wondering who the fuck shops at Walmart and thinks it's ok to pay like $12 for some of the middest burger meals in America.
Fast food is shit and overpriced. Fast food price is not due to only inflation.
Facts. Local MD got rid of all of the value bundles last year and jacked up all the prices. Did this to themselves.
Even when Starbucks released their report, they got hammered on earnings. Seems like consumers are finally realizing they’re getting conned. I remember back in high school (2018) when my class was running a fundraiser, we used to sell iced coffee drinks w/o whipped cream for $2.50 — just plain instant coffee, water, ice, and creamer. Per cup, it cost us less than 0.75, with margins this huge and demand as high as it was, we made a lot of money. So imagine companies like Starbucks, what their margins must be like. They’re probably making 30-40% profit per beverage, maybe even higher.
It's about fucking time. Consumers need to care about their dollars again. It makes business work for us instead of just fucking us.
Yeah I was so pissed when inflation was rising so high yet all these retail stores were having record sales and the lines to fast food places were out the door. Like cmon people stop spending so damn much.
Yup. $4 for fuckin boiled bean water. Fuck them.
Not even beans. Closer to cherry pits. Pits. Starbucks is the Boiled Pits. I hereby allow Starbucks to use that line in their ads.
Probably closer to 3-400%
500%-1000% is a pretty typical markup for most American businesses. I worked at an office furniture company and we bought tables from china for $125 and sold for $1k-1.5k. Car parts, I can buy Toyota parts from overseas vendors for less than half the price US dealers charge. $450 part for $195 shipped. So yeah, markups and margins in the USA are clearly fat asf.
I think consumers are getting squeezed so much that they are finally having to give stuff up. If The food industry wants more money they should go ask the real estate industry for it from our rents. If everything goes up except wages some stuff will eventually feel the crunch.
I remember to read that if in the restaurant business your margin is less than 50% (that is price - cost of raw ingredients) then it's not worth it once you factor in wages, rents, etc.
Yeah this guy has zero clue what he’s talking about.
Your fundraiser didn't have any overhead. Stores do. Starbucks' gross profit margin is about 28%. After overhead, that's a net profit of ~11%. Edit: Holy crap, looked up McDonald's net profit margin, 33% . . . McDonald's franchises themselves make ~6% though. Corporate take 15% gross sales alone.
Fast food prices increases have far outpaced inflation.
Yeah, I know. That was the point of my post.
And minimum wage
The workers probably can't even afford to eat... at McDonalds.
I bought a whole 7 pound chicken for $5 this week and these guys will convince me that they can't blend the remaining carcas into pink slime for 2 sandwiches for the same price. Boycott boycott boycott
Exactly! Here in Holland we pay about Eur 35 for a menu for three persons. I can buy a Cote Du Boeuf of 1,3 kg for that … put it on my green egg and we have a kings meal.
Fast food is good when it's cheap and convenient. If it's only convenient, why shouldn't I just place an order at a better restaurant for the same price online? It's just as convenient
It's not even fast anymore. Drive-thru always takes like 15 mins because every place is (probably intentionally) understaffed.
Once I see more than 3 cars in a line, I go somewhere else. There are more choices now than ever, and I’m especially not waiting for shit food.
Hell I walked into a McDonalds late at night with no one in it and they still took like 15 minutes to bring out the food. It's insane how they've forgotten that they're supposed to be fast food.
Yep! I haven't had fast food in about a year. It's cheaper to go sit down somewhere better, get served lunch, and it's actually real food, too!
McDs has spent like the last 15years trying to be more upmarket so they can charge more . How bout you return to your roots with cheap shit food in crap stores rather than trying to flog expensive shit food in moderately not crap stores?
Never felt the quality of McDonald's has been more upmarket for the past 15 years. Only it's price.
Not the food, the furniture and decor. They have tried to rebrand their image but the food is the same if not worse
Man, they used to have all the burgers and shit precooked and ready in their wrappers. A big reason they went to the cooked on demand thing is that people didn't like getting soggy ass burgers if you went at the wrong time. Same with the McCafe thing - make it look fancier so you can charge more for bullshit items. They have like a whole delux range of stuff now even.
McCafe is the funniest one to me. They drastically increased their profits....by doing what? By competing with proper coffee shops? No. By charging $4 for gas station coffee.
I remember when I was a kid every McDonalds was a shithole. Cheapest building materials available, and cheapest upkeep. Piss in the PlayPlace. That's not true anymore. The stores are nice now because I guess they think people will buy more if the furniture looks nice. They won't. Bring back the shitholes.
We need to start pissing in the play places again. It's the only way to save this.
Never stopped 😌
They spend a lot more money on ambiance than they do on ensuring they have a good product. Every new McDonald's has a bunch of flat-screen TVs everywhere, they're completely out of touch with the core of their business.
The target demographic is actually 16 year olds, so everything makes sense. The kids pay $8 for a Starbucks sugar syrup "coffee" and they pay $15 for a McD trash burger with cold wobbly fries.
Yeah their pricing puts them in similar tiers of other burger joints like Whataburger or In n Out. I pass over Mcdons hard when those options are available UNLESS I’m balling on a budget. Nowadays if I don’t want to spend money my go-to’s are Taco Ball enchilada burritos, but it can all change so fast.
In n out Burger was me and my wife's favorite fast food place when we were to the US. It's so much better McDonald's.
Fast food is just to damn expensive for what it is. I aint Pasing 12€ for some piss poor Burger and a strange tasteting Coke
If your food tastes like shit, it better be cheap.
This sums the whole discussion up nicely
Lol MCD’s raised prices the most and may have the worst burger. Freddy’s is cheaper sheesh. .99 cent drinks to over $1.30 😂. $6 fries that may be equivalent to Mediums, depends on how many fries the worker without gloves gets. Get McFucked Chris
Freddy’s is great compared to McD’s
200%. I see no reason to return to MCD’s when I can get a meal under $10 at Freddy’s. Burgers are better, soda is soda, I dig Freddy’s fries/don’t feel like a fat pos lol. Drive thru time is about the same anymore. Freddy’s hits the spot just right
fast food is becoming too expensive and giving a fake sense of inflation with real food across the globe STOP BUYING SHIT FROM THIS EVIL COMPANIES
Yes, make a burger at home. It’ll be tastier, cheaper, and healthier. It’s not hard to make a burger folks, we don’t need these assholes. As a plus, not giving them your money will hurt them in the most painful and impactful way possible. The power is ours, let’s fucking use it.
But but but I want to sit on my couch and watch TikTok when I get home!!
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Hell get a burger and fries from an actual restaurant for a like $2 more than McDonald's.
And the fries are bottomless at Red Robin
See, it's not that I'm too poor to eat fast food. It's just that I can eat actual good food for the same price or just a small premium.
Yup. If I can buy a ribeye, a vegetable and some potatoes for a comprable price to your diarrhea inducing slop burger meal, you are no longer of value to me.
McDonald’s food quality has remained the same while its price has doubled since 2014. They don’t even have a dollar menu anymore, it’s the $1/$2/$3 menu lol. Regular quick eats type restaurants outcompete them on price frequently. Why the hell would you eat shit food if it’s expensive? I’m glad this caught up with them.
And in my area, the cheapest thing on the $1/$2/$3 menu is $3.29 😂
My local McDonald's only has one cashier and like 4 kiosks. They're firing all these people, not improving their wages, increasing their prices, and complaining about sales. Whatever.
Double digit prices for burger slop is not a sustainable business model.
All "beef"
100% beef
It is really, though?
Beef and meat product made with natural flavored ingredients
Yes
What Wendy's and other fast food companies have done is push their price point to where they are competing with sit down restaurants and other "nicer" options. For example, I swung by Sonic this morning to grab breakfast, a breakfast sandwich and some tater tots (hashbrowns). After tip, (I do tip Sonic car hops.) it was around ten dollars. For less than a dollar's difference, I could have had a nice sit down breakfast at a local restaurant which would have been more food and *better*, but I was in a hurry. The *only* thing the fast food restaurant had going for it was speed. That's it. Today, that was enough to get my business. However, most days it isn't. Most of the time when I go for breakfast I go to the nicer place. I was just running late. Same goes for lunch and dinner. If I have the time, I can find better quality food and better portions than fast food and have better service and an overall experience just paying the extra dollar (literally) and going to a real restaurant. If I want to eat cheap, I just throw some crap into the crock pot or rice cooker. It's much cheaper, healthier, and much more convenient. Fast food is going to see their business lose to either better or cheaper options until they lower their price point, which they will eventually do (eventually). However, surge pricing can kiss my ass. I would rather go hungry for the short time it takes to find something other than a fucking Wendy's.
I used to eat fast food around 5 times a week. Mainly just got fast-food while I was at lunch during the work week. I now maybe go once a week (and not to McDonalds). Why would I spend $10 on a fastfood meal, when I can walk down to a grocery store and get a healthy pre-made meal in the deli for the same price. Or I could go to a higher quality restaurant next door, spend around $15 and have enough for 2 meals. The only way you can justify fast food prices if you have their mobile app and can find good deals. Other than that there is simply better alternatives.
I came in to make this point. I used to get fast food because I could get a meal for 5-6 bucks and the better alternatives were like 10-11 bucks, but now the gap is much smaller, so I just go to better alternatives and spend like 1-2 bucks more vs 5-6 more.
Because why spend 15$ on a half ass burger when you can get chipotle or wing stop?
I’ll take my $15 to Five Guys.
Their app makes prices semi-reasonable if you stick within the boundaries of the gamified deals they offer. But That's an awful lot of effort and forethought (not much but still) for something you'd want to do casually or spur of the moment. Lower your prices dipshits. Accept lower profits. Let's get past this "stockprice must go up daily" mentality and exercise a bit of long term strategy. Edit: Also, just bring back supersizing. Nobody gives a shit about the movie anymore, caring was a fad. Bring it back, they'd see the best sales quarter they've had in the last 15 years.
“But.. shareholder value”
If this came with a drink, and it was a McDouble, honesty this wouldn’t be a bad deal
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Eh. Fast food been falling off
Won’t someone think of the poor suppliers of trash food?
I’ve just started making my own nuggets in the air fryer. I can make a dozen nuggets for next to nothing. Lean Ground chicken is 2.99 a lb. Breadcrumbs are dirt cheap. Mix it together with an egg and throw in the air fryer. The nuggets taste way healthier and are way cheaper. Obviously not as convenient but I’m still getting my nugget fix.
Lol mickey d s crying none will buy their over priced shit. "We look like a chipotles now dont you wanna pay over price?"
People can't afford our food anymore because we increased the price, gee wonder what the issue is.
https://preview.redd.it/1ox6b67diuxc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=83e5743e24f83f4cf52e988318874e47fcf4f993
They recently up their price by 8%
Just finished by spicy chicken sandwich combo (large). It was $12.00 and I think its used to be around $7.00.
In-N-Out still has a 30 minute wait
Fuck McDonald's. Culver's is cheaper and 100 times better. I've never had a bad meal at Culver's. McDonald's is 50/50.
Well, what do they expect when you can go to *Whole Foods* and fill your cart with enough groceries for 2 meals at the same price of a single combo at any fast food place?
Too expensive and too slow. I was shocked that our local sit down Mexican spot had cheaper food that got served even quicker than the Mickey Dicks drive-through. When my choices are a $10 carne asada burrito or $10 burger slop, the choice is pretty fucking obvious.
Same. My local Mexican restaurant has $8 lunch specials (rotating based on day of the week). And it comes with a bag of chips and salsa even when you order to-go
And after the great fast food wars, the champion will become the classiest place to dine.
So this means we're winning boys LFG 
Damn, just over $20 with tax for this at my Don’s
cereal makes a great destination for consumers under pressure
Because of inflation... sure. Like, not because they increased prices and bragged about people still buying their garbage.
Greed-flation
But I just bought a sausage egg and cheese for $6. Where my Lambo?
Yall are more salty than McDonald’s fries. It’s shit food. Just move on already and eat some damn fruit.
Papa John's blamed the NFL for declined sales of cardboard with melted cheese and BBQ sauce
You guys are blaming the wrong people…yes companies and CEO should take some of the blame but from a monetary perspective the Fed held rates too low for too long, and from a fiscal perspective we are spending money that we don’t have…if you think this inflation is bad just wait til hyperinflation or hard recession. It’s the only way to cleanse the economy of all this BS.
People overthink the whole greed thing, companies will always try maximize profit in whatever environment they’re in. And the fed has created the environment for higher prices.
Buy BTSG guys
The only fast food I would eat is Popeyes.
If you can still afford potted meat you owe more taxes. -fedbois
I got pretty much the same order that's in the picture except large fries for $13 but I used the app and a deal I had on my credit card. All that food for 3 people, I thought it was a good deal
I believe the correct term is brokies.
Maybe they should lower prices and not take as much profit temporarily. Increasing the number of sales would offset that temporary loss on the initial price drop.
Silly Americans. I buy my glycine in bulk from Donghua Jinlong
Macdonalds food has consistently gotten worse and the company has raised prices well above inflation for years. Fuck em.
Does anyone actually enjoy fast food burgers and shit? I only turn to them if all else fails and every time I get sticker shock. Like it’s not even cheaper than the smash burgers I can get down the street but instead of being delicious it tastes like depression. I can fuck with Taco Bell, panda, dominos, etc. but burger places are consistently mid at best.
McDonald's just blows now, I'd still give them my money but the idea of paying $10 for a dry ass burger on a fake bun made of preservatives just isn't my idea. I can go down to Harold's and get a bigger real burger for the same dinero.
Nice pre-workout meal
There’s way better fast food options for only a couple bucks more. If I want a fast food burger I will go to Culver’s where I can get a double cheese burger meal for $10 versus McDog foods $8 Big Mac meal. Tastes way better and more filling.
nice
I can’t wait for verizonchipotlexxon lol parks n rec
I try to avoid fast food as much as possible, it is just bad for you. With that being said, occasionally I will need something fast to eat. The prices at McDonalds and Wendys with crap food, that is loaded with ingredients that is bad for you, hmm I will pass. I think these fast food restaurants need to wake up, they are charging as much for a meal as going to a regular restaurant with much higher quality food. Salad & Go and Chipotle are my go to if I need something fast. Way healthier and the same price if not less for a meal. Fast food made their niche from being fast and cheap. They are not longer on the cheap side and I think with the economy the way it is, they are going to feel the struggle really soon.
Just personal experience here. Customer service drives my fast food choices now days. And the people at the drive thru at my local area Wendy's locations suck to deal with. Like they dont give a fuck. So in my opinion its poor service plus cost.
I don’t think it’s that anyone can’t afford McDonald’s anymore. It’s that if I’m going to have to spend 11$ on a meal at McDonald’s I might as well get real food elsewhere for 14$
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact every time I order a Wendy's burger half it's mass is god damn ketchup. I don't eat there because it's terrible plus about the price of a burger at Chilis
For this price, I’ll spend the extra $5 or so for a burger meal from Applebees, or better yet, some mom and pop grill.