this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
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Many people believe it’s an astounding $18 after a post on X of McDonald’s menu prices at a rest stop in Connecticut went viral and made national headlines. (Narrator voice: It’s not.)

Now, almost a year after the post, a top McDonald’s executive wants to set the record straight. In a recent letter, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said $18 for a Big Mac combo was the “exception” and not the norm across all 13,700 restaurants in the country.

The average price of a Big Mac in the US was $4.39 in 2019,” Erlinger said in his recent letter. “Despite a global pandemic and historic rises in supply chain costs, wages and other inflationary pressures in the years that followed, the average cost is now $5.29. That’s an increase of 21% (not 100%),” he added.

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[–] [email protected] 136 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Until these assholes stop taking in record profits each year & their ceos get more money than some countries generate they can fuck off on saying wages are a problem. The working poor deserve every penny they can get.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Agree. None of these CEOs have any groundbreaking ideas either. It's all the same strategies for short term profits rather than longer sustainable growth.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

They’re paid in stock, so line must go up because MONEY.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago

That’s just it, as a business owner, some years may be good, and some years may be bad.

So some years your profit should be less.

That doesn’t mean you’re going under. Less profit is still profit. That means everyone (including yourself) has been paid and you have money left over.

But because CEOs are paid mostly in stock, the profits have to rise every year, for no necessary reason besides “I like money”

And eventually that’ll break, and it’ll happen all at once.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Did anyone else feel like this article just reads like an ad for their new value menu?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago

Yes. There should probably be some sort of disclaimer about how much Rotten Rons paid for this incredibly in-depth reporting.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 5 months ago (3 children)

They're scared. Continue to avoid McDonald's and they'll keep lowering prices. We have the power because we have the money they want and can choose where to spend it.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago

And as much chain fast food as possible. They're all doing it to varying degrees.

[–] thatKamGuy 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

we have the money

With the way things are going for the lower and middle classes, that’s a bold statement..

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I've been doing my part for over 15 years now.

I've only had to go 2 or 3 times on roadtrips when they were literally the only option, always late at night.

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

I would admit I used to get McDonald's quite a bit for lunch because it was pretty cheap. But, where I live a Big Mac meal is on average about $16 right now and I can get a burrito bowl from Chipotle with a drink for $13.
I'm not saying Chipotle is high quality food but I don't think anyone's going to argue it's not better quality than McDonald's, so why on earth would I pay more for McDonald's?
They overreached on their price gouging and now they're just trying to backpedal because they're losing money.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Started eating at Culver's recently. Same price as McDonald's but tastes like actual good quality hamburgers.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Pretty sure Chipotle is owned by McDonalds.

Invest in real food. It is the foundation of your body.

[–] jballs 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Pretty sure Chipotle is owned by McDonalds.

It is not. McDonald's was an early investor but hasn't been for a long long time (almost 20 years now), but the idea has stuck around.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

Chipotle is a publicly traded company.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 5 months ago (7 children)

consumers were willing to pay more as their paychecks rose and they were sitting on loads of savings accumulated during the pandemic.

Wait, who got more money dumping into their savings?

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

"Available for a limited time." How magnanimous of them.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 months ago (1 children)

A Mac is worth $3.00. The ingredients cost them $1.60.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Love how they compared the $18 combo to the average price of just the sandwich, it’s just insane to me.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

Thank you. This should have been a top comment as it needs more direct attention.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Went on a trip recently and we always stop by a McDonald's for breakfast and holy crap, a freaking hash brown was almost three bucks.

I get having to pay workers more but that's just some bullshit price gouging there because there's no way in hell what workers are still there are getting paid that much better in order to justify a the dollar hash brown.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago

They also have less workers per store now as they employ tablets for ordering, I believe, and some cooking processes have been simplified or removed.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago

They gauged a little too much and boasted about record profits a little too loudly, and now have to deal with backlash. Too bad, so sad. 🙄

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago

No they aren’t.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Imagine working for two hours to be able to afford a single fucking Big Mac meal!

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Now imagine working for two hours and then having to eat a Big Mac.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But a $15 minimum wage will cause prices to skyrocket! …. Prices have skyrocketed, wages remain stagnant.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

It's not that we can't afford to pay you $15 an hour, or even $30 an hour, but if we did that then we couldn't give that money to the shareholders. You see, they've purchased a certificate which entitles them to the wealth created by your labor. We assure you we can imagine it must be somewhat uncomfortable to live in constant grinding poverty, but you can understand how our hands are tied here. They have a certificate. What are we supposed to do, ask a rich person to be a teeny tiny bit less rich? That's just crazy talk.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

We promised those shareholders that we’d pay you as little as we can….. you wouldn’t want to make us liars, would you?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Fiduciary duty is one of the dirtiest phrases on the planet…

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I can make a hamburger and fries in like ten minutes active cooking time for £3, and it'll have proper beef and be perfect.

What is even happening at Burger King?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

For me, the most egregious example was huggies diapers increasing prices while production costs went down.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

username checks out

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