this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2024
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[–] [email protected] 302 points 4 months ago (19 children)

nobody ever went to mcdonald's because it's "good" but because it was cheap and fast

now it's none of those 3 things. no reason to go there at all. that applies to most other fast food shit too.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (2 children)

it was a franchise choice for that community. not to defend mcdonalds, but this happens, just not usually by genocidal groups.

"In regard to the news that McDonald's in Israel was donating meals. We affirm that it was an individual decision on their part," McDonald's franchise in Saudi Arabia said in a statement. "Neither global McDonald's nor us nor any other country had a role or relationship with that decision, neither directly nor indirectly."

McDonald’s is a global chain but its franchises are often owned locally and operate autonomously.

McDonald's Corp declined to comment but a source close to the company in the U.S. said the Israel franchise was an independent business that licensed McDonald's brand. The source said it’s not unusual for franchisees to engage with their local communities when they are in need.

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[–] [email protected] 154 points 4 months ago (5 children)

I won't go back until hash browns are 2 for $1.

Fuck outta here with this $2.00 hash brown bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 4 months ago (2 children)

You can get a pack of frozen hash browns for cheaper than that. Saves time, money, and tastier imo.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 months ago (23 children)

And crunchy af in the air fryer.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Wanna say they’re $2.79 where I’m at. I know for sure they were just under $3

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Yep fuck that.

2 for $1.

And egg McMuffins and sausage muffins should be <$3.00.

And the sausage burritos should be 2 for $1.

McDonald's trying to act like they're a restaurant and not a fucking logistics company. The market rate of a potato doesn't affect the price of French fries at McDonald's when they legitimately own the rights to the only brand of potato that is used to make McDonald's French fries.

Any company that is known by all doesn't do what the average person thinks they do.

McDonalds? Logistics company

CocaCola? Logistics company

Ups? Logistics company

Starbucks? Logistics company

Miller/Coors? Logistics company

Shaw's? Logistics company

W.B mason? Logistics company

Exxon Mobile? Logistics company

Amazon? Logistics company

The price of sugar doesn't affect Coca-Cola. The price of wheat doesn't affect millercoors. The price of lumber doesn't affect wb mason. The price of gasoline doesn't affect ups. The price of coffee doesn't affect Starbucks. The price of beef, potatoes, and dairy doesn't affect McDonald's. The price of oil (barely) doesn't affect Exxon Mobile.

These are the fucks that pull the levers. Not the farmers. Not the lumberjacks. Not the oil refiners.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

$2.50 Cones were my breaking point. The tourist trap general store next to me does a decent waffle cone for $4.

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[–] [email protected] 105 points 4 months ago (8 children)

I miss cheap fast food. Feels like it will never come back anywhere.

[–] [email protected] 90 points 4 months ago (15 children)

Hole-in-the-wall ethnic food shops/take out are the way. If you want 'murican fast food, you gotta break the bank... but find a little family owned taqueria that does their shit right and you can stuff your face with the best tacos you've ever eaten for like $3. Highly dependent on your local options ofc, so keep an eye out.

In my experience, the sketchier the restaurant looks, the better the food is.

[–] Croquette 43 points 4 months ago (6 children)

If a restaurant looks shady and stays in business, it's either a front or the food is delicious.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And if it's a front the food might still be awesome because it's some rando doing their home cooking to cosplay as a restaurant worker

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

I was amazed to find out the chicken place I order from looked nice (for a sketchy hole in the wall ethnic food place). $30 CAD for two or three days worth of INCREDIBLY good chicken and fries

Like seriously, it was dying mall food court sketchy when I expected, "...You killed the health inspector with a pan to the head didn't you?" sketchy

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Cheap food is still out there, but it's not corporate food.

Corporations put profit above all, which is anathema to how every successful chain became successful. Whatever mechanism they had to stresamline production, negotiate with vendors, push addition products (would you like fries with that?), their primary goal was always consistency and value. You know what to expect, and it's worth the money.

You'll find that now in local diners, in food trucks, in cafes, and in small restaurants where they value good food over profit, but you won't find it at most chain restaurants.

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 4 months ago (10 children)

Notice they are too embarrassed to post their prices online. To see the price, you have to put the item in the cart then use some bs 3rd party app. WTF McDs?

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Honestly, I’m amazed people still go there to eat. The food was never really good, but at least it used to be fast and cheap. But these days, it’s neither anymore. McDonald’s is now more expensive than the gourmet burger places in my city; that feels insane.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

It always takes a year or two for the business to really feel it. First, it takes consumers awhile to visit and realize the prices are so high. Most people aren't going to McDonald's every week. And sometimes it takes a few visits before they really notice the sting.

Eventually, the place just gets a reputation for being pricey, and people slowly stop going. But it's a frog in a boiling pot thing, and of course the executives search for any other reason besides their own pricing decisions from 18 months ago.

Have you ever noticed in those surveys they always ask "what can we do better?" And the answers usually don't include "be cheaper".

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Four McDoubles for 20 bucks. Fuck off!

[–] AlecSadler 41 points 4 months ago (5 children)

I remember them being $1 each and it was the fastest/easiest way for me to get some protein in a pinch.

Then they were like 2 for $3, which was still OK.

But $5 is insane.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 57 points 4 months ago (6 children)

I'm so glad that I live in a big city, where there are hundreds of awesome small burger joints that sell better quality burgers at a much lower price.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 4 months ago (4 children)

McDonald's whole niche is "cheap but edible", the second you remove cheap from that equation the value proposition is gone.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Oh wow.... Increased prices resulted in people going else where.... Who would have seen that coming 🤔

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 4 months ago (15 children)

Scrolled through for a while and didn't see anyone complaining about ditching coupons for their app bullshit. I'm not using an app for fast food

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago

But how else are they going to complete their digital transformation and leverage their industry-leading customer volume to deliver high-quality consumer data and drive growth for shareholders? Why don't you care about the shareholders?!

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Last month, the head of its US operations formally responded to the complaints with an open letter to customers, saying social media was painting an inaccurate picture. He said the average price of a Big Mac in the US, which is now $5.29 (£4.11), was up 21% since 2019 - roughly in line with the pace of inflation - and many items had risen by less.

Sure, place the blame on anyone but themselves.

$5.29 is ridiculous for a Big Mac, which is super tiny.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Especially because that’s just the sandwich, not a side and a drink. A combo meal is like 10.15$

I’m sorry but the quality of the food does not justify 10 dollars.

For comparison, I remember in Berlin not even 5 years ago I got a currywurst with fries and a drink for 3.60 € (about 3.90$), and in London I got an absolute mound of fish and chips with peas for like 6.50 £ (about 8$). Both of these I got as much or way more food than a Big Mac combo and they were much better quality.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago

roughly in line with the pace of inflation

Roughly in line with the terrible inflation of the past 5 years which has been primarily driven by corporate price gouging.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (14 children)

I think we have two classes of "fast food" now. The higher class places like Five Guys, Poke Bros, Panera are going to cost you more, and you're not going to go there every day (or even every week), but they're pretty damned good.

The OG fast food places - McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Hardee's/Carl's Jr., Arby's, Taco Bell - they're just not good enough to command the higher prices that the new class of fast food can. Not to mention that the quality of all of those chains has declined dramatically in the last decade. Obvious drop in quality plus increase in price, people notice that.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Definitely don’t work to make the “food” better, yeah, just price gouge like every other company now.

No loss for me since I don’t go there anyway. But my childhood weeps a little for the good ole days.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (17 children)

McDonald's may be shit but at least they're generally consistent. I know what I'm getting when I go there. And (for me at least) it's a quick fix if I end up coming home late and don't feel like cooking. The issue is cheap shit is supposed to be cheap. 5 years ago I could get a burger and fries and water for 4-5 bucks. Now it's almost 9.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I feel like lately fast food has lost its appeal.

It isn't that fast any more, the service has gone done hill (habbitually checking orders now, because they're often wrong) and the prices are a joke.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago (3 children)

they jacked prices as much as they could, had record profits, now they will have to pull back because people don't have money.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago

My McDonald's boycott is in it's 24th year. There is nothing to miss.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Their solution will be to raise prices by 1% to make up for lost sales.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

The bigger reason I don’t go to McDonald’s is because of the self serve kiosks they’ve forced on us instead of paying people to run the registers.

Price is still a reason though, so I’m glad they are at least considering that as well.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 4 months ago (11 children)

i don't get why people complain about this -- i'd so so much rather type my order in myself, see what's in everything, make modifications easily, etc without having to talk to someone. get those workers on the line and help ease the load on the kitchen

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)

How about you guys rethink the food

If you can reconstitute some kind of edible food that maintains some semblance of the low price, I think that'll be enough. People started going to Five Guys and paying $16 because your burgers are clearly made of mouse shit.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago

The "food" they have now is the product of decades of incremental changes made to cut cost and tinkering with fat, salt and sugar contents to fool your brain into giving you a dopamine hit for eating it. What they have now doesn't even taste like hamburgers anymore.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

I live in Ireland and I like McDonalds occasionally. But there is no doubt that there food is quite expensive and they aren't innovating. Once a month there will be some new burger which is usually just the same as a normal burger but with bacon or bbq sauce or some shit but it's just boring and lazy marketing. What is worse than the food is the entire ordering experience - those bullshit kiosks are very time consuming and aggravating to use and then because they're cutting staff you can look forward to a 5 or 10 minute wait for food to appear. I remember when I worked in McDs at peak periods you'd get your food almost as soon as you ordered it (unless it was a grill item) but not any more.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I stopped understanding McDonald’s when there’s hundreds of homemade-like small burger places everywhere. They are so frikin tasty and cost the same

I still remember eating an especially tasty one and playing Disco Elysium then dying from heart attack in the game. Somehow it has become a permanent memory

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (11 children)

As far as I can tell the whole appeal of McDonald's is bland but edible food, quickly, at a low price.

Over the years, they've switched to what appears to be a prepare by order method so it's no longer quick (it used to be on the little racks behind them, all pre-made), and it's no longer cheap (especially if you get delivery and therefore immediately send half your dinner money to a Silicon Valley billionaire). It's not quite Burger King levels of pricing, but it's getting close.

The only thing they've got left is bland but edible, and that's only desirable if you're feeding a bunch of picky children.

There are so many better places to eat, and they don't cost an enormous amount more.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

Oh no!

.... Anyway.

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