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Biggest tragedy about Macca's differential pricing model, apps vs sticker price, is they've sabotaged the Big Mac Index - which used to be an interesting metric from which to make assumptions about relative currency values.
You can even see it in the stripper subreddit. So many chicks on there saying “I’m only making $700 a night! This is NOT what I was promised.” It’s kind of funny in a sad way.
The Costco hot dog is designed to be a loss leader, so its not a good indicator for market prices. They don't care if they're losing money on the 1.50 hot dog because they know you're going to buy $450 of other things at Costco.
Costco could give away the hotdogs for free and they'd still make money because they got you to the store, and while you're at the store you're always going to buy just one or two additional things. Its never just one or two other things though.
Or In-N-Out. They finally raised their prices - like a $1 per burger and a quarter for drinks? It’s just greed or inefficiency costs passed down to the customer in the case of McD.
It was a 25-50c raise in price depending on location. That's nothing compared to the McDs and rest of corps' price increases. Support In'n'Out whenever you can. Superior burgers, too.
> It’s just greed or inefficiency costs passed down to the customer.
I mean, it's not inefficiency if input costs truly went up? Beef is more expensive, as is labor. Might not be directly proportional but I doubt they're paying the same costs they were 5 years ago.
In N Out also uses beef, and they have always paid their employees well. In-N-Out locations are also in HCOL.
What is stopping McD from doing the same? If anything it would be easier for them due to economies of scale.
The $5 meal they offer as their "please come back" is honestly total shit though. It's like a McDouble and a small fry and a drink. That shouldn't cost more than $5 anyway.
I always assumed soda was always subsidizing the meal. It essentially costs them pennies for the drink. Get one with every meal and that's where most of the profit is. That's how it was in the 90s at least.
I’m pretty sure small fries and a small drink cost *less than* a dollar each, a decade ago. This meal would’ve cost like $2.40 in 2014.
So yeah as you said, it’s a shit deal.
Lets do an experiment and compare (this might run you into the stupid post length issue). If you have the app post your location and big mac combo price medium and large right now.
Chicago NW Suburbs
Medium $10.39
Large $11.19
High for fast food. I don't go there bc for my family it adds up to decent sit down place.
Yes I can and do get discounts in app family size orders. Use the 15-20% off and the shareables menu. But it is a pain in the ass to jump thru these hoops. Have to stop and park in the parking lot on the way home from soccer practice to do an app order with the right discounts to order now. Pretty annoying. But also a first world problem.
But it's also a pretty brazen and craven attempt to exploit their regular in a hurry harried need some food now customer who doesn't have time to plan their mcdonalds visit ahead of time via the app. Way to cannibalize literally decades of goodwill for short term profit and slowly piss off your best customer base. Seems to be the way of the world now.
Edit: wow what a response 🙂
Prices seem remarkably consistent-ish
US seems to pay more and subsidize the rest of the world (like prescription drugs)
Most expensive so far I think is Manhattan NY
Least seem to be some places in TX (Houston and Dallas and Austin) and FL (West Palm Beach) and middle plains states. Not sure what that says about and what magas are so mad about 😄
I think almost everyone would rather go to In N Out but it's not very fast. You can get McD's in a few minutes. IN N Out during peak times is a much longer wait.
I’m from the NYC suburbs and yes they reduced the prices up here too. Used to be like $14-15 now it’s $11. I just checked.
$11 isn’t too bad for a meal but I honestly lost all interest in McDonald’s.
The app tracks and records shit like when get a paycheck and will lower the price then, as one example. The prices fluctuate in accordance with your behavior in addition to location.
UES as well. Not going to pay that when there's other fast casual places available for lunch -- and I'd much rather cook my own or take company lunch anyways.
Oh I see now that you said with tax. But why would you include tax if we're comparing the price of a Big Mac meal across different areas.
That introduces a factor that is outside of McDonald's control.
Edit: the tax added $.87 to the large, so $11.46 total
People here really do love their fast food and chain restaurants though. I am originally from Atlanta and there was not nearly as much demand for fast food.
Washington D.C.
Medium: 11.89
Large: $12.89
Prices are before tax.
By comparison, I just had an entire cheese pizza at a popular sit-down place's happy hour for $12.
Yup. Fuck that if I had only $10 to spend on dinner or lunch fast food used to be it but now I’ll spend $14 at my local taco or sub shop for a better and more filling meal because the same amount of fast food costs $15
Yep, about $9 or $10. Not sure on portion sizes, though. I know that when I go across the line, our large drinks and fried feel like their mediums, so you might be getting more food for your buck. Doubt it, though, for the burger 😂
That seems like a pretty wild discrepancy! Technically, I'm in Langley (average "I'm from Vancouver" explanation when talking to someone online 😂). My large combo is $0.20 cheaper this morning though. I wonder if your area/location is consistently more expensive or if it fluctuates throughout the day.
Cleveland area:
Medium Big Mac Meal: $8.89
Large: 9.69
I agree with you about the app usually having some good deals. They always have a buy one get one free breakfast sandwich, and a McGriddle at the McDonald’s by me is $4.29 which isn’t bad for two sandwiches if you use the deal in the app. But it’s annoying having to have another app and it’s only for one pair of sandwiches. If you order four you aren’t getting two free, you’re still only getting one for free. Like you said, first world problems.
Basel, Switzerland. We have different sizes and don't have one called large, so this is the best I can do.
Small: 14.10 CHF, which is 15.75 US dollars
Medium: 15.80 CHF, which is 17.65 US dollars
Yeah but the employees get a lot better wages, and they get things like paid leave and vacations and stuff.
Edit: it's like 27 USD per hour.
Edit 2: it's actually more like 30 USD per hour, they 27 was in swiss francs
Well said that and ordering at the god aweful UI kiosks instead of talking to a human being. They basically let us know what they think of their employees. The workers were one of the main reasons I liked ordering at McDonald’s very friendly even though they had to deal with ALL types of a holes. McDonald’s is sick a crappy experience all around now.
Aurelio’s small calzones in downtown chicago are the exact same price as the large Big Mac combo. How the fuck is eating a small calzone in the most expensive city in the Midwest cheaper than frozen fast food.
> Way to cannibalize literally decades of goodwill for short term profit and slowly piss off your best customer base. Seems to be the way of the world now.
Enshittification
Eh, I actually really appreciate what they've done. I used to eat CrapDonalds way too often with my family, and now that they've spat in my face for being their loyal patron, I've gotten out of the habit of paying them to poison my arteries.
A few years ago, when I realized I could no longer eat even somewhat cheaply at McDonald’s without downloading their stupid fucking app I stopped going there entirely
Near me a chili's burger meal is $14 to $17.50 usually depending on the burger. That includes fries.
McDs Big Mac and Fries are are $14.28 or $14.29 with a meal.
For those prices I would rather get chili's.
I have tried the McDonalds app. I am sure I can get a better deal with it. But I very much dislike it and don't like their product enough to let it exist on my phone.
The Italian Steakhouse in town has a hamburger made from the dry aged steak trimmings. Phenomenal burger. During happy hour it's $14 and includes fries. Pretty easy choice ag that point.
Yeah, with those McDonald's prices I have several local burger places to choose from that are much better than McDonald's. One is even part of a brewery (so I end up spending more on beer though).
McDonalds pricing has seemed like a form of price discrimination ever since they created the McDonalds app. You have to use the app to get reasonable prices, and people who aren't savvy enough to use the app seem willing to keep paying higher and higher prices.
My consumer response was to simply stop going. I’m not gonna bother with a restaurant that forces me to hunt for deals. What fucking burger joint looks at the Sirius XM business model and says “That sounds like a great idea”?
Seriously, and they make you login with your password so often. I don’t remember my fucking password everytime. This is supposed to be fast food man. Grab and go.
> My consumer response was to simply stop going.
You aren't the only one, it's why basically making under 40k goes there at all anymore, and why fast food earnings are down across the board.
Sell your products for an inflated price with deals available for people willing to do extra work (App for McDonalds, dealing with a salesperson for XM) and bank on enough people paying full price to justify the business model.
That's great. I will google something expensive and the algorithms will assume that I'm rich and therefore raise the prices for me... Actually not using the app and don't provide them any data would probably be better since then they would just assume I'm middle of the road income.
They're trying to do a combo of getting people into an app ecosystem/data harvesting deal along with price anchoring, as in offering it for 19$ (or whatever) without the app so you think it's a "deal" to get 3 oz of ground beef, some bread and sauce, a handful of fried potato sticks and some sugar water for $10-$12.
At the grocery, ground beef is usually around $4.50/lb. That makes it around $0.90 worth of beef in a Big Mac at *grocery retail* prices. It's probably ~60%-70% of that for McD's. And what, like 2 large-ish potatoes worth of fries? So another $0.50 ish? And some syrup and soda water, so another $0.35? The bun/sauce/etc is probably another $0.80-ish. So all in all, about $2.60 for everything.
You can't just take the raw materials and say okay this should be the price. That's like saying a car's raw materials costs this much so a car should be much cheaper. That's not how it works. There's labor and processing costs, storage and transport of food, etc.
Obviously this is meant to give an idea of CoGS, and how fast food should have relatively high food costs in a CoGS sheet, as they're doing tons of very quick business. They're not breaking down whole fish into fillets and cooking them to order; they're heating up 1.5 oz meat patties and sticking them on bread.
Enough people will though, and I bet that while they are losing consumers like us, the young generations will probably appreciate the cheaper prices and won’t be perturbed by having to use the app.
I distinctly remember going to Sonic not being able to sign into the app and I ended up leaving because I am not paying full price. They lost a sale because they couldn't just price stuff fairly without the app. Also have not been back since because it was such a buggy mess.
I just wanted my half price Cherry Limeade which is actually still way more than it costs them to make.
Me too.
I'm sorry, I'll just go to a real restaurant then.
The local burger joint near me has 4 burgers, 4 fries and 4 drinks for $26. It beats the shit out of McDonalds in both price and quality.
It's not even savvy. The apps stupid simple and even toddlers can work a basic iPhone, Galaxy, or Pixel...
It's just asinine considering it's supposed to be fast food, I should be able to when driving by and suddenly feeling hungry drive thru it and get food fast and cheap... Not good, but fast and cheap... There's the whole pick 2/3: Fast/convenient, Cheap, Good... But with the app BS they're quickly becoming a "pick 1" situation.
Also many tech savvy people are actively avoiding the apps because theyre giant security failures waiting to happen.
Unfortunately the whole app thing isn’t about convenience or having a good business model, instead it’s about finding new and interesting ways to mine data while also being able to serve you ads. The decrease in quality and app pricing are kind of a baked in thing with shareholder capitalism, and the drive to have ever expanding profits.
> when driving by and suddenly feeling hungry
I've started using the grocery store for quick bites sometimes. A chicken strip and jojos, or a chinese bowl, or a breakfast burrito, a slice of pizza... Not bad for an impulse, lazy meal.
> It's not even savvy. The apps stupid simple and even toddlers can work a basic iPhone, Galaxy, or Pixel...
I don't know, I'm in tech and I can't figure out how to order a happy meal with a cheese burger instead of a hamburger. I've tried multiple times. I'm not even sure it can be done.
It’s worse than that. Prepare for them to utilize the tracking data to gain efficiencies about how to charge you.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/odd-lots/id1056200096?i=1000657640964
It's interesting. I used to pay full price for one fast food chain happily, but they increasingly pushed web and app based discounts.
Now I only ever go there when I can get a really good deal. I go less and spend less. And probably get more per visit.
I'm not sure that is what they intended. Hope the data is *really* valuable.
Im savvy enough to use the app, I refuse to download a billion apps on my phone just for lower prices. I just stopped going to those places. What these fast food restraunts dont realize is their core business is based off of convinience. If you jack up the price and make it less convinient, people are going to stop going. These prices on shitty burgers arent going to fix the damage they did against the convinience of going there and getting a burger at a good price. If thats the case fuck em. McDonalds isnt worth my business or keeping afloat. Let the business die.
This is what fucking pisses me off about fast food.
YOURE A GOD DAMN BURGER PLACE WHY DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING APP?
Im sorry but restaurants should not have a stupid fucking app. If your menu is just a QR code I have to scan before sitting to view fuck off im not eating there.
The problem is that CEOs and other executives have to justify their stupidly high salaries by constantly making the company even more and more money year after year and pumping the stock prices up. Even if its at the cost of making the product worse, finding new revenue streams and automation/cutting jobs.
> You have to use the app to get reasonable prices, and people who aren't savvy enough to use the app seem willing to keep paying higher and higher prices.
Once you use the app, McDonalds is able to advertise/target you (for profit) based on all of your aggregated Internet data profiles. We live in an information economy designed to extract as much as possible from people via a huge amount of aggregated personalized data.
It's so weird and all that power is being used for bad.
It’s built on Teradata’s Vantage system, which is the same inventory and price setting algorithm used by RealPages and Ticketmaster.
Loblaws grocery in Canada started using it, now we’re boycotting them. Whole foods just announced they are activating the same system in their stores like last week.
This is the impact of data cartels on the economy. Multi industry collusion and price fixing.
I can spend like $3 more to get a bacon cheeseburger from texas roadhouse with delicious scratch made side, rolls, and crack butter than I can get a cold big mac combo for.
This is ultimately a data gathering problem. Everyone company saw data as some invaluable asset, no matter how much it was irrelevant to them. They all believe they can sell the data to someone else. That's why all the best discounts were moved to the app.
They're pushing towards the platform that lets them rapidly change & optimize prices across demographics, which is hard or impossible to do with in-store pricing. That's why they're moving customers to the app.
Yeah, this is what's fascinating to me. Eventually I will have an adblocker capability that let's me tell instacar/united/whatever app that I am a broke bitch so you can't gouge me.
Since when are they listening, they just upped prices over here in Cali and they're using the $20 per hour mandate as an excuse when THEY'VE BEEN PAYING $20 PER HOUR FOR YEARS. Like I feel like I'm living in bizarro world and we keep excusing their pricing because the majority of people just put everything on a credit card.
Remember when everyone said that higher wages would increase fast food costs so instead they didn't raise the min wage and fast food Got more expensive anyways. Lol ooops.
For companies who've upped prices to their limits, I suspect they also shot themselves in the proverbial foot. Managed to trade away consumer preference for short term profits.
How many McDonalds fans who have been turned away due to these high prices? Even if McDonald's starts to lower prices, they've moved the mental price anchor for their consumers.
I think Coca-Cola is amongst the biggest examples of this behavior. During Covid prices for a 12 pack climbed to $10+ a case from $4-5 pre-Covid. Sure they reported record profits but many fans (myself included) switched to other, healthier alternatives and won't be looking back.
Absolutely, I used the ridiculous pricing to kick my soda habit and RARELY have one anymore; typically in those once in a blue moon scenarios where nothing else is available.
My youngest kids used to love McDonald's, we stopped going now they could care less and have other places they prefer and don't ask for it anymore.
In Knoxville Tennessee a medium Big Mac meal is $9.39. A large brings it to $9.99. It’s getting pretty ridiculous! I’ve quit going there just about altogether. Probably for the best. I need to lose some weight.
It's not just that they're raising prices, the portion sizes have become an absolute joke. I got a mcdouble for the first time in years a few months ago and the thing was smaller than my palm, and for $4.00. Absolutely go fuck yourself McDonald's.
$5 value menu bruh I remember the $1 value menu like 7 years ago if that. They need to recognize their target audience is lower income who can’t afford to eat at these prices.
Their stock value tanked by about 10% because sales dropped like a lead brick. They’ve always catered to the poor and uneducated. That demographic isn’t going to blow a full week’s wages on a single dinner for a family of four.
In our area, Mcdonalds, burgerking, wendy have all seen a drop in traffic. When I visit, I ask, how’s it going? Busy? They all say “oh not too bad, kinda slow right now.” IMO, culvers has picked up the revenue and customer base.
The other thing that stands out, those franchises hired lower level employees. Those employees don’t dress professionally, they don’t look like they care, and the customer service has decreased. And in some cases, restaurants are dirty. My economic value feels reduced. I go to culvers.
Today, I only go to McD if I have to based on my travel schedule. It’s a 2.5/5 experience.
So much this! It’s not just insane prices. The stores are understaffed, dirty, and generally just not welcoming. When I can see into the back and there is just food sitting out everywhere or near the drinks there is a lemon tray that clearly hasn’t been touched in a week it makes me feel like more of an idiot for paying these absurd prices.
I walked out of a McDonald’s for the first time a few weeks ago. It just feels like they don’t want my business and I don’t want fast food badly enough to want to deal with higher prices and degraded service.
Fuck them. A hash brown at my McDonald’s is almost 3 fucking dollars.
This is not related to McDonald’s, I was at charlotte on a layover on my way to Vegas. A whopper meal from Burger King was almost 20 bucks in charlotte and 12 in Vegas. Cringeeee
On another front we recently went from caffeine free Diet Pepsi to Kroger Big K caffeine free Diet Cola.
Big K is $4/12 pk vs Diet Pepsi at $9.99/12 pk this week. No brainer. The taste difference is acceptable imho.
$6 difference is incredible.
I only buy soda on sale. It has a long shelf life just load up on 6-8 cases when it's on sale and wait for the next sale.
The sales are also incredible. They will literally run buy 2 get 2 free promotions, or 50% off. Granted, that sale just returns it to pre-COVID pricing but still...
Idunno if the mickey d’s people can see the rest of us from their ivory tower’s, but in case they haven’t heard: the poor ain’t getting any richer. How do you expect your business to work when your target demographic is priced out?? Are these people just so hell bent on short term profits that they’re willing to risk near collapse??
They used those management consultants to step the price up and up and up and took it too far. Usually they take it right to the edge and step back. The greed pushed them forward. The McKinsey McDonalds stepping pushed them right off the cliff. What a whopper of a move. They wanna shake things back up, but the ice cream machine is broken.
Management consultants and private equity, extracting value without creating value since the very beginning.
So a social media post saying that Big Macs are now $18 goes viral, is proven to be false (the average price of a Big Mac meal is $9 and change), and the story is that people are angry about fast food prices.
Not the fact that social media algorithm are driving engagement by purposely pissing people off with fake bullshit that exaggerates and outright misleads the public.
>The thing is: It doesn’t really matter that virtually no one is paying anything close to $18 for a Big Mac combo. (On average, it actually costs $9.29, per a fact sheet McDonald’s put out along with the letter.) What matters is that the post struck a nerve with an army of people who are fed up with what fast food costs these days.
Think about that. "It doesn't matter that this social media post was bullshit and purposely designed to piss people off, it doesn't matter that social media companies profit and incentivize this type of misleading bullshit that inflames peoples anger, what matters is that people are pissed off."
We're living in a fucking fun house mirror reality.
They never claimed it was the average price. It’s a real price of a specific McDonald’s that’s very expensive. Nothing was proven to be false. That McDonald’s is pretty close to me
I think the larger point is it doesn't matter if it's $18 it's def way more expensive. So yeah tho exaggerated it touched a valid nerve. McDs is testing us to see how much they can shake us down for fast middling quality food and it's reached an inflection point it seems.
I mean I’m annoyed enough about paying $12 for a fish sandwich meal that I’m just not buying them any more but its also because they used the pandemic to install kiosks and eliminate the cost and hassle of of employing humans. No idea why they needed to double prices at the same time.
lol, no they’re not. They’ll raise prices by literally over 100%. Then they’ll drop it down by 10% and say they’re listening.
McDonald’s medium fries went from just over 1 dollar to 4 dollars. Now what they’ll do is drop the price to like $3.69. Stating they’ve listened and drop the price.
People should be quicker to mind their wallet. Companies don't care about anything else and will steadily raise their prices so long as people continue to buy from them.
It turns out that the only cure for inflation is inflation. Griping about higher prices while continue to pay them does nothing. Cutting back on spending has a real impact.
McD’s is just trying to force people to use their app to get the regular prices.
Not only are they expensive now, when I get off work, any time I go to one of their locations after 11 pm, it’s CASH ONLY. How does one of the biggest chains in the world not have their payment system figured out for all this time when I never have any problem at Jack in the box, or Taco Bell, or every other fast food chain open late?
I don’t know if it’s only the chains around LA where I live that do this, but McDonald’s past 11 pm have problems taking cards because they’re “updating the system.” Or so they say.
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Biggest tragedy about Macca's differential pricing model, apps vs sticker price, is they've sabotaged the Big Mac Index - which used to be an interesting metric from which to make assumptions about relative currency values.
There's still the waffle house index for inclement weather severity.
I had to look up the [Waffle House Index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index), love the green, yellow and red levels.
Waffle House in my town of 40k people just shut down.
I thought it was the Milk-Eggs Index, adding this to my weather alertness index index
Ok now I'm pissed
How do you plan on channeling that anger so it is productive?
Spam McDonald's Twitter account with photos of Whoppers
I'd say enlist the Wendy's Twitter account but I suspect they'd just mock you for being poor these days.
You'll have to watch their account for surge memeing.
Let's just hope Wendy's Twitter doesn't expand to reddit.
there's still a stripper index for recession..we still have that. https://theamericangenius.com/tech-news/the-stripper-index-recession/
You can even see it in the stripper subreddit. So many chicks on there saying “I’m only making $700 a night! This is NOT what I was promised.” It’s kind of funny in a sad way.
The 1.50 Costco dog and the 99 cent Arizona can is the superior economical observation product.
Arizona Iced Tea went up in price after COVID near me. That's when I knew the economy was fucked
The Costco hot dog is designed to be a loss leader, so its not a good indicator for market prices. They don't care if they're losing money on the 1.50 hot dog because they know you're going to buy $450 of other things at Costco. Costco could give away the hotdogs for free and they'd still make money because they got you to the store, and while you're at the store you're always going to buy just one or two additional things. Its never just one or two other things though.
Costco is the most dangerous store in America.
Target is up there as well
“I’m just going to pop into Costco for a minute” is a brand new sentence.
Arizonas cost stayed the same, but they use different ingredients and don’t taste the same. I’d rather pay an extra quarter for the same drink.
What? No. Those never change.
Costco dogs and Arizona aren't available in most countries around the world the way McDonald's is. That's why it was so useful
Or In-N-Out. They finally raised their prices - like a $1 per burger and a quarter for drinks? It’s just greed or inefficiency costs passed down to the customer in the case of McD.
It was a 25-50c raise in price depending on location. That's nothing compared to the McDs and rest of corps' price increases. Support In'n'Out whenever you can. Superior burgers, too.
> It’s just greed or inefficiency costs passed down to the customer. I mean, it's not inefficiency if input costs truly went up? Beef is more expensive, as is labor. Might not be directly proportional but I doubt they're paying the same costs they were 5 years ago.
In N Out also uses beef, and they have always paid their employees well. In-N-Out locations are also in HCOL. What is stopping McD from doing the same? If anything it would be easier for them due to economies of scale.
I thought the Bic mac index was also for economic differences
Just always use the non-app prices. Punish them for choosing to screw with it.
The $5 meal they offer as their "please come back" is honestly total shit though. It's like a McDouble and a small fry and a drink. That shouldn't cost more than $5 anyway.
The funniest part is the only reason they are doing this “deal” is Coca Cola is subsidizing the meal. It’s a joke
I always assumed soda was always subsidizing the meal. It essentially costs them pennies for the drink. Get one with every meal and that's where most of the profit is. That's how it was in the 90s at least.
It’s less than 5 meal items that were all once on the dollar menu. The $5 deal is still a shit deal!
I’m pretty sure small fries and a small drink cost *less than* a dollar each, a decade ago. This meal would’ve cost like $2.40 in 2014. So yeah as you said, it’s a shit deal.
I really miss dollar hot and spicys
Might as well just go to wendy's for the biggie bags. $5 for chicken sandwich, 4 nuggets, small fry, and a small drink.
Yeah, it's the same deal Wendy's has been offering for years, except Wendy's has higher quality food and you get more.
And also this is temporary
Lets do an experiment and compare (this might run you into the stupid post length issue). If you have the app post your location and big mac combo price medium and large right now. Chicago NW Suburbs Medium $10.39 Large $11.19 High for fast food. I don't go there bc for my family it adds up to decent sit down place. Yes I can and do get discounts in app family size orders. Use the 15-20% off and the shareables menu. But it is a pain in the ass to jump thru these hoops. Have to stop and park in the parking lot on the way home from soccer practice to do an app order with the right discounts to order now. Pretty annoying. But also a first world problem. But it's also a pretty brazen and craven attempt to exploit their regular in a hurry harried need some food now customer who doesn't have time to plan their mcdonalds visit ahead of time via the app. Way to cannibalize literally decades of goodwill for short term profit and slowly piss off your best customer base. Seems to be the way of the world now. Edit: wow what a response 🙂 Prices seem remarkably consistent-ish US seems to pay more and subsidize the rest of the world (like prescription drugs) Most expensive so far I think is Manhattan NY Least seem to be some places in TX (Houston and Dallas and Austin) and FL (West Palm Beach) and middle plains states. Not sure what that says about and what magas are so mad about 😄
San Diego Suburbs Medium: $12.89 Large: $13.78
Might as well go to In N Out
I think almost everyone would rather go to In N Out but it's not very fast. You can get McD's in a few minutes. IN N Out during peak times is a much longer wait.
Dang, can't believe you can't just go in and out with In N Out.
Walk inside.
Well Worth the extra five minute wait.
Exactly. I'll wait for fresh food. McDonald's is foul.
If anyone is curious Medium w/ tax: $13.89 Large w/ tax: $14.85
Where at
Manhattan (Upper East Side) Medium: $12.85 Large: $13.65 This actually came down bc I tried this two weeks ago and it was closer to $15 for medium.
I’m from the NYC suburbs and yes they reduced the prices up here too. Used to be like $14-15 now it’s $11. I just checked. $11 isn’t too bad for a meal but I honestly lost all interest in McDonald’s.
I'm in Astoria and it's 13.78 and 15.89 for me. :(
The app tracks and records shit like when get a paycheck and will lower the price then, as one example. The prices fluctuate in accordance with your behavior in addition to location.
UES as well. Not going to pay that when there's other fast casual places available for lunch -- and I'd much rather cook my own or take company lunch anyways.
Also Chicago Suburbs (southwest): Medium: $9.59 Large: $10.59
Is that with tax? Mine is with tax. That is a fair amount cheaper...
Oh I see now that you said with tax. But why would you include tax if we're comparing the price of a Big Mac meal across different areas. That introduces a factor that is outside of McDonald's control. Edit: the tax added $.87 to the large, so $11.46 total
You are right. I changed to without tax.
Pops has better burgers. Cheaper too. Although I think they anchor to McDonald’s
Los Angeles Medium$10.19 Large: $10.99
Also Los Angeles (SFV) $9.29 and $9.99
Phoenix - East Valley w/ Taxes Medium:$12.41 Large: $12.96
How is Phoenix almost the priciest here? Maybe everyone’s else’s is without tax. Similar medium to Manhattan
Higher demand.
People here really do love their fast food and chain restaurants though. I am originally from Atlanta and there was not nearly as much demand for fast food.
I put mine from West Valley Phoenix and it's a solid $2 cheaper. East Valley is crazy and I had no idea
He also included taxes, the others haven't
$8.39 Kansas
$9.19 large
Atlanta, Georgia Medium: $9.79 Large: $10.44
San Jose, CA Medium $11.99 Large $12.49 Last I checked, the local In-N-Out double-double meal price was $10.80.
Washington D.C. Medium: 11.89 Large: $12.89 Prices are before tax. By comparison, I just had an entire cheese pizza at a popular sit-down place's happy hour for $12.
Also in DC, my prices are $10.49 for a medium and $11.59 for a large pre tax
Interesting. Where was yours? Mine was the one by L'Enfant Plaza.
Coastal Alabama Medium: $8.59 Large: $9.39
[удалено]
Downtown Denver Medium: $9.09 Large: $9.99
Denver suburbs (off of interstate 70) M: $9.59 L: $10.59 WTF
Interesting that in some places a large is 30 cents more and other places it's a dollar more.
Yup. Fuck that if I had only $10 to spend on dinner or lunch fast food used to be it but now I’ll spend $14 at my local taco or sub shop for a better and more filling meal because the same amount of fast food costs $15
Norfolk, Nebraska Medium: $10.09 Large: $10.59
Damn, so much for the benefits of a low cost of living area.
Kaneohe, Hawaii: Medium $12.69 Large $13.39
$2 cheaper on the east side of the Big Island
Since 2020, the mainland has just started pricing things the way Hawaii had always been priced.
Vancouver Canada: Medium: $11.89CAD Large: $12.79CAD
Oh wow that’s actually much cheaper in USD
Yep, about $9 or $10. Not sure on portion sizes, though. I know that when I go across the line, our large drinks and fried feel like their mediums, so you might be getting more food for your buck. Doubt it, though, for the burger 😂
Also in Vancouver: Medium: $13.89CAD Large: $14.89CAD
That seems like a pretty wild discrepancy! Technically, I'm in Langley (average "I'm from Vancouver" explanation when talking to someone online 😂). My large combo is $0.20 cheaper this morning though. I wonder if your area/location is consistently more expensive or if it fluctuates throughout the day.
Northern Dallas Suburbs. Medium: $8.59 Large: $8.99
Odd. Im just north of San Antonio Medium: $8.49 Large: $8.98 We may have the lowest prices here in TX
Portland, Maine Medium: $11.39 Large: $12.59
Orlando Fl 10.89 11.89
Cleveland area: Medium Big Mac Meal: $8.89 Large: 9.69 I agree with you about the app usually having some good deals. They always have a buy one get one free breakfast sandwich, and a McGriddle at the McDonald’s by me is $4.29 which isn’t bad for two sandwiches if you use the deal in the app. But it’s annoying having to have another app and it’s only for one pair of sandwiches. If you order four you aren’t getting two free, you’re still only getting one for free. Like you said, first world problems.
Huh also greater Cleveland area, and it's $10.29 and $10.79 for me.
Basel, Switzerland. We have different sizes and don't have one called large, so this is the best I can do. Small: 14.10 CHF, which is 15.75 US dollars Medium: 15.80 CHF, which is 17.65 US dollars
I don’t have the app so I’m glad you shared the price in Switzerland. Unsurprisingly it’s the highest price in the entire thread.
Yeah but the employees get a lot better wages, and they get things like paid leave and vacations and stuff. Edit: it's like 27 USD per hour. Edit 2: it's actually more like 30 USD per hour, they 27 was in swiss francs
Philadelphia suburbs (NJ) before sales tax: Medium: $10.89 Large: $11.19
St. Paul, MN Medium: $9.19 Large: $10:19
Bay Area, CA Medium: $10.79 Large: $11.47
Phoenix W Suburbs Medium: $9.99 Large: $10.49
Aiken South Carolina Medium: $10.20 Large: $11.79 ETA: with tax, $12.85 on the large
Seattle (downtown) Medium: $11.49 Large: $12.89 (Prices are without tax)
Spokane Medium: 10.59 Large: 11.49
Southern Finland Medium: 12,30€ Large: 13,80€
Richmond Virginia suburbs. Medium $9.49 Large $10.29
Baltimore MD Suburbs Large: $10.89 Medium: $9.99
Pittsburgh, PA Medium: $9.79 Large: $11.39
Riverside California Med: $11.19 Lrg: $12.19
Sydney (Bondi): Medium: $12.35 AUD
Boise, Idaho - medium $8.89, large $9.39
Winston-Salem, NC $8.59 Med $9.79 Large
Well said that and ordering at the god aweful UI kiosks instead of talking to a human being. They basically let us know what they think of their employees. The workers were one of the main reasons I liked ordering at McDonald’s very friendly even though they had to deal with ALL types of a holes. McDonald’s is sick a crappy experience all around now.
Bozeman Montana Medium 10.00 Large 11.00
There is a website that does this: https://pantryandlarder.com/mccheapest
>Yes I can and do get discounts in app Why apps are bad: https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-04-one-person-one-price/
Chicago Downtown - $10.72.
Miami, FL suburb Medium $9.29 Large $9.29
Medium: $13.10 Large: $14.23 Ontario, Canada
Grand Prairie TX Med $7.69 Large $9.09
Minneapolis Medium: $10.19 Large: $10.49
Maui, Hawaii Large: 12.99
Aurelio’s small calzones in downtown chicago are the exact same price as the large Big Mac combo. How the fuck is eating a small calzone in the most expensive city in the Midwest cheaper than frozen fast food.
Aurelio's always felt relatively expensive to me. I assuming you're benchmarking off that location they have off Roosevelt?
Brooklyn NYC Medium 12.18 (Post Tax) Large 12.73 (Post Tax)
> Way to cannibalize literally decades of goodwill for short term profit and slowly piss off your best customer base. Seems to be the way of the world now. Enshittification
Eh, I actually really appreciate what they've done. I used to eat CrapDonalds way too often with my family, and now that they've spat in my face for being their loyal patron, I've gotten out of the habit of paying them to poison my arteries.
A few years ago, when I realized I could no longer eat even somewhat cheaply at McDonald’s without downloading their stupid fucking app I stopped going there entirely
Near me a chili's burger meal is $14 to $17.50 usually depending on the burger. That includes fries. McDs Big Mac and Fries are are $14.28 or $14.29 with a meal. For those prices I would rather get chili's. I have tried the McDonalds app. I am sure I can get a better deal with it. But I very much dislike it and don't like their product enough to let it exist on my phone.
The Italian Steakhouse in town has a hamburger made from the dry aged steak trimmings. Phenomenal burger. During happy hour it's $14 and includes fries. Pretty easy choice ag that point.
Yeah, with those McDonald's prices I have several local burger places to choose from that are much better than McDonald's. One is even part of a brewery (so I end up spending more on beer though).
McDonalds pricing has seemed like a form of price discrimination ever since they created the McDonalds app. You have to use the app to get reasonable prices, and people who aren't savvy enough to use the app seem willing to keep paying higher and higher prices.
My consumer response was to simply stop going. I’m not gonna bother with a restaurant that forces me to hunt for deals. What fucking burger joint looks at the Sirius XM business model and says “That sounds like a great idea”?
Seriously, and they make you login with your password so often. I don’t remember my fucking password everytime. This is supposed to be fast food man. Grab and go.
> My consumer response was to simply stop going. You aren't the only one, it's why basically making under 40k goes there at all anymore, and why fast food earnings are down across the board.
I'll bite. What makes it comparable to Sirius XM?
Sell your products for an inflated price with deals available for people willing to do extra work (App for McDonalds, dealing with a salesperson for XM) and bank on enough people paying full price to justify the business model.
Read this https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-04-one-person-one-price/
That's great. I will google something expensive and the algorithms will assume that I'm rich and therefore raise the prices for me... Actually not using the app and don't provide them any data would probably be better since then they would just assume I'm middle of the road income.
They're trying to do a combo of getting people into an app ecosystem/data harvesting deal along with price anchoring, as in offering it for 19$ (or whatever) without the app so you think it's a "deal" to get 3 oz of ground beef, some bread and sauce, a handful of fried potato sticks and some sugar water for $10-$12. At the grocery, ground beef is usually around $4.50/lb. That makes it around $0.90 worth of beef in a Big Mac at *grocery retail* prices. It's probably ~60%-70% of that for McD's. And what, like 2 large-ish potatoes worth of fries? So another $0.50 ish? And some syrup and soda water, so another $0.35? The bun/sauce/etc is probably another $0.80-ish. So all in all, about $2.60 for everything.
You can't just take the raw materials and say okay this should be the price. That's like saying a car's raw materials costs this much so a car should be much cheaper. That's not how it works. There's labor and processing costs, storage and transport of food, etc.
Obviously this is meant to give an idea of CoGS, and how fast food should have relatively high food costs in a CoGS sheet, as they're doing tons of very quick business. They're not breaking down whole fish into fillets and cooking them to order; they're heating up 1.5 oz meat patties and sticking them on bread.
Haven’t been to a McDonald’s except maybe 2 times in the past year and both times was over 6 months ago
Enough people will though, and I bet that while they are losing consumers like us, the young generations will probably appreciate the cheaper prices and won’t be perturbed by having to use the app.
I distinctly remember going to Sonic not being able to sign into the app and I ended up leaving because I am not paying full price. They lost a sale because they couldn't just price stuff fairly without the app. Also have not been back since because it was such a buggy mess. I just wanted my half price Cherry Limeade which is actually still way more than it costs them to make.
Me too. I'm sorry, I'll just go to a real restaurant then. The local burger joint near me has 4 burgers, 4 fries and 4 drinks for $26. It beats the shit out of McDonalds in both price and quality.
Then there are people like us who are too savvy, we realize surrendering our personal data for cheaper garbage food isn't worth it.
It's not even savvy. The apps stupid simple and even toddlers can work a basic iPhone, Galaxy, or Pixel... It's just asinine considering it's supposed to be fast food, I should be able to when driving by and suddenly feeling hungry drive thru it and get food fast and cheap... Not good, but fast and cheap... There's the whole pick 2/3: Fast/convenient, Cheap, Good... But with the app BS they're quickly becoming a "pick 1" situation. Also many tech savvy people are actively avoiding the apps because theyre giant security failures waiting to happen.
Unfortunately the whole app thing isn’t about convenience or having a good business model, instead it’s about finding new and interesting ways to mine data while also being able to serve you ads. The decrease in quality and app pricing are kind of a baked in thing with shareholder capitalism, and the drive to have ever expanding profits.
> when driving by and suddenly feeling hungry I've started using the grocery store for quick bites sometimes. A chicken strip and jojos, or a chinese bowl, or a breakfast burrito, a slice of pizza... Not bad for an impulse, lazy meal.
> It's not even savvy. The apps stupid simple and even toddlers can work a basic iPhone, Galaxy, or Pixel... I don't know, I'm in tech and I can't figure out how to order a happy meal with a cheese burger instead of a hamburger. I've tried multiple times. I'm not even sure it can be done.
The only thing McDonalds heard was "we can charge UP TO but not quite $18 for a big mac"
Yup, the fact you need an app for good deals turned me away from McD's. Food quality has been dropping as well
It’s worse than that. Prepare for them to utilize the tracking data to gain efficiencies about how to charge you. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/odd-lots/id1056200096?i=1000657640964
It's interesting. I used to pay full price for one fast food chain happily, but they increasingly pushed web and app based discounts. Now I only ever go there when I can get a really good deal. I go less and spend less. And probably get more per visit. I'm not sure that is what they intended. Hope the data is *really* valuable.
Im savvy enough to use the app, I refuse to download a billion apps on my phone just for lower prices. I just stopped going to those places. What these fast food restraunts dont realize is their core business is based off of convinience. If you jack up the price and make it less convinient, people are going to stop going. These prices on shitty burgers arent going to fix the damage they did against the convinience of going there and getting a burger at a good price. If thats the case fuck em. McDonalds isnt worth my business or keeping afloat. Let the business die.
This is what fucking pisses me off about fast food. YOURE A GOD DAMN BURGER PLACE WHY DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING APP? Im sorry but restaurants should not have a stupid fucking app. If your menu is just a QR code I have to scan before sitting to view fuck off im not eating there. The problem is that CEOs and other executives have to justify their stupidly high salaries by constantly making the company even more and more money year after year and pumping the stock prices up. Even if its at the cost of making the product worse, finding new revenue streams and automation/cutting jobs.
> McDonalds pricing has seemed like a form of price discrimination Its incentive for you to use their app so they can sell the info.
> You have to use the app to get reasonable prices, and people who aren't savvy enough to use the app seem willing to keep paying higher and higher prices. Once you use the app, McDonalds is able to advertise/target you (for profit) based on all of your aggregated Internet data profiles. We live in an information economy designed to extract as much as possible from people via a huge amount of aggregated personalized data. It's so weird and all that power is being used for bad.
Yes, it is basic economics. It is a way to sell burgers to different classes of people, rich and poor.
The third party apps are the major issue, it encourages stores to keep sticker prices high.
One way of thinking about it is McDonalds is paying you about 80-90 cents for your personal information every time you order with the app.
It’s built on Teradata’s Vantage system, which is the same inventory and price setting algorithm used by RealPages and Ticketmaster. Loblaws grocery in Canada started using it, now we’re boycotting them. Whole foods just announced they are activating the same system in their stores like last week. This is the impact of data cartels on the economy. Multi industry collusion and price fixing.
I can spend like $3 more to get a bacon cheeseburger from texas roadhouse with delicious scratch made side, rolls, and crack butter than I can get a cold big mac combo for.
This is ultimately a data gathering problem. Everyone company saw data as some invaluable asset, no matter how much it was irrelevant to them. They all believe they can sell the data to someone else. That's why all the best discounts were moved to the app.
They're pushing towards the platform that lets them rapidly change & optimize prices across demographics, which is hard or impossible to do with in-store pricing. That's why they're moving customers to the app.
Yeah, this is what's fascinating to me. Eventually I will have an adblocker capability that let's me tell instacar/united/whatever app that I am a broke bitch so you can't gouge me.
Since when are they listening, they just upped prices over here in Cali and they're using the $20 per hour mandate as an excuse when THEY'VE BEEN PAYING $20 PER HOUR FOR YEARS. Like I feel like I'm living in bizarro world and we keep excusing their pricing because the majority of people just put everything on a credit card.
Remember when everyone said that higher wages would increase fast food costs so instead they didn't raise the min wage and fast food Got more expensive anyways. Lol ooops.
For companies who've upped prices to their limits, I suspect they also shot themselves in the proverbial foot. Managed to trade away consumer preference for short term profits. How many McDonalds fans who have been turned away due to these high prices? Even if McDonald's starts to lower prices, they've moved the mental price anchor for their consumers. I think Coca-Cola is amongst the biggest examples of this behavior. During Covid prices for a 12 pack climbed to $10+ a case from $4-5 pre-Covid. Sure they reported record profits but many fans (myself included) switched to other, healthier alternatives and won't be looking back.
Absolutely, I used the ridiculous pricing to kick my soda habit and RARELY have one anymore; typically in those once in a blue moon scenarios where nothing else is available. My youngest kids used to love McDonald's, we stopped going now they could care less and have other places they prefer and don't ask for it anymore.
In Knoxville Tennessee a medium Big Mac meal is $9.39. A large brings it to $9.99. It’s getting pretty ridiculous! I’ve quit going there just about altogether. Probably for the best. I need to lose some weight.
It's not just that they're raising prices, the portion sizes have become an absolute joke. I got a mcdouble for the first time in years a few months ago and the thing was smaller than my palm, and for $4.00. Absolutely go fuck yourself McDonald's.
$5 value menu bruh I remember the $1 value menu like 7 years ago if that. They need to recognize their target audience is lower income who can’t afford to eat at these prices.
Exactly
Their stock value tanked by about 10% because sales dropped like a lead brick. They’ve always catered to the poor and uneducated. That demographic isn’t going to blow a full week’s wages on a single dinner for a family of four.
In our area, Mcdonalds, burgerking, wendy have all seen a drop in traffic. When I visit, I ask, how’s it going? Busy? They all say “oh not too bad, kinda slow right now.” IMO, culvers has picked up the revenue and customer base. The other thing that stands out, those franchises hired lower level employees. Those employees don’t dress professionally, they don’t look like they care, and the customer service has decreased. And in some cases, restaurants are dirty. My economic value feels reduced. I go to culvers. Today, I only go to McD if I have to based on my travel schedule. It’s a 2.5/5 experience.
So much this! It’s not just insane prices. The stores are understaffed, dirty, and generally just not welcoming. When I can see into the back and there is just food sitting out everywhere or near the drinks there is a lemon tray that clearly hasn’t been touched in a week it makes me feel like more of an idiot for paying these absurd prices. I walked out of a McDonald’s for the first time a few weeks ago. It just feels like they don’t want my business and I don’t want fast food badly enough to want to deal with higher prices and degraded service.
Fuck them. A hash brown at my McDonald’s is almost 3 fucking dollars. This is not related to McDonald’s, I was at charlotte on a layover on my way to Vegas. A whopper meal from Burger King was almost 20 bucks in charlotte and 12 in Vegas. Cringeeee
Hash brown in hawaii is 4.19 lol
Whole sleeve of those hash browns are under six bucks at most grocery stores. Air fryers are cheaper now, done in 5 minutes.
Airport prices are always way higher because they have you captive. Not really a good metric.
On another front we recently went from caffeine free Diet Pepsi to Kroger Big K caffeine free Diet Cola. Big K is $4/12 pk vs Diet Pepsi at $9.99/12 pk this week. No brainer. The taste difference is acceptable imho. $6 difference is incredible.
I only buy soda on sale. It has a long shelf life just load up on 6-8 cases when it's on sale and wait for the next sale. The sales are also incredible. They will literally run buy 2 get 2 free promotions, or 50% off. Granted, that sale just returns it to pre-COVID pricing but still...
Idunno if the mickey d’s people can see the rest of us from their ivory tower’s, but in case they haven’t heard: the poor ain’t getting any richer. How do you expect your business to work when your target demographic is priced out?? Are these people just so hell bent on short term profits that they’re willing to risk near collapse??
Good, let them collapse. It’s after all, the “free hand” of the market at work.
They used those management consultants to step the price up and up and up and took it too far. Usually they take it right to the edge and step back. The greed pushed them forward. The McKinsey McDonalds stepping pushed them right off the cliff. What a whopper of a move. They wanna shake things back up, but the ice cream machine is broken. Management consultants and private equity, extracting value without creating value since the very beginning.
So a social media post saying that Big Macs are now $18 goes viral, is proven to be false (the average price of a Big Mac meal is $9 and change), and the story is that people are angry about fast food prices. Not the fact that social media algorithm are driving engagement by purposely pissing people off with fake bullshit that exaggerates and outright misleads the public. >The thing is: It doesn’t really matter that virtually no one is paying anything close to $18 for a Big Mac combo. (On average, it actually costs $9.29, per a fact sheet McDonald’s put out along with the letter.) What matters is that the post struck a nerve with an army of people who are fed up with what fast food costs these days. Think about that. "It doesn't matter that this social media post was bullshit and purposely designed to piss people off, it doesn't matter that social media companies profit and incentivize this type of misleading bullshit that inflames peoples anger, what matters is that people are pissed off." We're living in a fucking fun house mirror reality.
They never claimed it was the average price. It’s a real price of a specific McDonald’s that’s very expensive. Nothing was proven to be false. That McDonald’s is pretty close to me
I think the larger point is it doesn't matter if it's $18 it's def way more expensive. So yeah tho exaggerated it touched a valid nerve. McDs is testing us to see how much they can shake us down for fast middling quality food and it's reached an inflection point it seems.
It’s $12.59 at the McDonald’s closest to me, but it’s a planned community in OC. If I go one city over, it’s $11.49.
I mean I’m annoyed enough about paying $12 for a fish sandwich meal that I’m just not buying them any more but its also because they used the pandemic to install kiosks and eliminate the cost and hassle of of employing humans. No idea why they needed to double prices at the same time.
that's how we ended up with Trump :(
lol, no they’re not. They’ll raise prices by literally over 100%. Then they’ll drop it down by 10% and say they’re listening. McDonald’s medium fries went from just over 1 dollar to 4 dollars. Now what they’ll do is drop the price to like $3.69. Stating they’ve listened and drop the price.
People should be quicker to mind their wallet. Companies don't care about anything else and will steadily raise their prices so long as people continue to buy from them.
I stopped once at that rest stop on i95 in Connecticut. I almost laughed when I saw the price. Even the person working there looked embarassed.
It turns out that the only cure for inflation is inflation. Griping about higher prices while continue to pay them does nothing. Cutting back on spending has a real impact. McD’s is just trying to force people to use their app to get the regular prices.
Not only are they expensive now, when I get off work, any time I go to one of their locations after 11 pm, it’s CASH ONLY. How does one of the biggest chains in the world not have their payment system figured out for all this time when I never have any problem at Jack in the box, or Taco Bell, or every other fast food chain open late? I don’t know if it’s only the chains around LA where I live that do this, but McDonald’s past 11 pm have problems taking cards because they’re “updating the system.” Or so they say.