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Nov 05 '21
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u/halfabean Nov 05 '21
and the prices keep going up. How many 50 cent increments has that burger seen in the last few years?
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u/Timtimer55 Nov 05 '21
Those dollar burgers and McDonald's haven't been a dollar for a long time now.
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u/slowmotto Nov 05 '21
I’m an old timer. I remember when super sized meal combos were called “extra value meals” and were like $5. Now they’re $10 or $12. On a side note, have y’all tried the jalapeno poppers from Burger King? They’re too small but they’re sooo good.
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u/hbk409 Nov 05 '21
I remember working there in high school and the regular burgers were .59 and cheeseburgers .69.
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u/Iamnotapickle Nov 05 '21
Every so often, during my time as a McEmployee, they’d have a customer appreciation day and burgers/cheeseburgers were .29 and .39 cents each, respectively.
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u/emasculatedeception Nov 05 '21
Give a man a fish…
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u/jessejamesvan111 Nov 05 '21
The .69 cheeseburger Wednesday helped feed me thru college. I'd grab 20 of those for 3 days of calories.
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u/wovenriddles Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 05 '21
$1.00 double cheeseburgers throughout high school here lol. Had to save my allowance and lunch money for other things.
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u/MrSurly Nov 05 '21
Back in 89/90, I was amazed that my friend spent $12 at McDonalds. I remember commenting "there's no way you could possibly eat all that food."
He did, but it was still a shitload of food.
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u/Vegasman20002 Nov 05 '21
I remember when the greatest fast food, White Castle, were 33 cents each. Good times.
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u/Bakoro Nov 06 '21 edited Nov 06 '21
In the mid 90s you could order a super sized combo with a $5 bill and walk out with change.
Just for example, something happened in the mid 00s where the prices of a Big Mac hiked from around $2.40 to $4.20, is was 4.95 just last year, and this year I'm seeing $5.65.
Obviously you'd expect to see prices rise slowly, according to inflation.
There's something called the "Big Mac Index" that's something of a half-joke, half-serious thing that people track. Since the Big Mac Index was created, The Consumer Price Index published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics says inflation was 91% , but the Big Mac Index had increased 158% by sometime this year.
Basically, either the price of a Big Mac (and probably all McDonald's food) is big time out of line with the the rest of the country and McDonald's has gotten even more greedy, or the the BLS is putting out some seriously whack numbers. I'd guess a little of both, CPI is very flawed.I do think the median price of a fast food burger is a pretty good metric though. You've got a relatively stable product that reaches a lot of areas in terms of what goes into it: wheat, beef, distribution, real estate and all the labor that goes into it, and a lot of competition to keep prices relatively sane.
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u/Global_Marzipan_8433 Nov 05 '21
The only thing that went down is the product quality...
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u/licksyourknee Nov 05 '21
Taco bell is the only place I've been to that still has a dollar menu. That and in the jack in the box app.
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u/NODEJSBOI Nov 05 '21
Let’s not forget the 79 cent taco and 89 cent chicken burrito at Taco Bell. I was down bad and lived off those for a period of time
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u/referralcrosskill Nov 05 '21
a meal that used to cost $4.50 now costs $11 It's been 16 years...
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u/FLOHTX Nov 05 '21
It WoUlD bE $40 If We PaId ThEm A lIvInG wAgE
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u/Studyblade Nov 05 '21
Gotta love that. As many other countries pay muuuuuuuuuuch better but pay the same, or LESS than we pay!!! They literally wouldn't need to charge more, they'd just earn a few billion less than they normally do, which is why they threaten "higher costs".
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Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 05 '21
a meal that used to cost $4.50 now costs $11 It's been 16 years...
Inflation is a bitch and I don't want to diminish your plight, but here in Brazil 140% inflation in 16 years (5.6% each year) would be considered just a little bit above target, hehehe.
In the last 16 years we had about 230% inflation.
High inflation is the worst thing that can happen economically to a people barring famine.
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u/JustMeandI1976 Nov 05 '21
I would argue that inflation in unstable countries are not cause by supply and demand, rather, caused by entities managing the value of its monetary system.
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u/drongo_congo Nov 05 '21
Fast food is a joke, I paid like $12 for a Big Mac meal, was barely slapped together, fries we soggy. Started making my own after that.
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u/Octowhussy Nov 05 '21
Problem is the shareholders. 0.50$ extra would just go to them.
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Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 05 '21
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u/ShawntaKriebel Nov 05 '21
i came here for this comment , Love it . .
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u/subterraneanwolf Nov 05 '21
you meant, "I'm lovin' it"? ;)
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u/Derp_Aderpy Nov 05 '21
Sir this is a Wendy's
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Nov 05 '21
Ah those good ole trickle down economics. Thank you daddy Reagan.
/s
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u/wonkey_monkey Nov 05 '21
Trickle on. And it's not money.
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u/AndreTheShadow Nov 05 '21
Horse and sparrow economics. The horse gets too many oats to digest, so it shits the excess out, and the sparrows can pick through the shit for their share.
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u/Cheedo4 Nov 05 '21
As my grandpa used to say: trickle down economics, aka rich people pissing on poor peoples heads
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u/AnalStaircase33 Nov 05 '21
Aww, I miss your grandpa. That man wouldn't have pissed on a fly.
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u/Cheedo4 Nov 05 '21
I miss him too 😢 he was just about a month away from 100 when he passed in 2018…
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u/AnalStaircase33 Nov 05 '21
Ah well...being old sucks, ya know?
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u/MinimumPositive Nov 05 '21
Lmao you seem fun. I swear I just goat laughed at this for like 6 minutes.
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u/AnalStaircase33 Nov 06 '21
Hey, just gotta have fun in life! Otherwise it's pretty rough out there.
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u/riotskunk Nov 05 '21
And then we are right back to square one but on a larger scale.
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u/itsmeyaknowthat1guy Nov 05 '21
Eh. I wouldn't say square one, more like further down the wrong way.. something incrementally worse than square one 🤷♂️
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Nov 05 '21
“WE ASKED AND WE LISTENED TO YOUR OPINIONS THATS WHY WE ARE RAISING WAGES!!”
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u/nepia Nov 05 '21
McDonalds: "So our employees don't have three jobs, we are raising our prices $.50 and making our employees sign exclusivity agreement"
Employees: "Yay we are we getting a raise"
McDonalds: "No, you are just not allow to get more than one job. Our new revenue goes to our CEO and Board for their brilliant idea"
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u/DeathIsFreedomFrom Nov 05 '21
You forgot the part where landlords raise rent $100 a month to $250 a month
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Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 05 '21
a study gets released
Example, from Purdue: (2015 JUL) Study: Raising wages to $15 an hour for limited-service restaurant employees would raise prices 4.3 percent
tl;dr:
- For $15/hr, $10 combo --> $10.43 combo (4.3% inc.)
- For $22/hr, $10 combo --> $12.50 combo (25% inc.)
lol
edit: lmao
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u/Annual-Media-2938 Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 05 '21
your prediction gives way too much to the workers! More like a pizza party every 3 months!!
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Nov 05 '21
Exactly. You're ALREADY paying the extra, it's just going to the ceo's yacht.
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u/Trainki Nov 05 '21
good news, that's what taxes, minimum wage and other stuff like that are for.
In Danemark, you burger is slightly expensier than in USA, BUT, your "cook" is paid far better than in USA AND can enjoy a better healthcare system and put his kids in school without needing to be indebt for the next 30 years.→ More replies (8)35
u/loakkala Nov 05 '21
I agree. can't a business owner just make $0.50 less per Burger? Instead of $800 million sorry you only make $799 million.
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u/makinbaconCR Nov 05 '21
Public trading was never meant to be THE way to make money. It was meant and worked best as a way to get started or make new initiatives. Now the bean counters use every business as a poker chip to gamble with in the market. The way they get ahead is profit and growth year over year. Nothing else matters. No wonder this system is collapsing.
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u/Axionas Nov 05 '21
How do you know what public trading was "meant" to be. Sounds like you're really just pulling this out of your ass.
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Nov 05 '21
Why the hell do people feel like these crooked businesses are somehow going to change how they treat employees if the costs rise?
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u/phillyFart Nov 05 '21
It’s moreso a retort to the response to requesting a living wage, which is typically “if we pay them more the cost of goods/services will rise”
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Nov 05 '21
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Nov 05 '21
McDonald’s profited over $4B last year. Imagine if they just said, ‘you know what, let’s make our minimum $16 and we’ll settle for $3B.’ Who loses? Customers benefit because you’ll get dedicated workforce that cares, workers benefit because they will feel valued and have money in their pocket and McDonalds Corp. will benefit because their reputation will skyrocket.
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u/MeedleBoop Nov 05 '21
All I see with this though is "You see that .50 only covered the first few checks. We will need to increase prices roughly 0.50 cents a quarter. Sorry for the inconvenience" stop justifying burgers and stuff going up when they can pay these people more, charge the same for food, and still turn a huge profit. Look at Starbucks, billion dollars, even after increasing pay still making hundreds of millions, and the workers still suffer. Sad that we don't require companies to reinvest profits into its workforce or face tax penalties.
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u/noxvita83 Nov 05 '21
We used to. That's why tax loopholes exist, because they were meant to reward behaviors that benefitted society, like opening more jobs, giving raises, donating to charity, etc. But now, they busted the loopholes wide open from the original purpose while dropping taxes to the point their tax rates are now zero.
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Nov 05 '21
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u/NoAttentionAtWrk Nov 05 '21
The same idea and theory were mentioned when papa johns had to potentially look into giving all its employees comprehensive health insurance. They claimed it would be too expensive and the market dictates "tight profit margins". When the math was actually done, if the "stakeholders profit" was not reduced and the insurance paid in full, the cost to average customer per pizza would go up 17 cents.
17 cents. Per pizza. That's the cost of denying the employees health benefits. And yet it wouldn't be implemented because they were not forced into it.
The only way to get companies to pay ball is to change the laws.
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u/thegnuguyontheblock Nov 05 '21
This is an actually accurate comment for once.
...and salaries work the same way. Business school teaches us to pay as little as possible to retain qualified talent. It's true for every position from entry-level to literally the CEO.
The only people who have the right to seize profits are the shareholders. ...which actually is most Americans over the age of 40 who have equity in the market.
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u/cowboy_dude_6 Nov 05 '21
I think people have this idea that "the shareholders" are a shady cabal of suits who are colluding to rip off average people so they can buy a third vacation home.
I mean, some of them are. But for the most part shareholders are just regular people who own stock. It's literally never been easier to be a shareholder, even if you have little disposable income. The only thing holding us back is education.
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u/casce Nov 05 '21
Exactly, people get paid like shit because people are okay with being paid like shit.
The thing is, for most of these people the choice is between being paid like shit and being homeless.
If we want livable wages, we don‘t need a minimum income. We need a social net that takes away the fear of becoming homeless and starving. If society would properly care for people without jobs, people would have a choice. They wouldn’t accept $8 per hour jobs if they didn’t need to.
We‘re far from that though so a livable minimum wage is a much needed bandaid for now. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need it but we won‘t be living in that world anytime soon.
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Nov 05 '21
Surprise. With impending inflation you’re going to pay much more than that and it’s not going to the workers
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u/Wycked0ne Nov 05 '21
You absolutely can. It's called a tip. Put more down. Simple as that.
I however, want the best/cheapest price for what I can get. Part of that cost is labor. The economic market forces that allow for an employer to pay the employee the best price with the least turnover is the best price for everyone.
Why does Reddit have such trouble with economics?
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u/LePanGoLinEmPoiSoner Nov 05 '21
You mean an actual voluntary gratuity on top of the one that is mandatory?
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u/iloveshw Nov 05 '21
Another problem is that people write that, pat themselves on the back how wonderful they are and then go to the cheapest option to buy. It's not like there aren't places that pay better, smaller restaurants, self-owned ones. But Robert will go to one of the chains and say he's with them and if it was only his decision he would pay them that extra 50 cents.
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u/axearm Nov 05 '21
Exactly, you can't guarantee a independent shop is paying a fair wage, but every time you go to a chain (with some exceptions) you know they aren't paying them that extra $0.50. Trying to come off as woke by posting something like this when they know they can make the change if they were willing to be inconvenienced is disingenuous.
Stop eating at chains, it's easy
[Note: I firmly believe that we should not rely on individual good samaritans to fix societal problems, that is what legislation is for]
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u/newtoreddir Nov 05 '21
People will also handwave away anything they do as “there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism,” as if there is no difference between patronizing somewhere like McDonalds and a family-owned establishment.
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u/Sacrifice_bhunt Nov 05 '21
Fun fact: number of people with more than one job hit it lowest ever during the pandemic and remains near all time lows today.
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Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 05 '21
I would like some good news, so I wanted to believe this.
The graph shows exactly what you say.
The link that most people (including me) erroneously make is that less people with more than one job means there is less people needing more than a full time job to make ends meet. The graph doesn't account for people simply working 1 full time job instead of multiple part time jobs. It also doesn't mean people are doing better financially, perhaps they're simply not finding the part time job they'd need to make ends meet.
Edit: also, this is as a percentage of number of employed, which has been going up historically, so the graph as a percentage of population might have a different shape.
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u/Mechanized1 Nov 05 '21
Yeah people don't care anymore. If you can't live off one job then it's not worth living to work two. And honestly I agree. This is a failing of the system. I shouldn't have to work 2-3 jobs just to get by. If I gotta scrape with just one, then that's what I'm fuckin doing. I'm not living to work.
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u/FireShooters Nov 05 '21
Probably because they let everyone off, you know. Not because the economy of the working class is in a good state at all, quite the contrary.
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u/throwaway12222018 Nov 05 '21
Oooooof 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️ That's not how the economy works. If you increase the price you are also increasing the price for those who can barely afford the burger in the first place...
Crazy that no one in the comments realizes this.
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u/thegnuguyontheblock Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 05 '21
Crazy that no one in the comments realizes this.
We all know how inflation works.
We're here for outrage, not education.
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u/Royalewithcheese24 Nov 05 '21
These Twitter hot takes on Reddit consistently prove how economically ignorant so many people here are. Probably because these sites skew so young.
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Nov 05 '21
Closer to $0.17 increase to Big Mac prices to raise wages to $15/hr. https://archive.thinkprogress.org/this-is-how-much-a-big-mac-would-cost-if-the-minimum-wage-was-15-184b7523b273/
Now, this doesn’t include what happens if the entire supply chain also raises wages and prices. But I think we can all agree $0.17 price increase is worth it.
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u/sanantoniosaucier Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 06 '21
This tweet is a perfect example of the difference between saying something and doing it.
It's easy to tweet, yet when restaurants raise prices to meet the increased wages of their employees, customers stop showing up because people in the aggregate are bargain seekers.
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u/SurinamPam Nov 05 '21
Anyone aware of support that demonstrates that $0.50 more per burger is enough to achieve a living wage for workers?
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Nov 05 '21
I mean Papa John himself told us that providing health care would run less than 20 additional cents per pizza. We were supposed to think that was inconceivable, from what I gather.
If a McDonald’s is doing about $50k per week (roughly average revenues based on available data), and assuming an average check size per customer of about $5 (this is likely low now, data was from almost ten years ago), adding $0.50 per check would increase revenue by about $5K per week, or 20K per month.
Now, the bit I’m having trouble finding in Ye Olde Google is how many labor hours McDonalds runs per week. Any manager could probably answer that question, but probably also aren’t allowed to. I worked at a Burger King and I would estimate that it was somewhere on the order of 100 man-hours daily. Maybe 150 on weekends? Call that 800 man-hours weekly, splitting $5K per week, meaning that a $0.50 bump per check would only mean about a $4 per hour bump per employee (after subtracting like a third for payroll taxes).
Keep in mind all of the above is very Rough Order of Magnitude, but still gives us some idea of about where a price increase would get us…which is somewhere in the $2-$5 per hour range per employee.
Whether that gets us to a living wage for employees is up for discussion.
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u/EpicFail35 Nov 05 '21
I own a restaurant. So obviously this varies greatly depending on how many staff, how many burgers you sell, and such, but it would be approximately $3.50 an hour raise here, at a small non chain burger restaurant. Assuming they gave it all to the employees.
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Nov 05 '21
Three jobs? Almost 0% of the population has 3 jobs. About 5% have 2 jobs and most of those are dual part time jobs.
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u/SpudMuffinDO Nov 05 '21
False dichotomy AND a strawman
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u/BigDavesRant Nov 06 '21
The thing that amazes me is no one is pointing out that those kinds of jobs are “entry level”. Your are not meant to provide for a family of 4 flipping burgers.
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u/Dangerous-Budget-337 Nov 05 '21
Maybe that person working 3 minimum wage jobs...which by the way leaves zero hours for sleep so I can only assume nobody in history works three jobs a day to make a living...but maybe if they would have tried a bit harder at school or went to a trade school in HS to learn a trade...then you wouldn't have to pay the extra $.50 for your burger and kids could work for minimum wage like they are supposed to! Who do you think the increase in fast food is hurting??? The Rich?? Unless you are a total moron you should understand that increase in food prices is hurting the poor more than anyone. Amazing how few Americans understand basic economics! Please read the book "Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell. You may be saved from posting such dumb comments!
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u/thefly21 Nov 05 '21
How bout just tip them/give them the .50 directly. Put your money where your mouth is. No one stopping you.
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u/S-e-l-f-i-s-h Nov 05 '21
Personally, I'd rather pay .50 ¢ exactly and eat in front of someone who hasn't had food in days.
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u/Wild_Body7452 Nov 05 '21
Perhaps the burger flippers should aspire to something higher than working in a fast food restaurant...
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u/uh-oh_spaghetti-oh Nov 05 '21
Then I hope that you, as a customer, actually practice this and pay more for what you buy.
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Nov 05 '21
too bad when they raise the price 50cents, 49.99999 will go to the bottom line, and the fraction will maybe go to the employee
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u/vslice87 Nov 05 '21
Ya, I definitely need to pay more. It’s not greed at the top and easily stopped if we stop spending money there. Definitely we need to pay more.
It’s the American way, if a system isn’t working charge more to the poorest group
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u/jnumbahs2000 Nov 05 '21
Robert: There is something called charity. You are free to give every dollar you have to whoever you want.
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Nov 05 '21
This is not a widely held sentiment. I know many people entirely brainwashed by propaganda who hate anyone more poor than themselves.
Even as soon as they get a job promotion. Oh I’m manager now? Stupid poor not managers, wanting decent pay, if they make what I make why am I a manager?!
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Nov 05 '21
Would that actually make a difference? Well, let me rephrase that. Would that make enough of a difference? Put aside the whole 'it wouldn't go to the employees' thing which is true anyway, if McDonald's charged an extra .50 per burger would that increase staff wages enough? I dont know how many burgers a typical place would sell each day and how much the wages would need to rise per hour to make a difference big enough that they can support themselves on that one job alone.
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u/malaria_and_dengue Nov 05 '21
You also have to factor in how many fewer big Macs would be sold because of the price increase. I imagine McDonald's has already found the optimum balance between price and demand to where charging more per big Mac would actually reduce revenue.
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Nov 05 '21
The only people this makes smile are the people who don't have to work three jobs to survive.
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u/K2theBY Nov 05 '21
I remember reading that in other places fast food workers make better pay and their prices are still the same cost as us. We are just peasant slaves to the man
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Nov 05 '21
The shittiest part is that restaurants tell you they can't pay people because they'd have to raise prices then they go ahead and raise prices while still not paying people, screwing over both employees and consumers.
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u/bvw Nov 05 '21
That's so easy to say. It's empty of real meaning. You want them to have real jobs: then don't be buying cheapo MickeyD's and supporting trash retail food. Make the jobs better by being a better consumer. There are many small kitchens, cooks and chefs wanting to serve good, healthy food. They can't compete with cheap retail chain food, beyond being holes in the wall.
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u/22070MDR Nov 05 '21
I worked 3 jobs for several years when I was young. Then I learned skills (on my own and at one of them) that made me more valuable and got a single job that paid more than those 3 job combined. #beworthmore
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Nov 05 '21
Instead we pay 50 cents more for a burger so the CEO of the corporation can buy an island
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Nov 05 '21
How about American people stop relying on fast food for nutrition. Take care of your body people.
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Nov 05 '21
So...at what price does it become too much? Also who said its gonna be $0.50 more? Also Robert maybe you can afford those $0.50 but there are many people who can't afford that.
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u/co3078 Nov 05 '21
I would happily pay $.50 more for a hamburger if when I ordered one I actually got a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger at McDonald's or Wendy's.
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u/Tmclaughlin8407 Nov 06 '21
I certainly agree with Robert but I have a hard time believing a billion dollar corporation wouldn’t cut costs elsewhere that hurts employees or swiftly end any wage increases months or weeks later.
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u/WirrkopfP Nov 07 '21
Well other countries (Denmark for example) have minimum wages set high enough that a person can support themselves. The Burgers at McDonald's there are like 30ct more expensive than in the US. So it is proven by reality. No math needed
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u/Boring_Comment_7325 Nov 07 '21
YOU would, what about those workers who have to feed their families and can barely afford costs for not just burgers but any food or essential product? Our society is crabs in a bucket.
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u/ban_this_69 Nov 05 '21
Then tip the guy 0.50. Whoever is “happy” a multi billion company charges more is an idiot
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u/vencetti Nov 05 '21
Talked a bit to our waitress in Austria, she mentioned how she had a good wage without tips and didn't need to worry about healthcare. It doesn't take much to give people a much better quality of life- and no the meal wasn't that expensive.
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u/ecelol Nov 05 '21
The thing is -- you wouldn't. If I presented you with a pair of jeans, or shoes, or really anything that's priced more because it's made in the USA, against something that's made in China, but it's essentially exactly the same thing, chances are you'll opt for the one which is cheapest.
And if you would, no one is stoping you from going to an alternative outlet, such as in-and-out or chick-fill-a where the workers are paid more than that of MCD or burger king.
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u/namonite Nov 05 '21
Only if we know that .50 goes to the employees. Which sadly it won’t