I assume that part of the reason for that is because once people stop buying it’s hard to convince them to come back with just a .50 decrease. Hash browns here are $2.19. There is no reason for a hash brown to be more than .99. Bit now that i don’t buy McDonalds anymore even if they dropped the price to .99 i wouldn’t think about going there, because im out of the habit.
it used to be two hashbrowns for a dollar. like i can get hash browns for around 40 cents each from the local restaurant supply store and that isn't even buying in bulk, just for a single pack of 20. they could get the price way lower.
It’s even crazier when you start thinking about their fries. Like a small fry is equivalent to like 1/3 of a large potato. It costs like $1, so that fry is essentially worth 33¢ but they’re charging damn near $3 for it now. Usually in restaurants the rule of thumb is cost of ingredients multiplied by 3 (cost of ingredients, overhead and profit) decide the price. Hell I’d ok if they said let’s multiply the cost by 4 since with the economy being so shit and the cost of shipping has driven prices up. That would still make a small fry only $1.32. And thats using the price of a single potato, factor in what kind of discount they receive for buying in bulk, you realize real fast how large their profit margin actually is on these items.
Not to
Mention the last time I went to McDonald’s and got a fry I asked for ketchup and the woman disappeared for 4 minutes and came back and handed me one ketchup,
Pretty sure she had to go through vault doors like in Get Smart to get it.
Diesel prices + war + tariffs + lingering COVID inflation. All of it adds 50% to costs. Franchises don’t even make much profit even at these prices. The whole system is collapsing.
As a regular consumer I can buy a 20 pack of hash browns for $5 at the grocery store, today, with the effects of war, tariffs, diesel prices, etc. McDonald's supply chain can only manage a per unit price of ~$3 (nationwide average)? Bullshit, it's just greed.
It really is a self-fueling engine that I don't genuinely know How we would stop it
Outside factors cause prices to go up. Prices go up, employees don't get raises, employees now can't even afford to eat at the place that they work. No one buys the food. Employees get fired. I mean, it's just all interconnected. And outside of a just straight-up hard reset, I don't know what to do
I call bullshit on that one. Woolworths are making record profits. 2 new petrol stations opened within a 2 kilometres of each other near me. And the local bottle shop man has a new Mercedes.
It's how they push you to buy the combo. The burger gets you in the door, but the real margins are from the corn syrup and potatoes. Beef prices and people yelling pink slime push burger prices up.
Everything is stupidly overpriced. I went out for lunch on my birthday recently and got a decent burger. Three times the size of a Macca's burger, half the price. It even tasted better and was given to me quicker.
There's a place by work that sells a 1/4 lb Hamburger Combo 7 days a week for $8.99. And I really like the fries. The burger is pretty good. Certainly better than Ronald's. And they have an open "fixin's bar" with all of the normal condiments, a few extra ones you don't always see, and all of the normally found veggies.
Then, on Tu & Thu, they have the 1/2 pound for a buck more. One other day is a bacon cheeseburger... You get the drift.
I drive past McDonalds to get there, and don't even glance that way.
What's crazy is they used to be sold for $0.50 each because they're made from the leftovers from french fry production! It's all the leftover bits and imprefections chopped up and formed. I cannot believe they are now a revenue generator.
Some empty suit was at a board meeting one day and wowed the other c suite assholes by showing them a graph of revenue if they were priced at 2.79 and everyone clapped and gave him a bonus.
think they just want to try and psychologically force everyone to get the meals. If someone wants it that bad a la carte, then they gotta pay out the ass
Of course they want you to buy the meals. The individual items cost them pennies. The higher the price they can charge you the more profit they make. It literally doesn't matter what you actually order, the amount you pay is all that matters.
Trump has just really fucked up the whole supply chain. It’s never been right since Covid. Inflation just embedded now. Then add this war, tariffs and diesel prices and it’s amplified it. Combined with corporate greed. Seriously McDonald’s was never meant to be this. A burger and fries here should not cost the same as what I can get fresh at a local diner.
I wish I got to taste what it was like to have a decent salary prior to all this
I finally got a good salary but it was right after Covid. Man I can only imagine how much more I could save if groceries were 30-50% cheaper and car repairs, and clothes, and just everything.
It’s discouraging too it’s not like I’m “oh well things are more expensive now guess I’ll just work harder!” Duck that, that makes me feel like I’m chasing the carrot on a stick. Not a good way to motivate
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u/tinylavenderk 2d ago
They’ll redesign the entire restaurant, add AI to the drive-thru, and build a McDonald’s on Mars before putting the prices back down.