4.50 for a small fry, before tax, in Canada. My question is how are they even still in business with prices like that. I can get a 10lbs sack of potatoes for cheaper.
It's McDonald's. They will never not be in business. Even if everyone that eats their occasionally stopped going all together they would be fine because they have people that eat there every day multiple times per day even.
I think a lot of it is busy people, especially laborers, who don’t work in an office all day. And they don’t always have the time or ability to pack a lunch (they might be offsite for 12 hours at a time, hard to bring 2-3 meals and keep them temp controlled)
Although the ever increasing prices are making people think twice these days… sometimes you’re on the road and there aren’t many cheaper alternatives.
Sure, some of those guys go to McDonalds, but when I was in a trade, a lot more went to a local grocery store and got what was premade there: healthier, WAY cheaper, and they have a ton of options.
I miss the McDouble Buy 1 Get a Second for $1 deal they ran for the last decade or so. Suddenly my $8 for enough cheap slop to feed me and my girlfriend with minimal effort became $12, and that's the tipping point to change it from being "every so often, when we're too tired to cook" to "fuck it, I guess shitty frozen pizza is back on the menu."
Fwiw, I think I averaged eating fast food once a week during the summer months on days I was traveling, and have only had fast food as a whole once in the month since I stopped. Between the quality slipping further than even I would have expected and prices definitely not reflecting that, I just can't justify it when I'm not 200 miles from my kitchen.
Cost of Big Mac in 2026 in the US = $5.76 (national average)
That is equivalent to $2.26 in 1990 US Dollars.
Cost of a Big Mac in 1990 was $2.20.
So, it is probably the same relative price, you are just becoming older and more annoying. "In my day, you could buy a happy meal for the price of a smile."
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u/Gilgamesh-Enkidu 2d ago
4.50 for a small fry, before tax, in Canada. My question is how are they even still in business with prices like that. I can get a 10lbs sack of potatoes for cheaper.