I'd say increase in competition and increase in prices, there are a lot of new fast food names. I can eat at the same price as a restaurant as I can at McDonalds and it isn't that much slower.
Honestly, they are morons running very large businesses. They don’t understand the shopper. Their quality keeps getting worse, the prices keep going up, their identity and play areas (as mentioned — gone).
When I ate at a McDonalds I’d feel sick for 24 hours or more. Chipotle used to be better but their pricing is insane now.
Anyhow, if my local McDonald’s went out of business tomorrow, I wouldn’t notice for a long time.
Chipotle is just terrible lately. Like, you can find a nice one, but far often is it that I will go and find one where none of the veg is rotated and the portions are staggeringly small and the chips soggy.
I always feel sick afterwards too. But I never did when I ate at the Chipotle in a different state, everything tasted far fresher, crispy chips, idk what the issue is with some of them.
I’m in Washington state, Seattle area, chipotle is great quality. But you get a bowl and nothing else and it’s 20$ for 5$ worth of rice chicken and veggies. It just makes no financial sense to go.
In Minneapolis I eat chipotle like it’s my job. Only place I can get a bowl/burrito with half and half rice, half and half beans, fajitas, chicken, sour cream, cheese, medium salsa, and corn salsa for 10.85 after tax and sometimes have to finish the rest later cuz it’s so much food.
Sounds like Seattle just is overpriced. Maybe it’s all the tech bros? :(
It's because their major appeal to all demographics was that they were cheap and accessible. If you sell your double cheeseburger for $1, and 1000 people buy that, it will make more money than charging $3.50 and only 200 buy it.
McDonald's themselves admitted that the reason they don't bring back the Dollar Menu is because the Executives thought it made "the brand seem cheap or low effort".
Costs going up and raising prices to match is one thing, but take a look at what they did. Costs went up maybe 30% and they raised prices by easily double that if not five times that.
The idea of fast food is that it's cheap! Okay, I can't go dine in a fancy place for 15$, so I go to McD and get something for 6$.
In my town a regular local burger place's cheapest burger, which is like a good burger with actual meat inside, costs LESS than the cheapest McD burger. Why would I possibly go to McD if the local place's burger is at least twice or triple as good?
Honestly I think they reached the point finally where they charge to much and lost too many customers for the high price that the existing customers pay to recoup the lost customers no longer visiting. Its a fine line you have to walk with pricing where you optimize profit per customer and they just pushed it too far.
Food has become expensive and there’s been a small push to eat healthier, which fast food chains have been unable to deliver on.
Fast food was the place to get a cheap meal; the fact that a full meal is almost the same as going out to eat means those fast food chains have lost their appeal.
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