“Even though we’re pushing through pricing, the consumer is tolerating it well,” he said in October analyst call.
normal way to talk about ‘fellow’ human beings
I admit it’s been a while since I’ve been to a McDonalds, but it can’t have been more than a couple of years and hash browns were definitely way less than that. Maybe a dollar.
They’re not talking about human beings.
They said “consumer.” Which they don’t see as human, only as meat with eyes.
We’re just money cattle
Someone needs to organize a boycott.
I’d organize one but I don’t ever eat there
Oddly enough you can do things with other people even if you’re not necessarily the same as those people.
Organizing a boycott of one is just not eating there.
Don’t mind the prices as long as the quality is there. All of the fast food chains in my area have tanked in quality. Except for Five Guys.
the taco bell near me is always on point. but the CEO is a fucking moron. constantly removing great items for no good reason, like the quesarito and beefy melt burrito. i can even still order those, for cheaper, with item adding
What?!??? How do you stil let quesaritos?!? That was the only thing I ever got from tbell
beefy 5 layer, remove beans, add rice, add chipotle sauce, and make it grilled. boom. quesarito for like a 1.50 cheaper
the taco bell near me is always on point.
I want to know where this unicorn exists!
I’ve tried going to Taco Bell three times, three different locations, over the past 3 - 4 years and I’ve regretted it every single time.
The last time I went to one, it was like almost everything that could go wrong did. Long wait of 20+ minutes. Employee(s) smelled strongly of weed. The 5-layer burrito was disgustingly dry and missing about 2 layers. And the price for 2 crappy, tiny burritos and a drink was around $12.
Back when I used to eat there more frequently (broke college kid), the same exact meal was less than $5.
The first 5 guys in our area was great quality and cheap! Then a couple years later the quality has been way down and prices about 4x. Just insane and disappointing.
Inflation and wage theft are absolutely out of control in this country. I’m a barista. My store makes $1600 in a eight-hour day. Mine and all of my coworker’s wage in there probably adds up to about $50/hour on average. So the profit margin is ridiculous. And these businesses have the gall to think they can make MORE MONEY. No, fuck you. At some point the human beings doing the hard work need to get a bigger cut.
ngl if you think being a barista is hard work you’ve never really worked hard
I’ve worked a lot of jobs. I much preferred moving furniture and pulling carpet to my work as a barista. It’s still a physical job where you are on your feet all day but with the added stress of dealing with entitled customers.
Now that I’ve moved on dealing with other humans is still the worst part of my job. Leave me alone and let me fix shit and I’m happy.
I’ve literally worked in the oil field throwing pipe wrenches around, and it was usually easier than what I see some food service employees putting up with lol
Ah yes, let’s start belittling people so that the working class continues to infight. Thank you for your contributions to the rich.
It’s brutal. More draining than any other retail job I’ve worked, and I’ve been in warehouses, unloaded trucks. Especially near a airport or hospital some locations do business NONSTOP. And the customers? FIENDING for sugar and caffeine in the form of some obscure, brand new tiktok hack that uses ingredients we probably don’t have in stock and is made the total opposite of how a reasonable person would want it. It’s like any other job, a lot of people DO put in hard work and most of those get nowhere but burned out.
Thank you for what you do. On top of that there’s cultivating the place’s atmosphere, which isn’t easy. I used to do homework and study at coffee shops all the time in college
Right back atcha - atmosphere is SO important to the higher-ups, and it really is a big challenge to maintain given the low pay, early mornings, demanding customers and scammy, if all-too-normalized business practices.
It’s one of the few times I’ll agree with a higher-up’s priorities. There’s a very significant difference between a fast, bustling coffee shop atmosphere and a laid back one. The former makes me think of an airport or mall kiosk – or most Starbucks, honestly. You go in, you get your drink, you get out.
The laid back, homey atmosphere is definitely my favorite though. That’s where you can actually catch up with friends or play a board game, read a book, or get homework/work/studying done.
And a big part of that is you guys. It’s a nice surprise when a barista at the place I usually go to recognizes me and knows what I want to order. Or they’ll strike up a conversation or tell me that technically, the butterbeer latte can be ordered year round.
You guys are some of my favorite people :). Don’t let haters talk you down.
make sure you count utilities and rent for the building and supplies etc, its still ridiculous but slightly less so
Not to mention one of those la marcozzo espresso machines cost like 40k
And franchise fees. They take a percentage of gross. I really don’t know why anybody gets involved with that stuff.
Yeah of course there are operating expenses, but you have these same companies buying the lowest quality equipment and products they can get away with as well. It’s inexcusable.
What most irritates me about this - plus layoffs to increase profits- is that the corporate numbnuts overlook the fact that every employee they stiff is a customer. Everyone is someone’s customer. A customer who has a shrinking amount of disposable income to spend on white goods, new clothes, eating out etc. They think hurrah, with AI we’ll be able to sack our creatives! Next thing they’re whining because there are so many homeless people on the streets. There’s a link! It’s exasperating.
Not for me. My fast food intake has drastically shrank. Better for my health anyway
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It feels like the days of 5EUR döner are in the past now. I see for 7 or 8 EUR sometimes.
And to be honest, before I buy a burger for €5 I buy a Kebab or Shawarma which beat every burger in taste and amount of food
Man, I miss doner kababs so much. I haven’t quite found anything similar back stateside.
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And to be honest, before I buy a burger for €5 I buy a Kebab or Shawarma which beat every burger in taste and amount of food.
Compared to a BK or McD’s burger then yeah absolutely. But compared to burgers in general? Much closer call. If you haven’t had a really good cheeseburger, then you’re really missing out.
Fast food burgers should have a different name, the difference is so stark.
I know what you mean. A couple of years ago I bought a “Sandwich”. Man, it was THE BEST Sandwich I ever ate. It was just “from Heaven”. It was totally worth €10. And no, it wasn’t from Subway or the Kind. It was tiny Bavarian Restaurant pretty unknown outside its town. To bad it made a GREAT name meanwhile and nowadays charges like twice as much for anything.
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It’s kind of the same here price wise. But people in the US tend not to care and love the convenience of fast food or are just stuck to a brand. Some of the lines I see at places here are nuts.
Especially the much higher quality and freshness of food in Europe in general.
While McD is gouging their customers hard, I’m still considering restaurants as a luxury.
I’ll do my hashbrowns in the toaster-oven in the morning and make myself a “McMuffin” at home for dirt-cheap.
Like any other businesses you won’t make them change their price unless their cashflow is impacted. Want to send a clear message? Stop going, and you may end up not coming back later because you’ll see all the money you wasted. Or at least make it a rare treat, not a habit.
Restaurants have always been a luxury.
People don’t realize how good we have it. Eating out isn’t supposed to be normal. Fast food like soda and pizza and burgers and snacks are all supposed to be an occasional treat because they don’t positively contribute nutritionally to our diets. Eating at a restaurant is supposed to be a treat because it’s more expensive and luxurious to have someone purchase and prepare and serve the food to you.
If you don’t have the time to make food for yourself, something is wrong. It may not be your fault but it should be your priority to figure out a solution. Consuming calories and sleeping are the two primary things that permit our bodies to function. Our lives should revolve around these things. Because they literally do.
You can’t hear me, but I’m clapping loudly.
OP on another thread got buried for saying that. LOL, another poster pointed out the obesity epidemic. Not seeing the connection. 🤷🏻♂️
Americans, let’s face it: We’ve been a spoiled country for a long time. Do you know what the number one health risk in America is? Obesity. They say we’re in the middle of an obesity epidemic. An epidemic like it is polio. Like we’ll be telling our grand kids about it one day. The Great Obesity Epidemic of 2004. “How’d you get through it grandpa?” “Oh, it was horrible Johnny, there was cheesecake and pork chops everywhere.”
Nobody knows why we’re getting fatter? Look at our lifestyle. I’ll sit at a drive thru. I’ll sit there behind fifteen other cars instead of getting up to make the eight foot walk to the totally empty counter. Everything is mega meal, super sized. Want biggie fries, super sized, want to go large. You want to have thirty burgers for a nickel you fat mother fucker. There’s room in the back. Take it! Want a 55 gallon drum of Coke with that? It’s only three more cents.
Three bucks for a hash brown? You know Simplot sells packs of ten for four dollars, right? And you can cook them on a stovetop with a tablespoon of vegetable oil, right? Hell, if you’re desperate, you could even throw a pair into the toaster, although they won’t taste nearly as good that way.
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My local burger chain has cheeseburgers for $3.50 and fries for $2.00. They are bigger and taste way better than McDonald’s, and it’s real food that doesn’t destroy my stomach. They also have breakfast burgers and a big serving of breakfast potatoes for $2 each. Why would I ever go to McDonalds
What is a breakfast burger? Is that just like a burger with an egg on it?
Egg, sausage, and cheese on a bun!
That sounds amazing!
P. Terry’s, check it out if you’re ever in Austin or San Antonio!
Not everyone has a good local place like that. There’s a ton of bad local places. If you’re in an unfamiliar place, sometimes it’s easier to just go with a mediocre place.
You are 100% correct. I’m fortunate to live in Central Texas, where we have a ton of regional chains that do a great job of outcompeting national chains.
And it’s not like McDonald’s gets a different hash brown. Simplot has supplied McDonald’s for decades: http://visitsoutheastidaho.com/2017/01/j-r-simplots-french-fry-pact-with-mcdonalds-was-key-for-company-idaho/
What I hate most is that they removed the mcchicken biscuit… makes no sense for me to go there for breakfast now
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You’re not wrong you’re just an asshole. I only go out to eat for social events. Everything else is home cooked. But also being this asshole doesn’t help change habits or minds or just makes people think less of people like me who actually do live this life.
Again, I’m not going to ask permission as to how I’m going to express certain opinions to appease people out there and check on their emotions. Your emotions are not my responsibility.
You’re allowed to be an asshole, but you’re coming off as a whiney asshole with no regard to other people.
I mean, do you walk into a McDonald’s and tell fatties that they’re wrong? No? Why not? Because people would be mad at you?
And yet when you do that online you somehow expect the results to be different and for people to stop telling you that you’re an asshole? Why? Just live your life, accept that people will think your an asshole for it, and move on.
Wanted to add -
Imagine an all-volunteer orchestra where everyone is free to play their own tune. Even without a strict conductor, the orchestra members are aware that their individual performances affect the harmony of the entire group. If someone plays discordantly or off-key intentionally, they might not be solely responsible for how the audience feels about the music, but they do contribute to the overall experience.
When members of the orchestra (or posters on the fediverse) disregard the collective effort to create something enjoyable and cohesive, they risk being “downvoted” to the last chair, where their impact is lessened. However, their presence and performance can still affect the overall sound. So, while you can say what you want, your words are part of a larger community conversation and can influence the “melody” of the platform, for better or worse.
You’re right about your responsibility.
I do like the idea of an online forum as a space for building community through respectful exchange of ideas, as opposed to antagonism that damages others or the community fabric.
Lemmy does benefit from maintaining some basic standards of civility and care for others. We all contribute to the emotional environment collective discussions create.
Sure, and your behaviour isn’t my problem either. So I just downvote you since you do not have anything important to say and move on. (except for this comment)
Oh, you sure showed me~ /s
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I hope you get a chance to watch the sun set later, bro.
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I’ve had Mcdick’s once in the last 2 decades, and that was easily 5 years ago. It wasn’t as good as I remembered.
Imagine being able to say you haven’t eaten in a place for two decades, but still sound like a 14 year old with stupid shit like “mcdicks.”
Hey, it’s the tone police. Imagine thinking you have a point about a comment and still sound like a Victorian era dandy.
As someone who works in a mom and pop restaurant, I understand this. McDonalds is huge and buys/manufactures in bulk, sure, so their prices are gonna be cheaper, but their costs are still going up like the rest of us. It kills me to keep seeing our menu updates, but food is fucking expensive now. I’m not saying that McDonalds isn’t pulling down a tidy profit, and if food costs dropped they probably wouldn’t drop their price, but I don’t put the price increase solely on them. Food costs are rising all over, and it’s killing the business. I have a spreadsheet from 6 years ago when I first started analyzing our costs, and my most recent sheet shows anywhere between 150 and 200% increase across the board. That’s absurd. So, blame McDonalds for whatever you want, I won’t stop you, but make sure to aim some hate at the production side of things as well.
I’ve heard food prices are up because of the Russian war raising the price of fertilizer (depends heavily on natural gas) and animal feed (Ukraine was one of the world’s largest suppliers). McDonald’s profits are up 17% year-over-year though, so they’re definitely raising prices faster than their costs are increasing.
Pretty sure McDonald’s has had more than a 200% increase in menu prices over the last 6 years. Pretty sure labor and other overhead has gone down, and last I checked those were a bigger portion of the menu price than the food itself.
The end solution is still the same. If we stop buying it, McDonald’s stops ordering it which gives the production companies shockedpikachu.gif
It’s gotta start somewhere.
The issue is how many people love paying for McDonald’s. Go home and cook for my family tonight? Nah, that’s too much work. It’s much easier to spend $50 at McDonald’s.
And that will never happen. That is the consumer equivalent of kicking the can down the road. “I’ll do my part and stop buying, surely everyone else will do the same and corporations will stop being greedy.” That’s never going to happen, and if you stop at that point, you may as well just keep buying it. Costs have to be regulated. Bailouts have to stop happening. Tax breaks have to end for corporations that don’t act in the best interest of the taxed. We have to hold the government accountable for protecting it’s people, because for as long as people have been people, we’ve found new and creative ways to fuck others over while justifying it as supply and demand. Supply and demand has been a lie since the dawn of the industrial revolution. There is no demand on the supply of necessities that cannot be met with modern means. The cost of grain is still the seed the soil and the sweat. Stop inflating costs, and the economy will balance. However, without regulation, those costs will continue to inflate, and the lowest will always have to suffer.
If you have an alternative to McDonalds and you still eat McDonalds anyway, get some self-respect.
I actually don’t hate the burgers McDonald’s has now. They are hot, and often hit the spot for me.
HOWEVER, a double quarter pounder meal is now like $10, and it’s just not worth it when I have other options next door or across the street that sell better food for about the same price.
Same, my daughter wanted their fries recently and we caved and bought it, and it was actually quite juicy and tasty.
Ironically the fries were undercooked soggy potatoes, so win some lose some I guess.
It’s very location dependent. It was the only place to stop that was open on a recent road trip that I took. The bun was stale and the patties were overcooked. The pickles were fine I guess.
