Looks like McDonald’s is reaping what it sowed. Shit food at shit prices and no one wants to buy?! SHOCKER.

  • @TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world
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    49 months ago

    I haven’t eaten there in nearly 15 years after a period where every time I ate food at a McDingle’s location I got massive food poisoning.

    Sounds like I haven’t been missing much.

  • @kaitco@lemmy.world
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    1699 months ago

    I went to McD’s a week ago for an Egg McMuffin meal with an extra hash brown and a large Coke for the drink: $15.00. Less than 2 years ago, this exact meal was like $5.

    I hope they go down in flames at this point.

    • Orbituary
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      9 months ago

      I don’t understand getting to the drive-thru and seeing those prices and ordering the food anyhow. Why don’t you just tell the person, “actually, never mind. this is too expensive?”

      Go to a grocery store nearby and grab a deli sandwich and fountain drink. At least it’ll be fresh food.

      • teft
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        9 months ago

        Yes, but then I’ll have to get out of my car like some sort of animal. /s

        • Rusty Shackleford
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          109 months ago

          But then you’ll finally get some exercise and do something about your sat-in bean bag chair physique. /s

          • teft
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            69 months ago

            I don’t actually own a car. I bike everywhere. Hence the /s

            • @KnightontheSun@lemmy.world
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              09 months ago

              The sarcasm was about the car and not about being “some sort of animal”?

              Was all that just so you could tell us you bike everywhere? /s

              • teft
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                49 months ago

                No, the /s was to show I was mocking others who do this exact thing and have this exact thought process. Why would I care if people know I bike? I live in a city where biking is way more prevalent than cars.

      • @Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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        189 months ago

        If you are pressed for time and/or have your hungry kids in the car then a couple of dollars isn’t a big deal. But that doesn’t mean those consumers are going to come back again after getting burned by high prices.

        Starbucks raised the price of my iced coffee and changed the recipe for the brew. I still ordered and drank it, but I have cut my visits from three or four times a week to only once in the last three months. This means they lost out on not only my drink revenue, but the revenue on what I would have ordered for my wife and kids as well.

      • @Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
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        129 months ago

        The ones near me have a concrete curb that prevents people from leaving. You can not order, but you are sitting there waiting for everyone else to get their food.

        • Orbituary
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          49 months ago

          So? You’re not forced to buy anything. You’re actually getting out quicker if you don’t. No shame in leaving. Vote with your money.

    • @phoneymouse@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Coke for breakfast, yuck

      Edit: you can downvote all you want, I’m not wrong. If you’re drinking coke for breakfast, you’ve got issues, maybe negligent parents.

      • @SoJB@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        Trying not to be an ass with this info:

        A large McDonalds coke is 290 calories and 77 grams of sugar (153% DV). Even a small is 150 calories and 39 grams sugar (77% DV).

        I get it, I don’t like my lifestyle being attacked either and I freely admit I consciously choose some unhealthy options in my life such as having a few drinks a week and eating fatty foods or cheesecakes now and then.

        But please, if you are starting your day by slamming 70 grams of sugar in your face, please reconsider lol. It’s gonna give you diabetes and ain’t no regular American can afford that.

        That doesn’t even take into account what they add to the food itself 😟

        • Drusas
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          39 months ago

          My family and I live on opposite sides of the country. My dad likes to come visit pretty regularly, and I used to be concerned at how little he drank. He drank beer, but barely took a few sips of water here and there.

          It wasn’t until, like, his fourth visit that I realized that he drinks soda. I now stock juice when he visits. Still sugary, but I’m not stocking soda for him. Anything left when he went home would just have to be poured down the drain.

          I had forgotten that many Americans just don’t drink water. And yes, he is pre-diabetic (but not overweight, remarkably enough).

        • @phoneymouse@lemmy.world
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          -29 months ago

          Coffee is what people drink for breakfast. If you’re drinking coke for breakfast, you probably had negligent parents.

        • Drusas
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          69 months ago

          Coffee is not unhealthy when consumed in reasonable (normal) quantities and assuming you don’t pour a quarter of a cup of sugar in there. Which most people don’t, unless they’re getting a “coffee beverage” like a frappe or whatever.

          • @ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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            39 months ago

            I went to college with a guy from Uganda who would start off his morning by filling his coffee mug 2/3 full of sugar and then topping it off with a bit of coffee. It wasn’t even enough liquid to fully dissolve the sugar.

        • JJROKCZ
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          139 months ago

          Pretty sure coffee isn’t made of high fructose corn syrup

                • SeaJ
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                  79 months ago

                  Your standard is set at having 1/3 cup of sugar in 3.5 cups of water? You do know that cane sugar is also terrible for you, right? The difference between cane sugar and HFCS is a slight difference in mix of fructose to sucrose. Cane sugar is 50/50 and HFCS is 55/45. They are both very bad for you.

                  Your standard does not have to be your hyperbolic example. Simple tap water is fine (excluding Flint, MI). Or if you need a sugar fix, maybe get a small/medium? Still not great for you but 80g of sugar is a fuckton of sugar cubes.

        • Drusas
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          29 months ago

          The addiction is probably just caffeine. Try coffee or tea.

          • @Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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            29 months ago

            I mean, sure, if that’s the only drug/addictive compound you think it contains

            Regardless, I was moreso referring to the millions of people down south that drink coke daily with breakfast. I would never, but I can see how you assumed that

          • @Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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            119 months ago

            Nah, it could easily be for the sugar. When I was in high school (before I learned to properly take care of myself) I’d regularly have a redbull and a Mt Dew for breakfast multiple times a week just because I needed the caffeine and the sugar to get through school (and then working till 10 at night and having even more soda).

            • Drusas
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              29 months ago

              Very good point–I had forgotten to consider the sugar.

  • dactylotheca
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    919 months ago

    I guess “consumer pullback” is one way to describe what’s going on with the economy…

    • @Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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      799 months ago

      The headline uses that term because consumer spending, across the economy as a whole, is up and a healthy amount. The “pullback” appears to be in select subsectors where price increases have drastically outstripped core inflation and/or specific companies who have done so without regard for competitors’ pricing.

      • @Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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        59 months ago

        What other consumer spending is up? Does that include rent and groceries? I mean, is that “increase” I spending not due to ridiculous amounts of “inflation” (read: corporate profits)?

        (Can’t read the posted article since it blocks adblockers apparently)

        • @Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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          49 months ago

          Real personal consumption expenditures is the most commonly used metric for “consumer spending” and it is adjusted against inflation. That is the number which is seeing 0.3-0.5% growth month over month, in 2024. There are other ways to measure consumer spending which are not adjusted against inflation or may only target baskets of goods.

      • @hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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        99 months ago

        Thank you.

        It shouldn’t (still) surprise me, but it always does…when people do drastically misunderstand or misinterpret economic information.

        • @CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
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          39 months ago

          In fairness, this is a new development as far as economics goes. It’s very unusual that a fast food burger is as expensive as a sit down restaurant. Which is why we’ve used things such as the Big Mac index for understanding purchasing power. Prior to this, it was assumed that fast food was a kind of essential item that arrived at its lowest cost.

    • @retrospectology@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Some talking heads on NPR were discussing the economy and how this was “the first time Millenials were seeing inflation” and how the economy is just waiting for consumers to “adjust”. This in the context of them also basically saying there needs to be more unemployment so wages don’t get higher.

      It’s like victim blaming or something, corporations went on a price gouging spree during the pandemic and now we all have to learn to deal with it so Wallstreet can go back to business as usual, and they’re getting all pissy that people’s response is simply finding ways to spend less, instead of giving up their last nickle.

      Funny how they never talk about corporations needing to tighten their belt or “adjust their expectations” to paying higher wages.

    • @solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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      349 months ago

      and “consumer saying ‘hey waitaminute, i don’t actually need half the bullshit they’re telling me i can’t live without…’”

  • SatansMaggotyCumFart
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    1019 months ago

    Last time I went to McDonalds it was almost as much as a decent pub burger.

    Why wouldn’t I just go there and get twice the quality unless I was close by and totally pressed for time?

    • @donnager@lemmy.worldOP
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      599 months ago

      McDonald’s has long forgotten what is supposed to be. Cheap, low quality food. Now it is expensive, low quality food. Like you said…you can get a better burger at a restaurant for the same price if not lower. Longhorn Steakhouse has a burger lunch special for $9.99

      • @linearchaos@lemmy.world
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        39 months ago

        Just before COVID they had started to do a bit of a rebrand. They drove the prices up a little they had a decent chicken sandwich that was made of chicken breast. They brought in better buns the burgers were still s*** but the quality was a lot higher and the price was moderately higher. After COVID hit they scrapped all the fancy stuff for the menu and kept the high prices then inflation hit and they doubled those high prices.

      • @Zahille7@lemmy.world
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        129 months ago

        The Whataburger sweet g spicy burger combo is all of like $12 and change after tax. And that’s the large size.

        And their food is actually pretty good.

    • @LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Also there are fast food alternatives to McDonalds as well.

      IMO, Wendy’s has much better burgers. Haven’t had Carl’s Jr’s in a long while but I remember their “$6 Burgers” were pretty good.

      Burger King, the meat quality seems to have gone downhill. Like an unchewable but in each meat patty. They used to be my favorite.

      Edit: the “$6 burger” is now called the thick burger since it now costs more than $6

      • @AThing4String@sh.itjust.works
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        19 months ago

        In Canada, A&W has cheaper prices for WAY better quality food. It was a few years back we were enjoying some “as a treat” and realized it was not just significantly better than McD’s, but also much cheaper, and we decided we just weren’t going back.

        My household is partial to a couple of chicken buddy burgers in a time crunch.

      • Drusas
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        39 months ago

        I had Five Guys for the first time ever last year and I was surprised by how good their burger was. The prices were a little shocking, but the food was not bad.

        • @Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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          29 months ago

          The only reason I’ve only ever eaten at 5guys once is the fact that the place is just stupid with peanut shells.

        • @Seleni@lemmy.world
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          39 months ago

          Went to Five Guys and made the mistake of ordering the Grilled Cheese.

          It was a burger bun, turned inside out, with a sad slab of half-melted American cheese between the pieces.

          Never going back.

          • @Zahille7@lemmy.world
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            39 months ago

            Just don’t get the grilled cheese. Their burgers are fuckin bomb though.

            And their Cajun fries are pretty damn good, too.

      • JJROKCZ
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        59 months ago

        Dairy Queen has a $6 meal deal with a burger, fries, drink, and a sundae. All of it far better than MCD.

        There’s also an option of chicken strips instead of burger if you want chicken instead of beef

  • MrSebSin
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    9 months ago

    McDonald’s is just a joke at this point. Pretty much stopped getting food from them except for breakfast once in a while, but even stopped that. My usual is a Sausage and Egg McMuffin with extra cheese. It costs a whopping $6.08 in my area.

    I said🖕you greedy McCunts, I’m making my own and found a copycat recipe that is really, really good and I honestly can’t tell the difference. I bought ingredients to make 12 sandwiches at $1.73 each and even had two extra patties leftover. A savings of $4.35 per!

    Of course we are not including my labor costs, yada yada, but it proves the point. Not to mention McDonald’s pays pennies on the dollar buying in bulk, so even with labor, they are making a killing.

  • @reflectedodds@lemmy.world
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    569 months ago

    The shareholders probably care, but to the layman, expecting 6.61 billion and only earning 6.49 billion doesn’t amount to much. They’re not going anywhere.

    • @hark@lemmy.world
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      29 months ago

      Looking at the stock price movement today, it doesn’t seem like the shareholders care, in fact it went up a significant amount probably because they were thinking it’d be worse. They’ll care if it continues to get worse, but for now they don’t seem to mind.

    • kate
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      179 months ago

      as a shareholder i also do not care

      • JJROKCZ
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        39 months ago

        No offense but you’re probably not holding enough shares for them to care. Unless you own double digit percentages of the company then they couldn’t give a fuck what you think.

      • kate
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        69 months ago

        i had mcdonald’s for lunch today and was surprised how expensive it is now tbh. i know there’s no £1 cheese burger anymore but how is it £1.79

      • @reddig33@lemmy.world
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        309 months ago

        As a shareholder you should be concerned about high prices, poor service, and filthy stores. Not sure why anyone would want to pay a premium for their product when there are much better options for the same prices.

        • kate
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          199 months ago

          more concerned with how the large fries box seems half empty every time now 😡😡😡

  • @stoy@lemmy.zip
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    69 months ago

    They have been busy closing restaurants in the center of Stockholm lately, a few years back they closed the first ever McDonnald’s restaurant in Sweden, they also closed the highly popular restaurant at Norrmalmstorg at the same time…

    • @corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      49 months ago

      We’ve been to visit our family in Boo, and gone to I think a Nacka McDonald’s.

      It’s different from the McDonald’s I’ve worked at and seen, in that it’s clean and visually appealing. It stands out as being a little up-scale vs American metropolitan McDonald’s, which usually seem like late-stage professional surrender, and STILL it stuck out as being “not good enough” for Sweden. I think Trump has been good for people to re-examine their emulation of Americans and decide what they want for themselves. Take-out in Sweden was always expensive, based on visiting over the 20 years since our family grew there and we began visiting, and I barely saw it as a worthwhile thing then; making it more expensive will kill its presence in many countries completely.

  • @Taleya@aussie.zone
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    719 months ago

    Have you tried paying attention to what customers want and will accept rather than dictating to them?

    Companies are entering a new age of FAFO

    • Fuck you MC Donalds for forcing me to use your god damn stupid ass terminals for ordering something. There are just a few things I hate with such a passion than this god forsaken pieces of shit. Let me order my food at the counter. Its a much better experience and its hell a lot faster. They are one of the many reasons I don’t go there.

        • @FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
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          69 months ago

          The few times I used ordering kiosks at McD’s or Burger King, I actually preferred them over ordering at the counter. At least with the kiosk, I can take my time, look at options and order without feeling pressured by the line behind me. I’ve got a visual disability , and it’s much easier for me to use than to read a menu that’s posted behind the counter.

          And you know at least the order went through correctly, as opposed to dealing with some stoned teen who barely speaks the language and is liable to mess it up.

          The kiosks definitely aren’t why I don’t go to MC’s. It’s the insane prices.

          • @sfxrlz@lemmy.world
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            39 months ago

            Im With you this but I just don’t like to talk to people who don’t want to talk to me. Worked as a gas station clerk once and I was always thankful for people using self checkout.

            • @FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
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              39 months ago

              Yeah, definitely can relate :D I was downright ecstatic when my supermarket got self-checkout. I absolutely hate waiting in lines, small talk, etc. With self-checkout I’m done in 30 seconds.

              • @sfxrlz@lemmy.world
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                19 months ago

                Yup that’s me as well :D I just never used them in the beginning because they were failing a lot of the times which meant you had to call over a clerk, who’s usually already in demand and it just took even longer … but it’s gotten better.

    • @RagingRobot@lemmy.world
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      299 months ago

      Yeah these companies have gotten so out of control. They act like they are gods gift to earth and we should be grateful for anything they allow us to have. The same goes for employment too. They treat people like shit because they think someone else will come around and be grateful for the opportunity.

      I’m not accepting that anymore

        • @sparkle@lemm.ee
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          149 months ago

          Japanese employers are currently under a major “crisis”, that crisis being that Gen Z employees won’t work 20-40 extra hours in a week unpaid, won’t participate in corporate family culture “bonding with your boss” bullshit, wont take 「no, I refuse your notice of quitting」 as an answer, actually report workplace (sexual) harassment, among other things. Except unlike in America, the employers in Japan are actually having to adapt to employees respecting themselves because their population is on the brink of collapse from not having enough young people lol, they don’t just have other people they can hire. Obviously because of the unbearable work “culture” which doesn’t allow you to have a family life, combined with the rampant sexism against women throughout Japanese society and culture keeping them from interacting with men.

          • @9bananas@lemmy.world
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            49 months ago

            japan is also kinda fucking itself over twice:

            • they don’t have enough young workers and treat them like shit, which is directly causing the pushback you describe
            • they are so xenophobic that they can’t just hire foreign labor either

            so, yeah, double fucked!

  • @vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    179 months ago

    McDonald is not a food company, it’s a real estate company.

    All the posters complaining about the food quality are missing the point. They could sell cardboard and for years their bottom line would be unaffected until franchisees started failing en masse.

  • @eletes@sh.itjust.works
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    479 months ago

    McDonald’s is on the boycott list for the Palestinian genocide. I’m really curious if that had any effect.

    I would think it’s not that much inside the US but McDonald’s has a large global presence.

    • I boycotted McD due to this list, UK, and I really don’t miss it. It also got hella expensive and the service got worse.

      I must say, boycotting things has had no Ill effect on my life and in fact I likely spend less money than before.

      • @EnderMB@lemmy.world
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        239 months ago

        It’s funny, because for a brief moment McDonalds had a spike in popularity when they reopened after COVID.

        When they fully reopened their stores, it became clear as day that many of them had downsized in terms of staff. When your fast food is as fast as a standard burger place, it’s not fast…

        • @Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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          49 months ago

          And they got rid of the only things I used to order. All day breakfast, and the chicken strips. U can keep the over processed nuggets Ronald. The strips were the shit. Just an actual piece of chicken, breaded and deep fried. They said they were only temporarily reducing the menu bc Covid, well, here we are 4 years later with the same shitty reduced menu. Not only that, but the bullshit that’s on the menu is 3x more expensive. Those 2 things brought me.back after a long hiatus. I had started another, but I will say I grabbed a $5 meal the other night with a friend after a few drinks because it was the only thing open and they finally offered a cheap deal that they absolutely were not advertising because they didn’t want people to buy it so they can go see? Price isn’t the issue. Prices will increase until morale improves. Long story short, fuck McDonald’s.

    • @b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      149 months ago

      I’ve been boycotting McGenocide, KFC, Coca Cola, etc. for 10 months now and it’s not like it’s any effort at this point. I’m healthy and wasn’t planning on eating that garbage until Palestine is free. And at this point why would I ever eat it again? Shit food, unhealthy, expensive, supporting genocide. Why would I go back to it?

    • Virual
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      389 months ago

      From the article:

      “Industry traffic has declined in major markets like the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Germany. In several markets, we also continue to be negatively impacted by the war in the Middle East,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said on the company’s earnings call.

      So it does seem to be working to some extent.

  • @solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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    159 months ago

    i haven’t been to mcd in years, but my parents were sick with covid and requested i pick up some mcdonalds for them-- JFC how could i have ever thought it couldn’t get any worse–what a fucking shitshow