Last month, the head of its US operations formally responded to the complaints with an open letter to customers, saying social media was painting an inaccurate picture. He said the average price of a Big Mac in the US, which is now $5.29 (£4.11), was up 21% since 2019 - roughly in line with the pace of inflation - and many items had risen by less.
Sure, place the blame on anyone but themselves.
$5.29 is ridiculous for a Big Mac, which is super tiny.
I think you hit the nail on the head there. Even if they were to lower the prices, they’ll just make the fucking burgers even smaller.
Does anyone remember how much bigger the Big Mac was in the 90’s? Shrinkflation is everywhere.
They could always try to lower the quality standards to lower the price. Lmao! Quality standards! As if!
Can’t wait for the McSawdust in 2026!
Especially because that’s just the sandwich, not a side and a drink. A combo meal is like 10.15$
I’m sorry but the quality of the food does not justify 10 dollars.
For comparison, I remember in Berlin not even 5 years ago I got a currywurst with fries and a drink for 3.60 € (about 3.90$), and in London I got an absolute mound of fish and chips with peas for like 6.50 £ (about 8$). Both of these I got as much or way more food than a Big Mac combo and they were much better quality.
I won’t defend McDonald’s, but you’ll struggle to get fish for under £7-8 now, and the chips are £2-3.
In the south, at least.
roughly in line with the pace of inflation
Roughly in line with the terrible inflation of the past 5 years which has been primarily driven by corporate price gouging.
At what point are we blaming people who eat there?
Oh no!
… Anyway.
Learn how to cook the food first.
As someone who used to be a daily fast food eater, I’m just proud that these greedy fast food chains have forever lost me as a customer. Ethics aside, after not eating at these places for so long, I now get to compare the experience to the local places around me or my own cooking skills. The only way I’d ever go back to one of these fast food joints I used to frequent daily is if they provide a better value than myself or the local restaurants here. And the local quick service places here give you a ton of good food instantly for under $10, which I know McDonalds et al will never reach again.
I think this will be the long term impact.
Customers have been pushed to discover alternatives and are unlikely to return for reasons beside price and quality.
For example, there are sit down restaurants near me that haven’t raised their prices or have barely done so and are now cheaper than McDonald’s.
The fact that local one offs haven’t needed to raise prices signals to me that a large multinational company did not need to either. This adds a fuck off and die factor to my future purchasing decisions. I am not a price conscious customer but I take being gouged personally.
I don’t get fast food often, but I did go to McDonald’s a week or two ago. I learned that they replaced their fountains so that they no longer dispense water, so you can’t get a free cup of water anymore. You have to buy a bottle of water or a soda.
I don’t intend on ever returning to a McDonald’s.
The charging for packets thing is the one thing that irks me nonstop especially the employees that stick by it. Unless they’re getting penalized, why do you have to gatekeep an extra BBQ sauce for 25 cents?
Sure, keep them behind the counter so people don’t grab 20 but asking for 1-2 extra shouldn’t require a surcharge or separate transaction.
Imagine ‘McDonald’s’ being your baseline fur ‘decent fast food’
It’s descent in some European countries.
That’s what I’m saying though, (as an American) if your baseline grocery budget is greater than the McD ‘value meal’, then you’re likely just allotting your funds poorly.
The avg “$1 menu” item can be bought from your local grocer/butcher for as much as 1/4 price before seasoning. If you’re “going to McD for savings” then you’re the exact reason the world has the problems that it has.
Edit: “is decent” lmao have you ever had more than breadcrumbs? Imagine growing up in ‘potato russia’ and thinking your food has flavor.
Try tomatoes, try watermelon, try something and get out of your brainwashed ignorocracy.
I stopped understanding McDonald’s when there’s hundreds of homemade-like small burger places everywhere. They are so frikin tasty and cost the same
I still remember eating an especially tasty one and playing Disco Elysium then dying from heart attack in the game. Somehow it has become a permanent memory
Exactly, McDonald’s niche was a very cheap and quick burger. Why pay $12 for a shitty McD when I can have a $10 burger at the Apple Pan
They were making way too much money to begin with, nevermind growth.
Also McDonald’s is just a real estate company, I’m guessing the franchisees are complaining they aren’t going to stick around.
I miss cheap fast food. Feels like it will never come back anywhere.
Taco Bell still has $1.25 bean and rice burritos where I live. It’s like 400 calories so it’s a pretty good deal.
Not here! The burritos at Taco Bell here are outrageous. A single bean burrito is 4.50CAD. The 7-layer? 8 BUCKS. The Grilled Cheesy? Fuck you, over ten dollars for a single burrito. A burrito that isn’t heated right, has all the ingredients separated into disgusting pockets of single ingredient, and makes you feel terrible after eating them.
And mind you, these aren’t even combos. This is just one burrito.
UK Taco Bell is somehow worse.
They seem to be trying to trade on the novelty/name, because there is no chance I’m paying £8 for a taco the size of a hamburger.
Taco Bell is my goto for cheap fast food
They aren’t even cheap anymore, damn near $2+ basic bitch tacos. I can go elsewhere and get a street taco (with multiple meat options) for a buck that’s actually flavorful and warmer than room-temp, and that’s in fucking Ohio
Cheap food is still out there, but it’s not corporate food.
Corporations put profit above all, which is anathema to how every successful chain became successful. Whatever mechanism they had to stresamline production, negotiate with vendors, push addition products (would you like fries with that?), their primary goal was always consistency and value. You know what to expect, and it’s worth the money.
You’ll find that now in local diners, in food trucks, in cafes, and in small restaurants where they value good food over profit, but you won’t find it at most chain restaurants.
Food trucks are hit or miss. The food can be OK but the ones here tend to be very overpriced for the quality.
Someone else mentioned ethnic places which have become my go to for good, cheap food. There’s a gyro place near me where you can get a gyro and fries for like $7. It takes 5 minutes and the food is fresh.
BBQ trucks tend to be way overpriced in my experience. But that may be biased because I make damn good BBQ. I have friends that ask me to make food for their birthday parties, diaper parties, bachelor parties etc. paying $12-15 for a sloppy mess of a pulled pork sandwich with no taste other than the sauce is absolutely unacceptable. That being said, I’m far enough away from any BBQ “hub” that nobody here knows what good BBQ is.
I assume you are North American, look for small ethnic food shops. You will find better food at a cheaper price.
Hole-in-the-wall ethnic food shops/take out are the way. If you want 'murican fast food, you gotta break the bank… but find a little family owned taqueria that does their shit right and you can stuff your face with the best tacos you’ve ever eaten for like $3. Highly dependent on your local options ofc, so keep an eye out.
In my experience, the sketchier the restaurant looks, the better the food is.
I was amazed to find out the chicken place I order from looked nice (for a sketchy hole in the wall ethnic food place). $30 CAD for two or three days worth of INCREDIBLY good chicken and fries
Like seriously, it was dying mall food court sketchy when I expected, “…You killed the health inspector with a pan to the head didn’t you?” sketchy
In Louisiana some of the best fried chicken and other Cajun food is in gas stations. Not even joking. It’s usually small towns, but there are some around NOLA and other cities, too.
Best fried chiicken i ever had was at a gas station in the middle of nowhere off ther interstate in Mississippi.
One of my best fried chicken experiences was a $5 fried chicken buffet somewhere in rural Kentucky near Lincoln’s birth home.
Those breaded skewers with chicken/pickle/onion/potato you can get at roadside stations down in the MS delta area are absolutely incredible and I love them. Any time I’m passing through there I have to find some.
You reminded me of a dumb song by a little known christian singer from the 70s and 80s that my dad liked.
We played this song on repeat as kids because there was a giant belch in it.
I give you Randy Stonehill’s American fast food (what a stupid way to die)
All the local taco places near me are like 10 bucks for 2 tacos
You absolutely can get great American food from a hole in the wall. Also, I’m not sure why you had to say ‘murican as if our food has something wrong with it. Just a weird flex. I’m lucky to live in a city with a plethora of food trucks all around and you can get pretty much any kinda cuisine for cheaper than fast food joints.
'murican … weird flex.
…flex?
Bag of Dick’s burgers are the only way to go in Seattle.
What is Dick’s charging these days? My local equivalent burger joint has a double with fries for just over $8. Easily the best I can do around here.
$8.10. Their advertised base wage ($21/hr) must be lower than their actual base wage. I saw a posted at location janitorial position with a $23/hr start.
$5.30 for a deluxe, $2.80 for fries.
Dick’s and a taco truck in the same area ($2.50/taco) are my go to cheap but delicious lunch options.
I wish we had those around here. Even the hole-in-the wall Indian places start their plates at like $12. It’s absurd.
If a restaurant looks shady and stays in business, it’s either a front or the food is delicious.
Does this pretty much imply that if it looks shady and stays in business, but the food is shite, then then business is a front for money laundering or other criminal activities? Because there is this absolutely trash Mexican place near where I live and it’s always dead (no business) and the food is suspiciously bad like “the refried beans are dry and look like they’ve been sitting out for days” kind of bad. And this place has been “in business” for like 15 years.
Yes. Otherwise there wouldn’t be any point in keeping it open.
Restaurants have notoriously thin margins, so to stay in business 15 years, something shady is happening most likely.
There’s a Bosnian place right next to an amazing Mexican place we like to go to. The Bosnian place always has people coming and going, but never staying for more than 5 minutes, and never walking out with food in hand. I’m pretty sure it’s a front.
It could also be a hobby business to keep someone’s spouse/family busy and out of the house.
And if it’s a front the food might still be awesome because it’s some rando doing their home cooking to cosplay as a restaurant worker
Yeah the fronts specifically want to pay for halfway plausible quality ingredients to mask their income.
Bonus points if the menu is at least half in another language
I went to an Asian mall in my city the other day. My wife and I got these two huge containers of food+bubble tea and dessert. Came out to $16 for the two of us. A big Mac meal costs about $18 now where I am. Fuck that place, I used to go every week. Now I haven’t been in over a year.
Notice they are too embarrassed to post their prices online. To see the price, you have to put the item in the cart then use some bs 3rd party app. WTF McDs?
That’s how they charge different prices based on region.
Taco Bell does this too, because their prices are so ridiculous now.
Warning! This definitely reads like a taco bell add but I just really appreciate taco bell for having food for vegans and not price gouging like the rest did.
Hard disagree, if you learn what to order and how to customize your food.
Fat ass burritos for 3.50 are not a bad deal imo, and I regularly make my own burritos at home.
They have some trap items to avoid for sure, but the staples are still cheap. Hard shell and soft shell, rice and bean burritos, nacho fries are sort of in the middle price wise, etc.
They are the easiest place for me to make a vegan order from hands down, they actually label shit on their order tablets. They have some freebies that are totally worth it some people never find out about because they order at the speaker exclusively. Fresco replaces cheese and dairy with a pico de gallo, you can toast most regular burritos, and even though its extra you can add nearly anything into anything for super cheap.
Im actually not sure if I’m scamming them somehow because choosing their cheapest items and modifying is always cheaper than buying the same thing but premade. Not in any rush to ask about it either.
No, they absolutely price gouge. A 7-layer burrito here is 8 bucks before tax, just the burrito alone. They don’t have anything that’s actually cheap here in Canada, and I can get much better for the same price. Their “vegan” options here are also basically just their regular burritos with beans, and are just as ridiculously overpriced. It’s bottom-tier garbage food at way-too-high prices for what you get.
What is Canada doing to make taco bell so expensive. I’ll have to check next time I go, I know some of their menu items are poorly priced for sure but I just avoid them. 8$ for a burrito I’d be shocked to see at my local one though.
I wish I had a better answer than just “pure and unchecked greed”, but that’s what’s most likely. They can’t even be considered the “cheap” option anymore and the quality isn’t any better to make up for the increased prices.
Well at least burritos and tacos are stupid easy to make. I make a bean and rice and tomatoes mix in rice cooker all together. But yeah thats a bummer taco bell is awful near you, they’ve been great for me especially with the vegan friendly menu. Is it possible its only cheap if you avoid meat and dairy? Maybe thats the trick.
The vegan friendly stuff is the same price as their beef equivalents here. Taco Bell in Canada is obnoxious.
“If you have to ask the price, then you can’t afford it” happening in a McDonald’s, while people are out here financing a pizza from Dominos. It’s like we lost the Cold War.
That’s too insanely dystopian for anybody in sci-fi to have predicted it.
The closest would be Demolition Man having Taco Bell (or Pizza Hut) as fancy dining. But they imagined the chain upping its game when it gained monopoly. How naive.
Finally. Better late than never I guess.
I think we have two classes of “fast food” now. The higher class places like Five Guys, Poke Bros, Panera are going to cost you more, and you’re not going to go there every day (or even every week), but they’re pretty damned good.
The OG fast food places - McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr., Arby’s, Taco Bell - they’re just not good enough to command the higher prices that the new class of fast food can. Not to mention that the quality of all of those chains has declined dramatically in the last decade. Obvious drop in quality plus increase in price, people notice that.
Except you can get a Duo meal for $7 at Panera that’s soup sandwhich and chips and that’s 3$ cheaper than McDonald’s
Lol no you can’t. I didn’t believe you, so I checked. $11.79, and that’s for mostly cheaper options of the pick 2 (broccoli cheddar + frontega chicken). And I live in Missouri, where shit’s cheap.
Sorry, they are called Duets, not duos. They still come with apple/bread/chips. You cant sub anything out, but it’s still a good portion for healthier fast food option.
Whoopsie doodle. Well $8 ain’t $7 either.
But yea I’m shocked there’s anything reasonably priced @ Panera.
They must have gone up in the past few months. It was 6.99 last I got them I thought. Oh well! Still cheaper than a big mac or whopper
Last time I tried to get fast food was like 2 or 3 months ago. I went to Taco Bell, saw that the beefy 5 layer burrito was like $4.50, and just left the drive through. Fuck all that
Taco Bell is my go to - I am vegetarian so my opinions are slim. But for $7 I can’t get a crunch wrap with black beans, a cheesey bean and rice burrito, and a fiesta potato and a drink with thier app combo. Then after every other meal (like every to weeks) I get a bonus something. So. Yeah, I only mess with the build your own cravings box… 9 dollars for 3 tacos and a drink is ridiculous.
deleted by creator
Lol
I’ve never met an Panera that has everything in stock, so you’re going to be making a second or third line choice. One of your items is guaranteed to be out. Regular sandwiches, god knows why, are $14.
I used to love Panera back in high school, which was early 2000’s. As someone who hung out with friends at a movie theater on weekends it was the best place to eat at in the same strip mall. I still remember getting sandwiches for $4 or $5 at the time. If I was in high school today there is no way I could eat there, and if I could I also couldn’t justify spending that much. I feel like they are scrambling as well, changing a lot, making products worse, adding items nobody wants, just trying to hit big with one of them. My wife really wanted to try the new caprese sandwich they have, we were dying when she got it and all you saw was bread… when she opened it up there was like 1 slice of tomato and 1 slice of mozzarella and it was the saddest sandwich I’ve ever seen. I thought it was hilarious until I realized we paid over $10 for that joke…
Sharing the pic so everyone else can join in on the laugh.
My biggest gripe with them is they always add one hipster element that totally ruins the sandwich. Oh you want a high end grilled cheese? How about we put a blackberry reduction in that bitch? Grilled chicken sandwich? Why not try one with our new habanero peach marmalade?
… They have always been. There is fast food and fast casual.
Fast food would love to be fast casual, they sell the idea to seem like fancy fast food. Like McDonald’s having table service through the kiosk, etc.
But this isnt new. It’s literally the business plan of the places you mentioned to not be fast food.
Sadly the Panera here has become garbage. The staff were seemingly wholly replaced, they look unhappy all the time, the food and ingredients have shrunk, and now you have to hope you hear them call your name so you can go pick up your food from a completely different counter (they used to bring it to your table which was a nice perk of going there), or stand around like an idiot for 10 minutes while your kid or significant other holds a table for you. And to top it off, the cinnamon roll changed again.
I don’t mind not having the food brought to me, but they could at least give us the hockey pucks again to alert us when the food is ready. Perhaps that’s just this specific store.
I used to love Panera. Maybe somewhere it’s still good.
How about you guys rethink the food
If you can reconstitute some kind of edible food that maintains some semblance of the low price, I think that’ll be enough. People started going to Five Guys and paying $16 because your burgers are clearly made of mouse shit.
The “food” they have now is the product of decades of incremental changes made to cut cost and tinkering with fat, salt and sugar contents to fool your brain into giving you a dopamine hit for eating it. What they have now doesn’t even taste like hamburgers anymore.
