McDonald’s has some beef with today’s largest meat packers.
The fast food giant is suing the U.S. meat industry’s “Big Four” — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company — and their subsidiaries, alleging a price fixing scheme for beef specifically. In a federal complaint, filed Friday in New York, McDonald’s accused the companies of anticompetitive measures such as collectively limiting supply to boost prices and charge “illegally inflated” amounts.
This collusion caused the beef market to become “a monopoly in which direct purchasers were forced to buy at prices dictated by (the meat packers),” McDonald’s suit reads — later noting that the injury it has sustained as one of those buyers is what “antitrust laws were designed to prevent.”
McDonald’s alleges that the meat packers’ conspiracy dates back nearly a decade, at least as early as January 2015, and continues today. Its suit argues these companies’ actions violate the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust law.
I trust what McDonald’s is saying in this case. If anyone knows what collusion to inflate prices and fuck over clients looks like, it’s the place with the broken soft serve machines.
If it’s beef, they why have their chicken nuggets also doubled in price in the last couple of years? Oh, this goes back almost a decade you say? So why did you double or triple prices post pandemic?
Dude it’s literally right there at the beginning of the post
The fast food giant is suing the U.S. meat industry’s “Big Four” — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company
You can’t honestly think McDonald’s trying to blame their massive price increases solely on their meat providers is valid.
I said nothing of the sort. I was responding to the OPs question.
If it’s beef, they why have their chicken nuggets also doubled in price in the last couple of years?
It’s right fucking there at the beginning. They’re suing Tyson chicken as well.
It’s right fucking there at the beginning. They’re suing Tyson chicken as well.
Wat.
The fast food giant is suing the U.S. meat industry’s “Big Four” — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company — and their subsidiaries, alleging a price fixing scheme for beef specifically.
Where do you see anything about chicken? Are you under the impression that Tyson only deals in chicken?
It’s “right fucking there at the beginning.” It says “beef specifically.”
You can get mad at me, but I’m far from the only one who thought that’s what you were suggesting.
I’m not responsible for your’s or anyone else’s reading comprehension.
I’m pretty sure being understood is, in fact, the responsibility of the person making a comment.
If I were to misunderstand what you just said, would it be my fault or yours?
It might be valid, but there’s no way McD’s was harmed. Their customers sure got that price fixing damage passed onto them, though.
It’s just over 11$ for 2 large fries. McD should also get sued. I feel like they’re just trying pass 100% of the blame on to their suppliers, after they’ve continued to post record profits year over year. They not only weren’t harmed, they’ve thrived and have been making even more money by price gouging. McD is as much, if not more culpable for inflating prices, than the meat packers.
You can get great deals in the app, all you have to do is let them harvest your data and “dark pattern” you into exclusively eating McDonald’s.
Yeah chicken prices are absolutely insane.
I don’t know anything about the specifics here, but here’s a 5 year graph of futures for live cattle versus beef:
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/live-cattle
If there’s collusion to engage in price-fixing by meat packers, I’d expect to see beef prices rising without a corresponding increase in cattle prices.
Beef prices did indeed recently start rising rapidly without a corresponding increase in live cattle prices.
But on the other hand, beef prices are also a lot lower relative to live cattle prices than they were during roughly COVID-19.
TBF things look pretty different if you go back to 2015 like McDonald’s is alleging.
EDIT: To me, it really looks like COVID was the big factor impacting price though.
Oh, that’s a good point – missed that in the article. They did say that it started in 2015.
COVID wasn’t the only factor. What people don’t remember because of all the other crazy shit that happened was that we had a 3 year drought.
Prices still haven’t stabilized because it’s expensive to buy cattle right now. Prices will likely be in the shitter for another 1.5-2 years, and I’m not sure they’ll ever really come down in a way people notice.
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I actually didn’t realize that. I was thinking we were coming to an end because my buddy’s ranch seems to have mostly recovered and he’s got more cattle now than he had a few years ago. But I guess I should look at the wider market instead of a single place if I’m going to comment about things.
“Company sues for what company does to customers because those profits are theirs”
The worst part is, the average citizen anywhere in the world can not afford to do this. Only some other evil megacorporations
“I was talking to my colluding friends and they said you were doing a collusion on us. What the hell? We’re not the poors.”
Now that I’m vegan these articles are so bizarre to me. Oh the price of corpse has gone up? And the industry that produces said corpse is price gouging? That’s nice I’ll have these lovely inexpensive chick peas for dinner and not participate in death and abuse and rape, and my health will be better for it. It’s pretty easy to do.
McDonald’s should become their own meat packer and interface with the farmers direct. Everyone gets the best deal that way and cut out the asshole middleman driving everything through the roof.
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Ahh yeah, good point. I didn’t think about the feed lot portion.
Oh the ironing
We’ll isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black. The restaurant chain famous for jacking prices up while shrinking portion sizes and generally screwing their customers in every way they can doesn’t like it when they are getting taken advantage of. Cry me a fucking river. Fuck you McDogsBreath!
To be fair, the screwing flows downriver. If the sourcers start getting greedy, the business has to make up the difference by increasing prices.
Drag thinks that McDonald’s price gouging its customers is good. It forces people to eat less meat. Drag’s switch to veganism was probably helped by McDonald’s having outrageous prices.
Drag is forcing other people to block Drag. Bye Drag.
What’s the deal with this person anyways? I’ve never seen a single comment from them that wasn’t in the negatives
I will be thoroughly stunned if the huge settlement they may get actually results in lower prices for customers.
Don’t forget about screwing their workers.
Yeah, I dunno how I missed this article. Makes me laugh that McD’s is going to try something like this.
https://www.newsweek.com/mcdonalds-inflation-economy-price-increase-joe-biden-1905209
TheStreet reported that Medium French Fries went from $1.79 in 2019 to $4.19 in 2024, a 134.1 percent increase. A McChicken went from $1.29 to $3.89, a 201.6 percent hike.
The price of the beloved Big Mac increased 87.7 percent, from $3.99 to $7.49. An order of 10 McNuggets rose by 68.8 percent, from $4.49 to $7.58. Of the five popular products examined, cheeseburgers saw the largest price increase—going from $1 to $3.15, a 215 percent spike.
These increases exceed the general average for inflation calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which shows that prices went up by about 21.5 percent between the end of 2019 and March 2024.
McDonald’s has some beef with today’s largest meat packers.
I would have been disappointed if there wasn’t a line like this in the story somewhere. It practically writes itself.
Wait, McDonald’s uses real beef?
They use the trade marked “Real Beef”.
Real Beef™
(May contain raccoon and/or armadillo harvested from American highways.)
Armadillo is good eatin’.
So you’re saying they should start selling the McAdillo?
Hey everyone. This week, I challenge everyone to eat half as much beef as you normally would. If you eat 2 burgers a week, try just eating 1 and replace the other burger with a piece of chicken, or better yet, it’s autumn, and a ton of veggies are still fresh in season from the harvest.
McDonalds can sue the beef packers, but we can cripple their entire supply chain and maybe help the planet out a little bit.
0/2 = ???
I was wondering the same. Maybe vegetarians/vegans can buy a cow lunch, or something.
You had money for beef? Prices are sky high. My chicken, pork and fish intake dramatically increased?
I have beef maybe once or twice a month. Doing my part.
A few years ago, I was hit hard with some food poisoning that had me in the hospital. I don’t remember what it was, but it made me tune into food recall reports.
And those recall reports are FREQUENT, and they’re mostly meat.
I’m not a vegetarian, but I cut beef out of my diet last year. Pork is my next one. Chicken is going to be really hard though.
For years I never thought I could do vegetarian because I would miss bacon and chicken. Over a decade later and both of those things are so far down in my list of things I miss.
Can we sue McDonald for all that they did to artificially decrease the cost of beef, and the immense harm that was done to the climate as a result?
And the poor animals. Cows are friends not food
They can be both.
But mainly food.
Drag doesn’t eat drag’s friends unless they’re into vore, and drag doesn’t think cows can consent to sex with drag, so no vore for the cows.
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Uhhh cows not being able to consent is the only reason you aren’t banging them? How the fuck do I unread something? Why speak in 3rd person? Lots of questions
Drag seems to be a roleplayer and if you look at drag’s profile, drag’s pronouns are the same in 1st 2nd and 3rd person.
Though I don’t know if drag realizes that means drag doesn’t need to speak in 3rd person, drag could speak in 1st person like this:
“Drag don’t eat drag’s friends unless they’re into vote and drag don’t think cows can consent to sex with drag, so no vore for the cows”
Replacing I/me with drag, as drag’s profile says is proper for first person.
Now whether drag is roleplaying for the fun of it or trying to make some point about pronouns, I have no idea.
Drag thinks it’s disgusting that most people vore cows. It’s not right to vore something that can’t consent.
Drag trolls does drag.
“This is an absurd accusation. We make money by employing children and undocumented immigrants and violating safety standards, not by colluding on prices.” -US meat industry
not sure why, but i read this in J K Simmons’ voice.
Tell your boyfriend, if he says he’s got beef, that I’m a vegetarian and I ain’t fucking scared of him.
Beef, the meat kept artificially cheap in the US by subsidies?
Beef, the meat kept artificially cheap
in the USby subsidies?FTFY, you are not alone in this stupidity. “Dutch Trump” Wilders got his votes because the government said that maybe the whole country should not be one big cattle farm.
Well it’s a lot like all the ISPs taking fucktons of money over 25 years to “roll out fiber” and then just basically pocketing the money.
Corporations are the real welfare queens.
Corporations are the real welfare queens.
not sure I’d say queens, perhaps parasites would best fit that sentence
Don’t forget they did that several times!
At great expense to the health of the people and the climate
