The Big Mac set in Japan is ¥750 right now. Which converts to $5.07.
Does McDonald’s America think each restaurant is a theme park or something?
In Australia it is $12.80 AUD for a large Big Mac meal which is $8.36 USD. For $18.5 USD I can get a much better burger and still a meal deal at either Five Guys or Grilld.
Small big Mac meal is $12.80, Large is AUD$14.40, USD$9.39 pretty sure.
Been a while since I have been now that kids are not interested in it, but that still translates to about to half the price of the US prices.
They kind of used to be. The big old play areas are mostly gone. One in my area even had an N64 in one of those bubble kiosks. Gone. I can’t imagine why kids these days still give a shit about Micky D.
They look like this now. Pretty much the most inoffensively hostile environment imaginable.
Bland yet uninviting
It clearly sends the message, “Come on in, then get the fuck out as quickly as possible.”
Don’t forget to piss on the bathroom floor. Lord knows everyone else has.
It looks like a McMansion kitchen/dining.
I guess that’s why “Mc” is in the term.
Originally mcmansion meant they were like the low quality fast food of houses. But it seems like we have some convergent evolution happening now.
It very much says “take your shit and leave”. Who the fuck wants stools at a restaurant?
I don’t necessarily blame them as workers would have to go in and hose urine out of the play structure each night.
Nothing worth doing is easy, they say 🤣
I think they are/were trying to rebrand away from being a place to get cheap low quality burgers.
Well that does not work if you only increase the price.
Now they’re a place to get overpriced low quality burgers.
Can’t read the article without effort, but I very much doubt numbers and the context is missing. Every one I’ve been to here on the East Coast USA has been about $12.
Which is still way too much for fucking McDonald’s.
Not really a big Mac will feed ya for a half day and it’s a great quick snack meal if you are on the run. I make it a point to hit them up every once in a while for breakfast too. People hate on McDonald’s way too much.
A big Mac will not feed anyone for half a day. It’s all bun.
It’s also awful
🤷♂️ gets me there
Same in the PNW.
Thank god we didnt raise minimum wage, otheriwse the price of big macs would have sky rocketed!!!
Chipotle posted a few years back that raising the minimum wage to $15 (more than double current minimum wage) would increase the price of a burrito by about 30 cents.
I think the idea that minimum wage hikes contributed to this is silly given that they’ve mostly eliminated cashier positions. Everything is a kiosk now. Also, McDonald’s workers in Europe make a decent wage, have sick and vacation time, and other decent benefits and the prices there are lower than in the US.
I live in Denmark, Europe. One Bic Mac meal is 9.39 USD incl taxes.
The minimum salary in McDonals is around 3500 USD per month for a standard 37 hr/week, including pension.
This is every month, not affected by holidays, sick leave, paid vacation… It comes with 5 or 6 weeks of paid vacation per year, and virtually unlimited sick leave.
Yeah, I also don’t understand why McDonald’s says they can’t raise salaries or improve working conditions, because it will make the price go up. So why is it expensive now?
(Yes, taxes are high here. But we also have a lot of stuff that is tax paid, that evens it out somewhat.)
Yeah, I also don’t understand why McDonald’s says they can’t raise salaries or improve working conditions, because it will make the price go up.
They say that because Americans are dumb enough to believe it and not get mad at McDonald’s for price gouging. A LOT of companies over here have been doing the same thing lately.
This is the answer.
Who the fuck pays $18 to eat at McDonalds?
The only way I can justify eating at McDonald’s is by using their app to get free fries n such. Usually I can get out of there with lunch for between 5 and 10 bucks.
Even so, the value of Wendy’s Biggie Bag blows McDonald’s pricing out of the water, if I’m choosing to have fast food, I might as well have that.
For real. Most of the best burgers I’ve had were cheaper than that… In Copenhagen of all expensive-ass places.
I just ate the big Mac meal like 30 minutes ago. And in one of the most expensive states, it was $11.93 large.
As if they weren’t the ones setting the price so high. They’re actually paying attention because people are finally starting to not pay them.
But the hedge fund managers sent them letters saying their job is to gouge customers explicitly looking for inexpensive meals because wE NeEd MOAAAAAAR!
If they‘re already losing costumers (we‘re talking about McD costumers here. People who have been loyally buying their junk for their entire life) then it‘s already too late. People who already turned their back on a product that‘s mainly driven by brand power will not return if you just reduce prices a little again. That‘s because it took a lot more crap for them to leave than they‘re willing to come back for once they‘re gone. If McD is really openly considering to lower prices, they‘re in deep trouble.
This kind of thing always seems to have a huge delay. Eventually enough people figure it out to make a dent, but it’s going to take 18 months to hit that point.
Oh, and every fast food place expects you to use their app, or they’ll charge you 50% more. And you have to do their dance of what to order and which deal applies this week.
So smaller portions. Got it
Gotta love the new MacCrums Value meal pack! It comes with 5 crumbs in a convenient ketchup packet still half full of ketchup 😄!
Translation: shrinkflation incoming
Can’t wait for the Mini Mac…
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Does it punch above its weight?
No but it’s only $7
Translation: violenceflation incoming
When you can’t afford a Big Mac, just eat the rich
We need to resurrect Jonathan Swift so he can write another best-selling satire about this nonsense. Right after he goes ballistic over nobody else doing that job for at least half a century.
Well, this is the fault of providing that one-time Covid relief payment to people years ago. Duh.
For environmental reasons, we won’t add the buns for take away orders, because everyone has already so much bread at home
Our family was priced out of fast food in the US about two years ago. It’s both too expensive and much worse than it was in the past. We got generally priced out of family dining before that, so this was just the natural progression.
I work harder than ever and we just keep sliding down the economic scale. We lost the class war.
Well yeah how can workers win class war when they haven’t been fighting it in generations??
One of the rule of war is that it’s a “Two No, One Yes” situation. To avoid one, both sides have to say no. Either side can say yes and then you’re in a war whether you want it or not.
The rich said yes, the middeclass/below said no and we lost by default.
My whole life (now too many decades) the media propaganda has been saying how great deregulation, no taxes, and business-style government leadership is. Too many people believed those lies by the rich. So, here we are: in a new Guilded Age and making peanuts for our labor while our children’s future is quite dim.
I’ve found fast food in the US is actually quite a bit more expensive and worse quality than locally owned places. I realize not everywhere has access to those options though, especially outside urban areas
We lost the class war because a third of the country sided with, checks notes, wallstreet. Wtf yall?
Whatever, don’t care. Won’t be lured in to eat their crappy food. I could gather more sustenance from sunlight more cheaply and with better service. Bagged lunches unite!
It better get much further than spitting distance from what carryout at a local pub buys me price-wise. Currently it’s essentially the same price whether I go get a hand-formed burger and fries with actual fresh lettuce and tomato from the local pub as it is if I get a meal from McD.
They were only ever winning on cost and speed, and now they can’t even compete there.
And yet I still see queues stretching round their drive through. I don’t understand who is still paying so much for lower quality food.
Maybe parents whose kids see mcds as their treat?
I mean you don’t need that much people to fill a drive through.
With bigger cars, you can fill it even faster.
Fair, but the question is still relevant. Why is anyone there when there’s better quality food for the same price?
If my kid ever sees McDonald’s as a “treat,” I’ve failed them.
What should be a “treat” based on your views? Just wondering not judging or anything.
If you tell your kid McD is something special then whenever you pass a McD it will feel a craving and want it. This is how brand obedient consumers are made. If instead you let them have McD for a week or two they will see the food for what it is.
Fsst food chains hate this simple trick
Yeah kids hate chicken nuggets
Activated Almonds, I’m sure.
Something of higher quality. Like good chocolates, a nice meal, ice cream, breakfast for dinner… Maybe it’s pretentious, but I’d prefer my daughter see places like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Burger King, etc as quick alternatives when you just don’t want to cook or need a snack. Not as a treat you should really be looking forward to.
The speed has especially taken a shit in recent years.
What happened to the rows of burgers behind them? Now you have to wait like 10-15 minutes for it, while a bunch of delivery guys crowd around.
Greedflation strikes again.
That’s more expensive than me going to “better” fast food places like Chipotle, Panda Express, etc. Which is silly because McD’s is only a choice for me when there’s nearly nothing else I trust to eat.
Well, it’s a rest stop, so I’d imagine it’s also more expensive than you going to a McDonald’s.
You trust to eat McDonalds?
When it’s that, gas stations, and local places that look shady on the road, sure? The only thing McD’s really has going for it is they maintain franchise consistency in their food.
Well, that and Big Macs are delicious…
Usain Bolt eats McDonalds when overseas that’s how reliable it is.
If the finest dining in an area is a McDonald’s, I just skip a meal.
I wouldn’t call any of those options better. Idk about your taste if food if you like cold mostly rice burritos, or cold mostly rice and katsup chicken. I’ve been priced out of fast food because of these rising costs for a couple years now and making my own food is quite a bit healthier and cheaper even though I hate cooking.
That’s as expensive as an actual restaurant
I’ve generally found McDonald’s, Burger King and other similar fast food places to be at price parity with Culver’s, so the choice becomes a very simple “do I want to eat Culver’s?” Since I might as well get much better food for the exact same dang price
Anybody get past the paywall to see where it’s with $18? I just pulled up the menu for nearest McD and a medium Big Mac meal is $8.98 where I live. Which now seems like a heck of a deal.
It’s too early here. I am not permitted to view the lunch menu at 4:20am.
A place in Connecticut
“A McDonald’s at a Connecticut rest stop is charging $18 for a Big Mac combo meal — and fast-food fans aren’t lovin’ it. “This was at a rest stop, but these McDonald’s prices are nuts right???” wrote Sam Learner after posting a photo of the menu on Twitter on Tuesday. The McDonald’s — located off Interstate 95 in Darien, one of the country’s wealthiest towns in upscale Fairfield County — also charges $19 for a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Bacon meal or a Quarter Pounder Deluxe, both of which include medium fries and a medium soft drink. Other eye-popping prices on the menu include $18 for a McCrispy sandwich, $18.29 for a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets and $16.59 for a Filet-O-Fish sandwich. A cheeseburger, usually found on the $1 menu, is going for $17 for two. On Grubhub, the items are even more expensive. A Big Mac meal would set the customer back $21.59 while a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal costs $22.79.”
Yeah, rest stops (or services as we call them over this side of the pond) are always overpriced compared to normal places. Costs are different, and they usually have a captive audience. The same goes for airports, but everyone is used to getting ripped off at the airport.
This New York Post article is the source for the reference to $18 in the Fortune article. The price was seen at a McDonald’s franchise location in Connecticut.
Agreed, I have no clue what they are on about.
I can get a bison burger at a halfway respectable restaurant that actually tastes like food a person would eat for that price. What a scam, but then again, I haven’t seen anything close to that in any McDs near me.
Geez, and I thought our 11 euro meal was expensive here in the Netherlands…
The company really has lost track of why people went there in the first place. They used to be cheap and fast; that’s what mattered. Nobody gave a shit that the food was just OK or that you ate it off a plastic tray while sitting in a plastic bench seat.
But in the 90’s, things went downhill. They made the restaurants ‘fancy’ and added a lot to the menu. Which meant you were now paying more for food and waiting longer to get it. Before the self order kiosks were installed, the staff also couldn’t keep up with menu changes, which meant more order errors as well.
They also invested more in things like healthy options and added specific McCafe coffee corners to sell better coffee. As if that was something we went to McD’s for…
They really need to get back to basics. A ten item menu, sold cheap, in a who-gives-a-shit what it looks like restaurant.
I generally agree with your post except for -
and added specific McCafe coffee corners to sell better coffee. As if that was something we went to McD’s for…
Australian here. In the last 40 years or so we have morphed (somehow) into notorious coffee snobs. Possibly due to a large number of Italian migrants in the 1950’s - 1970’s who wanted a decent espresso , who knows? But I digress.
McCafe coffee isn’t the best coffee around, but it’s a consistent quality that means you can go to nearly any McDonald’s in Australia and get the same without playing the dreaded guessing game of “will this coffee be undrinkable dishwater?” that you do when visiting random cafes.
Coupled with their efficiency in drive-thru operations it means you can grab a coffee with a known quality in a fairly well known timeframe, something that is sorely lacking in your average cafe.
Fair enough, you might not always have a decent, consistent chain nearby. Especially if you’re not in a larger city.
Here in the Netherlands we’re certainly spoilt for choice in that regard. You can get decent coffee just about everywhere. So it doesn’t really add much in that regard.
Australia doesn’t really have cafe chains. We just have a bazillion small cafes. Most sell coffee that is good or better, so I’m not sure what the person above it talking about, but most cafes can’t handle the volume of customers that a McDonald’s can, and virtually no cafe has a drive through. So McCafé was a success.
I worked at the 2nd or 3rd biggest McDonald’s (by revenue) in Australia for a couple of years and I can assure you that plenty of people wanted the McCafe coffee and cakes. The morning rush was ffffffffffffffucking insane.
With regards to healthy options, my reading of it was that they include it on the menu knowing that most people won’t order it - but people like the fact that they could order it if they wanted to (while scarfing down their triple cheese burger with extra bacon).
The absurdly large menu they have these days is a disaster though. I pity the people that have to work there now.
In Canada, McDonalds is the best chain to go to for a decent cheap coffee. Our national chain, Tim Hortons, went downhill maybe a decade or two ago, and Starbucks is too expensive, lol
They can do whatever they want but a competitor should fill in the void, but that’s also not happening, all the other big names are just as bad and no new kids on the block anywhere. Have you tried the five guys in Utrecht? It’s really nice but you leave with a 30€ per person bill for some basic stuff, it’s mad.
So glad I live in the land of in n out. Fuck McDonald’s.
Because there are huge barriers to competition, including advertising. And if someone overcomes those obstacles, why not match existing prices?
You don’t have to talk to collude on prices.
They didn’t lose track. People are now addicted to the salt and sugar bomb. They know it and capitalize on it.
Next month they’re releasing the Smellinator. For $6.99 you get a napkin that smells like a Burger… Enjoy!
burgers are made out of napkins anyway.
