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
In part due to boycotts btw.
bubble popping?
We all wish
My boss at work went to pick up some McDonald’s food a few months ago, not particularly because he wanted to eat that, but because he wanted one of those free glasses that came with the meal - honestly, what a strange reason, right?.
He was sick for a solid two weeks due to salmonella. If I have had any desire to go eat there again, it evaporated when he told me that.
Not to try and discredit your or your boss or anything but a lot of people assume that they got salmonella from the last food they ate. Usually it’s from food they ate a day or so ago, as the incubation time is between 24 and 48 hours.
If he got sick right after eating McDonald’s food then it’s probably just a coincidence. Have he got sick 2 or 3 days later then yeah it was probably the McDonald’s burger.
Also what free glass?
Honestly, even if it hit him 2-3 days later, it’d be kind of hard to pin it on the McDonald’s unless he ate all of his meals there that day or there was an outbreak of salmonella in the area and McDonalds was the common factor between the cases.
He could have just as easily gotten it from his breakfast or dinner, and that may even be more likely. I won’t pretend for a moment that McDonald’s employees can be 100% trusted to follow their proper food handling procedures and such to the letter, but I’m certain that a corporate outfit like McDonald’s probably has so many guidelines in place and has idiot-proofed as much of their equipment as possible that it should be next-to impossible for them to be at fault even if half their rules end up getting ignored.
There’s of course cases where things out of their control could happen, like they get a batch of lettuce that’s contaminated with salmonella from their supplier, but that’s the kind of thing that could happen at literally any restaurant, and there’s only so much you can do to mitigate that.
At what point are we blaming people who eat there?
The people that eat there are not tolerating their continued price gouging after the pandemic shortages.
Blame them for what? The sales decrease? That makes no sense.
Many have little choice in the matter.
Wrong, there are so many fast food places to go to besides McDonald’s. There is literally no one on this planet who is forced to eat there.
Alright, so they’ll be forced to eat at Greggs or Subway, then, I guess.
I resent the implication that Greggs and Subway are equivalent. Subway is the only place where they ask you 500 questions when you ask for a cheese sandwich.
I’ll just take some ketchup with whatever the other hobo is having then, I guess.
But I find mayonnaise quite distasteful.
What? Isn’t it cheaper to buy and cook your own meals?
In order to prepare a meal, you need to be able to afford ingredients, have the required skills, and have the time/energy to cook. So yes, it is cheaper to prepare your own meal, but if for example you’re working three jobs to make rent while raising a child, you’re going to have difficulty finding the time or energy required for cooking. Doubly true if you don’t already know how to cook.
There’s also people without access to a kitchen. If you have to rely on other people to cook for you, you’re extremely limited in options and as a result you’ll likely have to spend more money on fast food and takeout.
Another thing to think about: it’s cheaper to grow your own food than to buy it. Most of us don’t grow our own food - probably because we lack time, knowledge, or land.
Another aspect to this is our society and culture. Eating out is a special treat, a privileged event that’s deep in our subconscious. Have grandparents that take you to a favorite spot? A friend that loves to eat at this one certain place. Just want to have a more relaxing day because of over-stressing? The food joint is our new spa.
I don’t enjoy eating out so it’s easy for me to avoid it. But, my family has the average addiction and my partner comes from a household that would eat out at any opportunity (I’ve seen them do all 3 meals in a day when visiting once). You don’t realize the amount of money being spent on advertising till you’re trying to get someone to cut back. Newspapers, online ads, roadside signs, we even get “coupons” in the mail it feels like several times a week. Kid’s programming, sponsored school events from nearby food chains, high schools will have a domino’s in it before they get a robotics lab.
It’s crazy we allow any of this, we know from past cigarette legislation what this kind of inundation can do to people psychologically.
All valid points, thank you.
A homeless person couldn’t really do that.
Very true, for some reason that didn’t cross my mind.
It probably doesn’t cross most people’s minds most of the time. That’s why people on these forums seem to be changing so much.
They should just quadruple the prices and make it an elite experience,
Why not? It worked for Taco Bell.
So, something like shake shack?
McDonald’s whole niche is “cheap but edible”, the second you remove cheap from that equation the value proposition is gone.
They saw what Pepsi was doing with Frito-lay and figured why not?
$11 for a 12 pack of sprite where I live. No. Fucking. Thanks.
Damn, they charging that much for future diabetes these days??
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 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.
Definitely don’t work to make the “food” better, yeah, just price gouge like every other company now.
No loss for me since I don’t go there anyway. But my childhood weeps a little for the good ole days.
McDonald’s may be shit but at least they’re generally consistent. I know what I’m getting when I go there. And (for me at least) it’s a quick fix if I end up coming home late and don’t feel like cooking. The issue is cheap shit is supposed to be cheap. 5 years ago I could get a burger and fries and water for 4-5 bucks. Now it’s almost 9.
Aren’t they coming out with that $5 meal deal?
I got the $5 meal deal the other night. Dr Pepper for my drink was an upcharge. I’m not sure what drink is supposed to come with it then.
Water
Water is a chemical. It is composed DihydrogenOxyde, which is a very polar molecule, allowing it to dissolve a huge number of other chemicals. Anyway, I’m sure it’s dangerous and they can only add soda flavoring to it in order to reduce its effects on thirst.
It is well documented that every person alive today will die just hours from drinking this chemical. And as you know, everyone who has ever lived died hours or days after the consumption of water. There are only few chemicals more potent that can claim such numbers. One of them is Argon.
Studies show that 100% of serial killers have Dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) in their bodies while committing murder!
Don’t you find it weird looking at all the moms at the park, with their kids, all of them consuming DHMO? Yeah. In plain light of day. And the police don’t care, they drink it too!
Their consistency is sadly what made me buy McD at every country I was in Europe last year. At some point I got tired of.the food I could find there, and just gave up and bought a Big Mac meal at least once per country.
You couldn’t find decent food in Europe so had to resort to McDonald’s?
When you are tired of life, there is always McDonald’s…
I was backpacking, so my budget was right. McD was a way to treat myself without regretting spending too much money on something disappointing, and I did find disappointing food in Europe. Mainly in Germany, and the UK.
Convenience store food was great in Switzerland, though.
McDonald’s is not consistent though. A hamburger can often be flimsy thin. I don’t get why you’d go there. There are enough fast food options with lower prices. McDonald’s is often really terrible.
Their small burgers are always thin. It’s not worth getting anything other than a double.
It’s fucking ridiculous that you’re downvoted for this. Consistency is why so many of these businesses succeed!
You can go to McDonald’s practically anywhere in the world and not be surprised by what you get. That’s a really fucking hard problem to solve, especially when suppliers aren’t obviously the same worldwide.
It’s why people go to Starbucks. You can go anywhere and get a coffee that isn’t the best, but is consistent and somewhat enjoyable, over trying the local barista that might use some fancy coffee you might not like, or charge a ton for a thimble of coffee that barely wakes you up/is like liquid crack.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting something that is familiar.
Maybe I should congratulate you on being there long enough for that to happen.
A few years back I had a work trip to Singapore. It was a great experience and memorable in many ways. However the worst part is the client decided to “treat” me to familiar food and bought Pizza Hut. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I didn’t go halfway around the world to visit a different culture to experience my own country’s fast food
I’m from Mexico. The difference with the US is that in Mexico we actually season our food ( :P ).
But yes, I believe the difference was that I was actually expecting something more than just “edible” in Europe. I bought a beelinese in fucking Berlin, for God sake, and it was the most boring piece of bread I’ve tasted, and I got it in Berlin! Where the bread is from! And it taste like cardboard. I found a nice beelinese in Switzerland, though, and the best part is that I bought it at a convenience store lol.
I tried Currywurst as well, and it was just a sausage with ketchup and curry powder?!? WTF it reminded me to the cheap food I had to eat while being a broke college student. How in the hell is Currywurst something people want to eat?!? There was a queue and the place was a well-known venue… For a freaking sausage with ketchup!
I also had the worst pasta I’ve ever had in Europe. I can’t believe that being so close to Italy their pasta is so bland. I tried a local Italian “restaurant” to treat my and my SO, and lol the food was bad. It was ok for us, though. It was a hot meal for once, and the portions were great, but by no means I could call it “Italian food”.
At some point we got tired of wasting our money on “eating local” and opted for what we knew for a fast meal…
My McDonald’s boycott is in it’s 24th year. There is nothing to miss.
I live in Ireland and I like McDonalds occasionally. But there is no doubt that there food is quite expensive and they aren’t innovating. Once a month there will be some new burger which is usually just the same as a normal burger but with bacon or bbq sauce or some shit but it’s just boring and lazy marketing. What is worse than the food is the entire ordering experience - those bullshit kiosks are very time consuming and aggravating to use and then because they’re cutting staff you can look forward to a 5 or 10 minute wait for food to appear. I remember when I worked in McDs at peak periods you’d get your food almost as soon as you ordered it (unless it was a grill item) but not any more.
I only have positive vieuw on the kiosks. Easy to adjust your burger and i get the right stuff after. When in quick i can t ajust the burger on the kiosk and have to order old fadhioned. Then i often get a normal made.
I find them frustrating, because they are slow. There’s no reason why they couldn’t put a decent processor in them and have them actually function properly. Half the time I press a button and then end up hitting it again cause I don’t know if it read the first press, since the feedback it so slow.
The Lowes near me just recently switched to newer self-serve kiosks that actually work, it’s amazing how much better an experience it is.
Their solution will be to raise prices by 1% to make up for lost sales.
Hey sales are falling, let’s implement flex-pricing and increase prices during peak times.
This isn’t just McDonalds. I walked into KFC the other day and it’s got so darn expensive there, too. Nowadays we don’t bother eating out unless we’re on the road or something. Just ain’t worth it.
Removed by mod
KFC isn’t even a blip on my radar for this reason
If you want another reason: the food quality is all over the place.
I used to like their non-chicken bucket menu items like the spicy big crunch and chicken bowls.
But I stopped going because getting a chicken bowl from there as a “treat” instead of making one at home has been a disappointment, as was the last spicy big crunch. The ingredients just tasted off, like they had a manager that insisted on ingredients being used after they had started going bad or staff that didn’t know how (or care) to recognize that produce was off.
Like it wasn’t at a “makes you sick” level, but it was gross and disappointing.
I remember when their Fried Chicken Pizza came out… I figured “You do good chicken, and Yum Foods owns Pizza Hut, and I love their pizza… So… this should be a treat.”
Felt like throwing up, only finished the damn thing because I paid so much for it and my mama taught me to never waste food that’s edible.
The bigger reason I don’t go to McDonald’s is because of the self serve kiosks they’ve forced us instead of paying people to run the registers.
Price is still a reason though, so I’m glad they are at least considering that as well.
Why would you want people to take orders? It’s not some amazing work that is satisfying. We should be glad these jobs are going away
If they’re going to be gouging us on price the least they can do is employ people.
Nah, those jobs should disappear. Worthless labour is still worthless.
Those people could actually be doing something productive with their time instead.
i don’t get why people complain about this – i’d so so much rather type my order in myself, see what’s in everything, make modifications easily, etc without having to talk to someone. get those workers on the line and help ease the load on the kitchen
They didn’t “get those workers on the line” though. They fired them. Fuck McDonalds, and FUCK ANY BUSINESS that forces these fucking things on us. I’m not there to work, I’m there to order food and eat. If you can’t be bothered to take my order, I can’t be bothered to drop a fucking dime on your business.
I can guarantee you nobody got fired for these machines, the turnover is already so fucking high there that it’s not even needed. When I worked at MCD I lasted an entire year and excluding the managers I was probably in the top 3-4 in terms of “seniority”
They weren’t paying them a living wage in the first place let them replace it with screens
Of course RagingRobot would support this.
You dislike self checkouts too?
The McDonalds near me have people on tills as well as the self order machines. And you say they fired them. Can you prove that?
To be clear. I dont think you are wrong, I have no idea, and I am genuinely curious and want to know if that happened. since you claimed it with such conviction, I assume you can give a reference or point me in the direction of the search terms I could use to find a source myself?
Maybe i am just too old and go to McDonald’s too infrequently, but i can never figure out how to get my order done properly on the kiosks. Try ordering a McGriddle combo with a Carmel latte. There’s no visible option for that. Unless you ppan on doing a basic order, the kiosks suck
Also, I feel a bit awkward when I order two BigMacs at the register.
Because I go there once in a blue moon and it’s easier for the guy doing it 1000x/day to push in my order than me finding it on a big dumb Kiosk menu.
I won’t frequent places that force me to use a kiosk.
