The thing with fast food is that it was cheap and fast. It's no longer cheap, and it's also no longer fast. If I have to pay $20 and wait 20 minutes for a meal, I'll go to a fast casual place instead.
The thing with fast food is that it was cheap and fast. It's no longer cheap, and it's also no longer fast. If I have to pay $20 and wait 20 minutes for a meal, I'll go to a fast casual place instead.
Interesting, if you don't mind me asking, where do you live? Where I live in the UK, I would still consider McDonald's to be amongst the cheapest restaurants. For me, a meal ranges from £5-£12,...
Interesting, if you don't mind me asking, where do you live? Where I live in the UK, I would still consider McDonald's to be amongst the cheapest restaurants. For me, a meal ranges from £5-£12, where £12-14 is what I would expect to pay for a main (no drinks or side) in a fast casual restaurant. Admittedly a £5 is becoming less and less frequent but if you're being careful it's definitely doable.
Service is also pretty fast, if picking up at the counter I've rarely had to wait more than 5 minutes for a meal for one, and never 20.
To be clear, I'm not really saying McDonald's is cheap and more saying that in my experience in the UK at least, it is one of the cheapest consistent options for a hot meal out. (But food and restaurant prices in the UK are a wild anomaly at this point so I'm very aware that this might not be the case at all elsewhere)
I just wonder who's picking those customers up. I hope it's not convenience store ichiban that they're being driven to. I'm not used to seeing so many people begging outside if the grocery store...
I just wonder who's picking those customers up. I hope it's not convenience store ichiban that they're being driven to.
I'm not used to seeing so many people begging outside if the grocery store as have been over the last year and some.
We might see when earnings statements come out. Anecdotally, I see a lot of folks talk about how Taco Bell is still affordable. Between app deals and their value menu you can do decent on a...
We might see when earnings statements come out. Anecdotally, I see a lot of folks talk about how Taco Bell is still affordable. Between app deals and their value menu you can do decent on a Calories/$ basis. If people can spend a similar amount at McDonalds and a nicer fast casual place they may just "upgrade." But people are eating out less too.
Prices have risen so high at the iconic fast food chain that traffic from one of its core customer bases, low-income households, has dropped by double digits, McDonald’s chief executive Christopher Kempczinski told investors last week. Meanwhile, traffic from higher-earners increased by nearly as much, he said.
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McDonald’s executives say the higher costs of restaurant essentials, such as beef and salaries, have pushed food prices up and driven away lower-income customers who are already being squeezed by the rising cost of groceries, clothes, rent and child care.
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Josephson and other economists say the shrinking traffic of low-income consumers is emblematic of a larger trend of Americans diverging in their spending, with wealthier customers flexing their purchasing power and lower-income shoppers pulling back — what some call a “K-shaped economy.”
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According to a corporate fact sheet, from 2019 to 2024, the average cost of a McDonald’s menu item rose 40%. The average price of a Big Mac in 2019, for example, was $4.39, rising in 2024 to $5.29, according to the company. A 10-piece McNuggets Meal rose from $7.19 to $9.19 in the same time period.
The company says these increases are in line with the costs of running a restaurant — including soaring labor costs and high prices of beef and other goods.
Beef prices have skyrocketed, with inventory of the U.S. cattle herd at the lowest in 75 years due to the toll of drought and parasites. And exports of beef bound to the U.S. are down because of Trump’s trade war and tariffs. As a result, the prices of ground beef sold in supermarkets is up 13% in September, year over year.
McDonald’s has also placed blame on the meat-packing industry, accusing it of maneuvering to artificially inflate prices in a lawsuit filed last year against the industry’s “Big Four” companies — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and the National Beef Packing Company.
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McDonald’s said last year that spending by the company on restaurant worker salaries had grown around 40% since 2019, while costs for food, paper and other goods were up 35%.
The thing with fast food is that it was cheap and fast. It's no longer cheap, and it's also no longer fast. If I have to pay $20 and wait 20 minutes for a meal, I'll go to a fast casual place instead.
Interesting, if you don't mind me asking, where do you live? Where I live in the UK, I would still consider McDonald's to be amongst the cheapest restaurants. For me, a meal ranges from £5-£12, where £12-14 is what I would expect to pay for a main (no drinks or side) in a fast casual restaurant. Admittedly a £5 is becoming less and less frequent but if you're being careful it's definitely doable.
Service is also pretty fast, if picking up at the counter I've rarely had to wait more than 5 minutes for a meal for one, and never 20.
To be clear, I'm not really saying McDonald's is cheap and more saying that in my experience in the UK at least, it is one of the cheapest consistent options for a hot meal out. (But food and restaurant prices in the UK are a wild anomaly at this point so I'm very aware that this might not be the case at all elsewhere)
I just wonder who's picking those customers up. I hope it's not convenience store ichiban that they're being driven to.
I'm not used to seeing so many people begging outside if the grocery store as have been over the last year and some.
Times are hard right now.
We might see when earnings statements come out. Anecdotally, I see a lot of folks talk about how Taco Bell is still affordable. Between app deals and their value menu you can do decent on a Calories/$ basis. If people can spend a similar amount at McDonalds and a nicer fast casual place they may just "upgrade." But people are eating out less too.
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