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  • Prices have gone up while portions, service, and even quality (as low as it already was) have gone down. When does "the free market" start improving things for customers instead of just shareholders?

    • According to economic theory, "when price exceeds value."

      • Apparently quite a few people have a high tolerance for what they value.

      • "Perceived value"

        Without that element, there would be no explanation for Marketing other than pure Brand Awareness promotion working (and McDonalds is definitely beyond needing more Brand Awareness, at least in the Developed World)

        Even then, it doesn't explain a lot of how Marketing does its work (namelly the stuff they took from Psychology and use to do things like create associations between brand and specific feelings on people's subconscious - you know, the way cars are "freedom" and perfumes are "sex").

        And don't get me started on other techniques that prey of human cognitive weaknesses (for example, FOMO would not work with the fabled Homo Economicus that underpins so much of Free Market Theory)

        Anyways, a ton of present day enshittification (and that includes this kind of price inflation) relies on people having a well entrenched positive perception of a brand after years of having a relationship with it (i.e. chosing it as customers) and there being quite a lot of momentum behind it. It also relies a lot on using a "slow boiling" effect to keep people from spotting the full picture of the changes.

    • Did the quality really go down? I don't go to McDonald's very often but I think the quality has improved a lot from what I remember it being in the 2000s/2010s. It's still mostly unhealthy slop, but sometimes that's exactly what you need.

      Granted, I'm in Germany; I can't speak for any other country's locations

      • Majority of McDonalds locations are franchised so quality varies widely.

      • Germany has regulations for food that are much more demanding than those of the US, so there isn't much that fast food restaurants can do to cut costs in Germany aside from the order touchscreens and such.

        Here's an example.

        Excerpt about additives:

        Believe it or not, big name food brands often adjust their ingredients in European countries compared to their products released in the United States. Certain ingredients that are illegal in Europe are still allowed, and commonly used, in the United States. The following eight common ingredients are approved in the U.S. but  banned by the European Union or select European states.

        • rBGH (rBST) 
          • Common foods: Milk and yogurt
          • Purpose: Injected into cows to boost milk production
        • Ractopamine
          • Common foods: Pork, beef, and turkey
          • Purpose: Increases lean muscle near the end of an animal’s life
        • Potassium bromate (bromated flour)
          • Common foods: Hamburger and hot dog buns, and packaged baked goods
          • Purpose: Makes bread fluffier and whiter
        • Brominated vegetable oil (BVO)
          • Common beverages: Sports drinks and sodas
          • Purpose: Keeps flavor from floating to the surface
        • Olestra 
          • Common foods: Fat-free chips
          • Purpose: Substitutes fat
        • Azodicarbonamide
          • Common foods: Frozen dinners, pasta mix, and packaged baked goods
          • Purpose: Bleaches flour rapidly
        • Coloring agents (Red #40, Yellow #6, Yellow #5, and Blue #1)
          • Common foods/beverages: Cake mix, candy, soda, and sports beverages
          • Purpose: Changes food color
        • BHA and BHT
          • Common foods/beverages: Gum, cereal, vegetable oil, butter, and beer
          • Purpose: Makes food last longer

        And these additive ingredients expand past the EU into the United Kingdom. For example, the American version of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is entirely different from Kraft’s “Cheesey Pasta” sold in Great Britain. Take a look at the differences below.

      • Maybe it's location based, but I had a mcflurry about a year ago and was given a pathetically small amount of the topping poorly mixed in a terrible filler ice cream. Perhaps the ice cream in the mcflurry was always terrible, but I hadn't noticed it before when I would get a lot more of the topping. Also, their coffee was better for a time but it has reverted to burnt mud.

  • Everyone knows that McDonald's don't degrade over time. You can put one in its original bag in the closet for a number of years without problems.

    Shame on you for not buying in bulk when the price was more amenable. Get down to your local McDonald's now and buy yourself at least 57 Big Macs which I've calculated to be the optimal amount until global warming renders this planet a cinder. And get me a chocolate milkshake while you're at it, please.

  • I gave up on McDonalds. I can get better food elsewhere for half the price. Their trash was ok for pushing a turd, but not for what they charge today.

  • Just remember that the location which let the cheeto use it as a platform never got any blowback from corporate. So, just stop going to McDonald's altogether; plenty of other food places for when you don't want to cook.

  • The quality has also fallen dramatically. I used to like their standard hamburgers (the little ones), but the buns are leathery these days, and the meat seems smaller than it used to be.

  • Back ~2010/11 I used to go to McD's once a week with friends after practice. I'd order a McChicken, a mcdouble, and a medium fry and pay with just random loose change from my car. Thanks for confirming this for me with this infographic, these are the prices I remember paying.

  • I haven't eaten "fast" "food" in basically forever. It's been decades. Unless 2010-ish Subway counts, and that was only consumed b/c I was driving cross-country and one whole sub was a day's eats that I could stash as-needed.

    These prices blow my mind. I can't believe that people are paying so much for so little, and for crappy fried heart-attack and diabetes fare too. I can eat for a day for the price of one of these "burgers" (or "meals" - just because there's more than one item in the bag doesn't make it a "meal" no matter how much the marketers use the term). For the price of a "quarter pounder" here, I can get at least three big cans of "chunky"-style soup, each of which is a meal in itself - all you need is a bowl and a microwave and a spoon and a few minutes to heat. For the price of that burger I can (and do) get 3-4 boxes of cereal at Walmart, each of which will, along with a little milk in a bowl, provide a week's-worth of breakfasts.

    Frozen veggies, basics from the Winco bulk aisles, a bit of dairy maybe, a little spice, and maybe a worn, curled recipe book you got from the used bookstore (or not, if you already have the intuition for cooking) and you can eat incredibly cheaply (and well, if you're careful) in the US. No need to fill your body with expensive McShit just because the ads tell you to and justify your doing it. Everything changes if you're already homeless of course, that's gonna cost you, but just be aware that McEating is going to get you to that state of being all the sooner.

    I think that people eating all this McShit and justifying it as some kind of necessity ("too busy shop and cook!") are just addicted to sugar/fat/salt/industrial-chemicals and who demand "treats" of such things each and every goddamn day (vs maybe once every few weeks 40 yrs ago) because that's what they "deserve". I understand, a treat is all you can aspire to, you're never going to buy a house or have a decent job, but blowing what little $ you have on ruining your health and mobility and sanity doesn't seem to me like it's going to help get more out of life. No more than a daily 12-pack of McBeer would, and for that you wouldn't have to wait in line.

  • I was becoming more and more infuriated as I read through this, then I realized where this was posted. Carry on.

  • It's called inflation right? Try to compare it with a cryptocurrency instead of the dollar ;P

137 comments