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.
Granted, I’m in Germany; I can’t speak for any other country’s locations
Comment on Mildly McInfuriating
hark@lemmy.world 4 days ago
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?
FireWire400@lemmy.world 4 days ago
UNY0N@lemmy.world 4 days ago
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.
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.
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rBGH (rBST)
- Common foods: Milk and yogurt
- Purpose: Injected into cows to boost milk production
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Ractopamine
- Common foods: Pork, beef, and turkey
- Purpose: Increases lean muscle near the end of an animal’s life
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Potassium bromate (bromated flour)
- Common foods: Hamburger and hot dog buns, and packaged baked goods
- Purpose: Makes bread fluffier and whiter
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Brominated vegetable oil (BVO)
- Common beverages: Sports drinks and sodas
- Purpose: Keeps flavor from floating to the surface
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Olestra
- Common foods: Fat-free chips
- Purpose: Substitutes fat
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Azodicarbonamide
- Common foods: Frozen dinners, pasta mix, and packaged baked goods
- Purpose: Bleaches flour rapidly
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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
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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.
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CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Majority of McDonalds locations are franchised so quality varies widely.
hark@lemmy.world 4 days ago
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.
The_Lurker@lemmy.world 4 days ago
According to economic theory, “when price exceeds value.”
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 days ago
“Perceived value”
Without that element, there would be no explanation for Marketingbeyond Brand Awareness working.
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 stuff like create associations between brand and feelings on people’s subconscious).
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)
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.
hark@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Apparently quite a few people have a high tolerance for what they value.