Sooooo, stop eating there? It’s expensive enough bowing to the grocery cartels, who can afford to eat out?
Mildly McInfuriating
Submitted 4 days ago by Gork@lemm.ee to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://files.catbox.moe/vgykl6.jpg
Comments
snekerpimp@lemmy.world 4 days ago
AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
The graph is fucked btw. Read the values its different than the bars. Also a gaph like this should set the starting point for everything on the same level and only show the change not how much it changed by. You could put a car on this graph and shiw how its price increased by 100$ which would blow out all the other data even though its price only changed by 1% for example.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Also doesn’t site source or state units
$ is used by many currencies, is it AUD?
brlemworld@lemmy.world 3 days ago
You might say the graph itself is “mildly infuriating”
AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
Yeah but its gunny because its clear the post isnt about the graph it self
comfydecal@infosec.pub 3 days ago
Yeah very poorly done
CluckN@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Yeah I’d be curious to see a graph with inflation accounted for.
Enkrod@feddit.org 2 days ago
Inflation of the Dollar since 2014 added 33%, everything above that is not inflation.
UnityDevice@startrek.website 4 days ago
What’s actually infuriating are those bar charts.
scytale@lemm.ee 3 days ago
At this point, you’re better off going for the lunch specials at an asian restaurant. Same price, more filling, and less unhealthy.
MeatsOfRage@lemmynsfw.com 3 days ago
I found a bakery in town that does subs. You can get a brisket sub for the same price as subway with fresh bread and ingredients and the bread is wider than the skinny subway loaves so you get more overall
aesthelete@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Stop buying shitty, overpriced food from a dumpster organization.
If you stop buying it, you’ll help signal to the dumpster organization that their prices are too high.
orclev@lemmy.world 3 days ago
It has been suggested that’s part of the reason for the price surge. A lot of people just aren’t buying from McDumpster anymore and so in order to hit the same levels of year over year profit increase they’ve raised their prices to make up for lost sales. So they have significantly fewer people paying significantly more money for the same shitty food. Ultimately this will lead to a death spiral, but they’re so massive it’s going to take a really really long time before they hit the bottom.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 3 days ago
But here’s the really annoying thing about McDonald’s: they don’t care if their sales trend towards zero. McDonald’s makes all their money on the real estate values of their restaurants, not on food sales.
hark@lemmy.world 3 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?
The_Lurker@lemmy.world 3 days ago
According to economic theory, “when price exceeds value.”
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 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 3 days ago
Apparently quite a few people have a high tolerance for what they value.
FireWire400@lemmy.world 3 days ago
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
UNY0N@lemmy.world 3 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.
-
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.
-
CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Majority of McDonalds locations are franchised so quality varies widely.
hark@lemmy.world 3 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.
pyre@lemmy.world 3 days ago
were the bar lengths randomly generated? they make no sense
meowMix2525@lemm.ee 3 days ago
Well of course they had to make room for the picture of a child eating McDonald’s. How else would people know what they’re looking at?
Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
They’re dollars. Really not a great way to display the data.
iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com 3 days ago
Yeah but some prices double and the 2024 bar is less than 2× as high, other prices that are also double have 2024 bars more than 2× as high. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Brosplosion@lemm.ee 3 days ago
The qtr pounder $5.39 is shorter than the oreo $4.49
Furbag@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I was just talking about this with a friend the other day, but it’s really not worth it to go to these fast food places anymore even if you do like the food. I remember when, speaking to my friend, we would go to BK in high school and get a couple of “buck doubles”, because Burger King used to run a promotion where you could get two double cheeseburgers for two dollars. It was honestly a great deal. Then the shrinkflation kicked in and over time the size of the food became smaller and smaller. Then, the actual currency inflation hit, and fast food companies used the increased price of beef, chicken and other such ingredients as an excuse to gouge the hell out of their prices. Now, if I were to go to BK and get my usual fare, I would be lucky to leave paying less than $16. For like, $4 extra (not including tip) I could go to the Chili’s across the street and get an actual restaurant quality burger, and a side, and a beverage and be more than satisfied.
These fast food places are completely off their rocker if they think these prices are reasonable. Inflation is going down, so we as consumers need to stop buying their shit so they can’t justify keeping prices so insanely high. McDonalds and other fast food places are the biggest bulk purchaser of raw ingredients, so you bet that they have an insane amount of negotiating power to convince farmers and ranchers to supply the stuff they need for below market rate in bulk quantities.
If you are really craving that unique fast food flavor that you can only get at your favorite chain, let me tell you, there are YouTube channels with copycat recipes that can be made quicker and cheaper than the time it takes to drive to the nearest chain location, order, pay, get your food, leave, and come back to your house to eat it. And they taste almost the same or better in most cases because you make it yourself so you can add as much of the flavorful stuff as you want.
The_Lurker@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Kind of crazy that I can get a large pizza and a 2 liter from Pizza Hut for the cost of a single meal at Jack in the Box.
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 days ago
IMO, it might be a good idea to compare those prices against relative purchasing power of a dollar. I don’t know how those prices stack up to the overall rate of inflation or CPI, or even the cost of the specific ingredients. I would have less of an issue with price increases if a) McDonald’s profit margin–as a percentage of cost–remained steady, and b) the cost held steady against the relative value of the dollar overall. If it’s just arbitrarily raising prices because they can, then that’s bullshit.
Itsamelemmy@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
From a quick googlebthe dollar inflation is up 33% since 2014. The lowest increase is 67%.
meowMix2525@lemm.ee 3 days ago
McDonald’s profit margin–as a percentage of cost–remained steady
It’s cute you think a publicly traded company would allow for that, especially for a leader in a market as fully saturated as fast-food. When you’ve reached every person, there’s not much left to do but increase profit margins by cutting costs and raising prices.
If that line stops going up, executives can be voted out by the shareholders and lose their generous pay packages and bonuses! Last year’s billions in profit just isn’t good enough when there’s quarterly earnings reports to be made and shareholder wealth to be maximized!
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 2 days ago
That’s one of the major issues that I have with corporations; there’s very little interest in sustainable profitability, and a laser-like focus on growth for the sake of growth. And sometimes the product that a company makes isn’t even “sustainable” per se. That is, if you make certain durable goods, eventually you should be reaching a point where demand will slow to a trickle as the market becomes saturated, and that’s okay.
deadcatbounce@reddthat.com 3 days ago
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.
SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 4 days ago
And McDonald’s countered with a statement Pricing Myths vs Facts where they compared 2019-2024 prices where the original study the infographic is based on compared 2014-2024 prices. A little FUD seasoning if your will to make it all look less bad.
That’s the same company that countered their wages being too low to live on by producing an example budget to show how you can survive with only a McDonald’s job. The first line in the budget is income from the first and second job. They costs are even more laughable today.
ramble81@lemm.ee 3 days ago
This is also the same company that put out a sample “budget” to show how you can live off a McDs salary. Oh, assuming you didn’t turn the heat on.
nogooduser@lemmy.world 4 days ago
The two inflation calculators that I found said that a dollar in 2014 should be worth $1.33 in 2025. That’s significantly lower than the lowest price increase in this infographic.
Frozengyro@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Also most of that inflation was the last few years, driven mostly by corporate greed. Not from rising company expenses.
foggy@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Mildly infuriating is +122% being the largest bar graph and +199% is the smallest.
meowMix2525@lemm.ee 3 days ago
Except for the 3 bars on the left, the bars are proportionate to price in dollars. The percent increase that amounts to is marked above the bars, and that number should match up to the visual difference between the 2014 price and the 2024 price, compared to the 2014 price alone.
The 3 bars on the left are nonsense and seem to have been drawn like that just to fit that picture of the girl in.
azimir@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
They can surge all they like. Our family just stopped buying from them (and most fast food places).
It’s not a time saver to sit in a drive thru instead of making something for meals at home.
ChexMax@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I agree we’re better off to cut out fast food, but…
How long are the drive thrus you get stuck in? I think the worst I’ve ever had was 20 minutes and it was because their registers were acting up. The simplest meal at home is definitely 20 minutes unless you’re literally only eating plain ramen or cereal. I mean I guess you can make an egg in less than 20 minutes, but that doesn’t count the time in the grocery store or dishes?
Bwaz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Are you including the time it takes to drive to the drive thru and back? For many, that’s 20 min+ right there
Carighan@lemmy.world 3 days ago
What I as a German take from this is fucking hell was McD in the US cheap before. O.o
I mean it inflated a lot here too, but wow.
PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world 3 days ago
That’s really the main reason why any of us ate there. I haven’t gone there for about 5 years now.
Pulptastic@midwest.social 3 days ago
McDoubles were $1 many places until 2016 or later. My standard McD meal for years was 3 McDoubles for $3. After that they raised McDoubles to closer to $2 but the McTriple was also about $2 so I switched to 2 McTriples for $4.
Now the only way to get a decent price meal is to use the app and I refuse to use the app. Now and then they’ll have a 2/$6 deal but it still feels overpriced.
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I do a mcdouble and use the free medium fry for any $2 purchase deal. Comes out to 3 or 4 bucks total depending on location which is about what it would have cost in 2015 or so.
Mushroomm@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
I got two mcdoubles and a pineapple mango smoothie the other day and it was 12 bucks. First time I went in over a year. Canada. I’ll never go back
Pulptastic@midwest.social 2 days ago
McDonald’s Canada is like 30% more expensive. The price delta far exceeds the exchange rate.
exploitedamerican@lemm.ee 3 days ago
Prices fit for a billionaire who wears depends
Serinus@lemmy.world 4 days ago
It’s largely because of new tiered pricing. They want to extract the maximum price while not losing any customers.
To do this, they first double or triple all their prices. Then, for those who are willing to stand on one leg, pat their head, and rub their stomach* while ordering the right things, they’ll charge you half price.
(*By this I mean use their app. The main purpose of the app and the deals are to charge everyone what they’re willing to pay.)
protist@mander.xyz 4 days ago
Plenty small restaurants have not seen price increases this stark over this period of time. Eat there instead.
rwdf@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Don’t eat fast food, make your own.
prex@aussie.zone 4 days ago
If you’re already at home it’s faster too.
Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 4 days ago
Fast food is supposed to be trash and cheap. It now is just trash.
adam_y@lemmy.world 4 days ago
How did they make sure you got a speeding ticket? Seems like an over-reach even for a multi national corporation.
Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
I see it as karma for being stupid enough to go to McDick’s
jaybone@lemmy.world 3 days ago
He fit the description of the Hamburglar.
ikidd@lemmy.world 3 days ago
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.
Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Is that little girl in the picture to blame?
jaybone@lemmy.world 3 days ago
That bitch stealin Wendy’s do though. Bout to see them throw down.
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 3 days ago
It would never even occur to me to eat at fast food (unless you count like the pizza by the slice place on the corner).
I just feel so alienated from everyone else sometimes. Just… The food isn’t good, isn’t good for you, isn’t cheap, isn’t fast. The org isn’t environmentally or politically friendly. Just stop eating there. Be mildly inconvenienced if you have to.
But I guess that will slam right into the constant problem of “someone feels bad and now they’re not going to listen”
socsa@piefed.social 3 days ago
I'm with you buddy. I legitimately don't understand why anyone would ever eat one of those trash burgers. The breakfast sandwiches are edible but only if you have literally no better option.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
People are what they eat
TomAwsm@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Fast food didn’t just stop being cheap, it also stopped being fast. Might not be the case for everywhere, but when they got the self-checkout screens they started making every order in order, and nothing more. Now if I order a single item, I still have to wait if there are many orders before mine. I miss the time when I could look behind the cashier and see what they had pre-made to get something immediately.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 days ago
It’s fast enough in the drive thru. Notice how dining in has become worse in every way? Fuck me, you can’t even get your own salt and ketchup. They don’t want us hanging out because it costs them more.
Mwa@lemm.ee 2 days ago
Not Worth their food is not very good anyways its average.
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
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.
EtherWhack@lemmy.world 3 days ago
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.
Kaiyoto@lemmy.world 3 days ago
More reason to stop eating fast food.
realitista@lemm.ee 3 days ago
The graph itself’s utter lack of proportion is more infuriating than the content.
RedditWanderer@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I don’t always ruin my graphs, but when i do it’s to advertise for the company the graph is dumping on
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 3 days ago
I love how what’s close to the median Y-axis value is by far the tallest, meanwhile the lowest Y-axis value is the fourth tallest bar and the highest Y-axis value is by far the shortest bar