Hey Americans, does it work the same down there as it does up here where the McDonald’s menu is a colossal ripoff unless you bring coupons, which are ubiquitous, that bring prices down by about 50%?
Are they basically creating two price tags: for those who do and don’t really care enough? Ie. we’ll take your money if you’re fine paying a whole lot more for a meal. Otherwise here it is for half off.
Coupons are obsolete. The actual deals are on the App. Same idea except the App probably tracks my email or something, so they get more info on what deals I'm browsing or thinking about. (I'm sure it's watching what I click on and browse....)
I'd say coupons disappeared about 5 years ago? Somewhere around COVID-19.
Can confirm, the answer is “yes, but the coupons are in the app”.
The app deals get prices down to where they’d be if the menu prices hadn’t gone up waaaay faster than the rate of inflation, and sometimes down to what actual coupon or sale prices should be. The menu prices are batshit crazy.
TBH, the fast food experience is getting so damn weird.
The local McDonald's has big signs out screaming "Link your payment card! Order ahead with the app! Give us some sort of reward points code!"
Last time I went inside one, the till was unmanned, and I had to flag down an employee because I wanted to pay cash (and couldn't find what I wanted on the ordering kiosk).
I can see why that customer flow appeals to them-- if they can remove the underpaid high-school kid at the till from the loop, he's not handing discounted items out to his friends, or making change wrong, or simply bollixing up data entry.
That's a feature for the BUSINESS, not the CUSTOMER, though. Don't try to sell it to me as something I want. I assume that's why they've pushed so much of the reasonably-priced items through app ordering-- they've got to convince people to use it SOMEHOW.
Fast food is supposed to be cheap and easy-- more of an impulse purchase. Expecting me to install an app and pre-plan my visit, if I don't want to pay sit-down prices, is a hell of a lot of friction.
It's easy to imagine someone driving up to the menu, all the kids looking and deciding what they want, then proceeding straight through, pulling into a parking spot, making an in-app order, and coming back to pick it up. Otherwise, the $40 order becomes $65.
Their marketing consultants probably told them we'd pull up their app/website before we got there, but obviously they have never been in a family where going out for lunch consists of 20 minutes of driving past restaurants and horse-trading before a consensus can finally be reached. What was their user persona exactly?
The best is sitting in the drive thru while people install apps and troubleshoot problems with apps in the cars ahead of you lest they pay three extra dollars.
I feel like this is a meme. I tried to prove this by pricing out meals in person, on the app, drive thru etc and it was the same price every time. ATL, GA fwiw
In my market, they nearly doubled the price of a Big Mac, but had a perpetual in app coupon of 'buy one, get one for .29' which evened it back out on two.
Wendy's largely does the same. I imagine it's to take advantage of hungry passerby's and such.
Prior to covid, yes. I haven't eaten McDonald's since covid, but in college I would use the app + whatever promotional "buy one get one" coupons they had going on to hit some devious combos. Usually I could get 3 burgers for like $2.50 with free fries. Each purchase usually gives you another bogo coupon, or a survey that you can fill out for free fries, so you end up in infinite loops of coupons.
When I worked at a bike shop there was a BK that would give you a survey, you could fill it out and on your next visit get a chicken sandwich or whopper with a drink purchase (I think it was a drink, anyway).
Looping that one paid for a loooot of bike parts lol.
I believe there's discounts only if you use their app, so they can monetize you with surveillance. It's still garbage food, though. I can't imagine what the $5 tier is like.
I hadn't paid much attention to their $5 deal, so I looked it up out of curiosity.
It's the same food but in smaller portions, which sounds more appealing to me. I wish more places had appropriately sized & priced portions of food instead of "here's 2500 calories and a drink with enough sugar to give you diabetes for $10".
Sometimes I get random cravings for certain fast foods, but I always feel like a sucker when I opt to get less food but pay almost the exact same. The idea of getting the bigger sizes of fast food and reheating leftovers makes my stomach churn a little, though, haha.
It's a frustrating experience in my experience, because you either have to:
- go handle your phone in the drive thru and wait to put it 'just in time'
- try to put it together before and pull it up there, the app might eat it
- 'pre-order' which will totally fuck you over if you get there and the line is backed out to the street for whatever ungodly reason. If it isn't, you'll either get your food normally, or somehow you wind up getting something that almost feels like it was made before you even placed the order.
- Speaking of above, using the app seems to result in a higher probability of getting stuff that definitely feels 'aged' in some way or otherwise put together like trash.
I've never had any issues pulling up to a curbside spot and ordering there, and have the food brought to my car (Houston area - not sure if it's common elsewhere)
Counter ordering isn’t available anymore in ,y market, you choose kiosk or app. Since the app is so horrible, I just use kiosk whenever I go in, which is rarely these days.
Not directly related to the article, but I decided to have a look at their Privacy Policy. Lots of outs for the company. Also, your e-mail address is not regarded 'personal information' by MickeyD..
6. Use of Cookies and Other Technology
> [...]McDonald’s does not currently take actions to respond to Do Not Track signals because a uniform technological standard has not yet been developed.[...]
8. Security
> [...] However, the collection, transmission and storage of information can never be guaranteed to be completely secure. Please take steps to secure your access credentials such as login name and password, and do not share them with anyone.[...]
12. Recent Changes
> [...] We do not disclose personal information collected in connection with the MyMcDonald’s Rewards program to data brokers. We may disclose certain identifiers such as email addresses and pseudonymized identifiers, information about the use of our online services, and inferences drawn about you to our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Under certain state laws, this may be considered a sale of personal information for consideration. We may also process and share this information for targeted advertising.[...]
I think a few chains have realised they've taken the rip-off increases too far.
In the UK for example, Pret has brought back its £1 filter coffee (a staple of many years up until the pandemic/shortly after. But still overpriced as it tastes disgusting). Perhaps they also realised raising their croissants 60% was too much, and have reduced it down to only a 30% increase. A competitor, Greggs, has been killing them with new stores opening weekly
I can't keep up with McDonald's pricing but I know the value items such as a cheeseburger and double cheeseburger (£2.29) never went away. But they've made some big increases in eg mcflurry (regular size used to be £1, now something like £2.40)
Perhaps some companies must be feeling the pinch, or at least, being crushed by competition
Oh this is interesting. I wasn’t aware Value Meal was a thing but I’m glad they kept their value sandwiches always available. I have never seen them advertise the value line so I assume they’re not that profitable compared to say a QP or a Big Mac.
> I have never seen them advertise the value line so I assume they’re not that profitable compared to say a QP or a Big Mac.
Per the article, this is a pretty recent thing (4 weeks or so).
I've seen a couple adverts, but I'm back off the gluten so haven't really looked close.
Okay, it's a McDouble or McChicken, small Fries, 4pc nuggets, and a small drink.
Blinks Okay I officially give my local 7-11 some credit because they started a very competitive deal to this.
That said, I'll quip that before COVID, I could probably get all of that under 5$.
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As an aside, I would posit that in the US, Fast Food Restaurants by and large have been falling into this 'death spiral' because they all seem to be hitting this loop:
1. Try to skimp on labor like you did during covid lockdown.
2. Food Service Industry costs are up everywhere, but a bunch of people start realizing that they could get carry-out from a local diner about as quickly as they could wait for an order they place at the kiosks symbolizing the beginning of the franchise wars. Let alone with a modern air fryer, you can make tasty stuff with round tortillas, cheese, and meat in less time.
3. So, People go to the fast food places less or just cook their own stuff.
4. Oh no we have to raise prices or go back to step 1!
Local restaurants (around me, anyway) have been capitalizing on this by providing some combination of more food, better quality food, or better service for the same dollar amount.
It's not just McDonald's, they're just the most 'visible' because the stupidity of Yum! gets amortized with the not-stupid.
McDonald's is now competing with Doordash/UberEATS/etc for all dining options. If I'm ordering food, the ratio of how long it takes to cook, vs delivery time is irrelevant, I only care how long it takes to arrive in total.
I don’t want to do an apples to oranges comparison but that $5 value meal is good value for what it is.
If I go to a restaurant and order a steak they’ll charge me a preposterous amount for some subpar meat whereas if I pay 15% more I can get A5 Wagyu at a butcher’s. I get it - it’s not the same, but if their overhead is so severe then that restaurant has problems. Except, if every restaurant raised their prices then it points to a more systematic issue. Prices of just about everything have gone up significantly, for starters. Even getting raw ingredients in some cases does not mean you’ll save that much money.
So, again, good on McD to offer this. It’s reasonably priced.
Not even; around here. The benefits of McDees or fast food was it was fast and cheap. Now it is neither, and still crap quality. I'd rather spend my $6 on a much higher quality burger from a local place. Often faster even. $5 at McDees is lower quality, slower service, and just not worth it.
I don't expect a steak at McDonald's. So I compare my alternatives of where I can also get a hamburger. Every single option, is better.
> Okay, it's a McDouble or McChicken, small Fries, 4pc nuggets, and a small drink.
> ...before COVID, I could probably get all of that under 5$.
McDouble and McChicken was $1.19. I believe small fries was $.89, and 4pc nuggets was probably $1 to $1.19 and drink (any size) was $1.
If that's right, that was ~$5.30. With cumulative inflation being at least 20-25%, it makes sense that this tracks that inflation value, but by "shrinkflation". You lose one item for the same price, and must get a small drink instead of any size. So now it's 20%+ less food for the same money
I’m pretty sure it’s mcchicken, McDouble, or 4 piece + small fry and small drink. But I haven’t seen in my market yet, so maybe I’ll be surprised. Reminds me of the all American meals they used to have in the 90s, just with a slightly better sandwich option.
1. The hyper palatability
2. The calorie density to nutrition ratio
3. The high GI
4. The level of processing.
5. The low quality and probably inflammatory oils.
75% of the FDA’s budget comes from the pharmaceutical industry. I assume that part of that is the food industry. Also the USDA is largely outsourced to the industries it’s supposed to manage. The US is bought and paid for by industries that donate to the Democrats and Republicans. Welcome to America.
USDA is more intended to support and promote agriculture and agribusiness than to manage the industry. Food assistance programs are dual duty --- help with poverty, but also ensure a base level of demand for agriculture products.
Complaining that the USDA is good for business is like complaining if the Veterans Administration provides good benefits for Veterans.
That said, I wouldn't put agribusiness in charge of the food groups, but that's what we've got.
I mean that’s everywhere though the rich rule the world even in supposedly communist China or socialist Tanzania that won’t change anytime soon
My confusion is what the poison is? Is it cholesterol or something? My cousin said something about chemical reactions when the potatoes are deep fried creating a thing but I’m the dumb one in my family so I didn’t understand.
We allow things like high fructose corn syrup in greater quantities than the EU. Our wheat has more gluten which is am inflammatory substance. We have dyes that are known carcinogens. We allow higher levels of heavy metals than the EU. We push highly processed foods as the norm. Basically we’ve designed our diets around ease of consumption and profits.
Are they basically creating two price tags: for those who do and don’t really care enough? Ie. we’ll take your money if you’re fine paying a whole lot more for a meal. Otherwise here it is for half off.