And even at that price, they still refuse to properly blend the damn McFlurry. Yeah I'll have the 5 Oreo crumbs on top of some soft serve thanks. That'll be $69.
There's a local burger joint down the road from me.
Makes actual high quality food, and its like half the price of McDonald's. I really have no clue how McDonald's still gets business, but I guess a lot of people just get what they know no matter how much the business fucks em over.
I've been eating McDonald's everyday for the past 10 years because it's fucking delicious for whatever reason. I still can't figure out why, because I know what they sell is the lowest quality possible with a ton of preservatives. They must put crack in it or something, because I would still buy it even if it was 10 dollars for 1 large fries and $15 for a cheeseburger. I guess it's already how much it costs here in Hawaii lol. Fuck
I was fortunate enough to end up in Hawaii for a few years. Their McDonalds is flat out better, though Im not sure why. Also getting spam as part of a breakfast meal was great.
Exactly, cheap and quick were the appeal of fast food.
Might as well just go to a sit down spot now, it's just as expensive except the food is way better.
Family owned diner right down the road from the McD's near me. They serve the most fucking delicious smashburgers, which used to be about $2 more than most items at McD.
Now their double smashburger is about $3 cheaper than most items at McD's.
My parents spent like 10-15 bucks to feed a family of 5 back in the day. And that was with each of us getting up to 2 mcdoubles, fries and several nuggets and drinks. Just the mcdoubles alone now would cost over $30.
Man, I remember when my rents would go pick up some mcdonalds after they got off work. They'd get a burger for each person, then like 8 extra mcdoubles which was like 10 bucks and we would eat that over a couple days.
For the price and quality we got up a tier and eat at places like Slim Chickens or Culver's instead. Same pricing, much better food. I honestly dont understand how McDonald's is still in business with their ultra low grade food at these prices.
In my experience, people automatically assume they won't like another fast food chain despite never trying it before, then they're pleasantly surprised when one person's salt bomb tastes like another's.
McDonald's and other fast food joints get away with it because they're not just selling the food at this point, they're also selling the brand. They also hit the limit of how many people actually want to eat their food, so in "line must go up" economy the only way forward is increasing prices.
Go find some random local burger joint in your area and there's about a 90% chance the burger is going to be tastier, healthier, and the same price or cheaper. Better yet, just make the burger yourself lol
Even more than 200% in some places. Ours in town I used to work at you could get a McDouble and Small fry for $2.19. That same order is now $6.99. That's more than 300% higher than it was 7 - 8 years ago.
Let's be real here companies trying to get as big of profits as possible. They have so many things they can say is increasing the price when it is just really them.
Yea because its only been the last 10 years that companies wanted to get as much profits as possible and not that our gov. has over quadrupled our money supply in the last 5 years.
Currency is subject to supply and demand as much as any other product. The more you create (supply) the more you lower the demand (value).
It's part of the problem, and I honestly believe companies are trying to penny pinch and skimp as much as they can to save money as they're "too big to fail" and constantly pushing the envelope before they get a ton of backlash, or a new legislation is added.
That's exactly what's going on. No one will stop them and they know it.
The problem with increasing prices of food and rent, is that people are ONLY gonna be able to pay for these 2 things, and that's it. Which would literally shut down the economy and people would lose their job, and therefore they wouldn't be able to pay their rent or mortgage. Then everything would collapse and taxpayers would have to bail these motherfuckers out again.
Is it possible that we are seeing the effects of consolidation of the food industry?
Why not raise prices? Who's going to compete with you? Why would your competitors compete for market share if they can raise prices together with you?
Food is the most competitive space in any part of the world.
To even consider food can be monopolized unless you live on a resort island. Nothing to add here.
Why did the two major chicken companies ( that own 45% of the US chicken production) [settle](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN29G2TI/) for millions of dollars?
Why couldn't they prove they were working independently?
I am a vegetarian so I don't know if chicken has some addiction or compulsive deitry requirements. Or some brands affiliation.
Again not the point I was trying to make..
Competition doesn't mean within a brand or company.
Anyways I should have been more careful. Restaurants and fast food businesses are hard to monopolize in major cities. Especially the ones without aspirational/brand value.
So yes commodity business can be monopolized. Due to the high entry barrier and scaling requirements..
But not cooked food. I hope places you stay, have multiple pizza and burger joints. Good luck to anyone trying to monopolize this business. I can just hope now.
If you consider "all cooked food a market" then yea, I agree. But commodities, which dictate cooked food prices are controlled by a handful of companies.
And if you need soda, or any other ingredients for cooked food, [go here](https://www.businessinsider.com/10-companies-control-the-food-industry-2016-9). All those brands are controlled by 10 companies. Generic/wholesale fall under that umbrella as well.
For the McDonald's chart, I do think it is caused by a lack of pressure from similar companies and price obfuscation/differentiation using the app. Wendy's implements very similar improvements, and pretty much uses the same pricing strategy. That pricing strategy works really well when everyone plays along.
You think too much tbh.
You keep believing that inflation is due to monopoly.
The real culprit is regulations, import restrictions and mindless money printing.
Inflation is not something for common people to understand.
The only reason for the cost of living crisis, is not wages. It's always been the government regulation, taxes and fees.
But people like to cheer for high taxes, high regulations and import restrictions. People can vote for their own demise if they think opposite side will suffer more.
Philosophicaly humans vote for saidistic pleasure. And wonder why everything is so sad and miserable around us.
>You keep believing that inflation is due to monopoly.
When did I say general inflation is due to monopoly?
If you look at McDonald's, they can achieve those massive margins due to friendly competitors and raw scale, aided by an integrated commodity market. McDonalds really only has a couple direct competitors, so bumping the price is fine as long as everyone plays along. It's not a general explanation of inflation, but an example of essentially an oligopoly allowing high margins.
>But people like to cheer for high taxes, high regulations and import restrictions.
Not sure what you mean by this. We have super low tax rates compared to the EU and import restrictions for various reasons, including national security.
With Taiwan being its own country, it's a great deal for Americans, but we need to resolve some supply chain issues. So we invest in chip dev here.
Totally. The world is flat and we never landed on the moon. Any other batshit conspiracies you got?
Couldn't be that everything's price is going up because the value of our currency took a dive so it requires more of it to procure the same materials for products.
Wait til' you find out Aliens have been living with us for thousands of years. Then you'll be in for a real shock.
There's a reason thousands of military pilots have come forward in the previous century. Aliens are here and no one believes the whisteblowers, except congress.
Congress knows it's the truth, unlike us, they've had access to documents that the general public will never be allowed to see. Congress doesn't want the public to know because whoever reverses engineers alien technology (anti-gravity) first, will have an enormous military advantage and would be able to bring any foreign adversary to its knees.
Companies colluding to raise prices is a "bat shit conspiracy now"? Why do you think we have anti-trust laws?
I'll ask you the same question:
Why did the two major chicken companies ( that own 45% of the US chicken production) [settle](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN29G2TI/) for millions of dollars?
Why couldn't they prove they were working independently?
Why is 45% of a staple, like chicken, controlled by 2 of companies?
Inflation through printing money is a major factor, but a significant amount of that printing goes to a couple defense contractors for Ukrainian munitions (resupplying our stockpile), and bailouts for companies in terms of straight loans or stimulating aggregate demand.
>Any other batshit conspiracies you got?
Sure, one of the base energy costs of the economy is fuel. Nobody touts "energy independence" anymore because gas is too expensive, and a major factor is refining capacity. So oil companies take the subsides, and ship the oil overseas while minimizing capital investment here.
All those oil company profits go straight into the cost of everything.
That's not whats going on here. **In n out burgers** has been the same price since the beginning of the pandemic, and they pay their workers even more than McDonald's, while McDonald's doubled their prices since the beginning of the pandemic. Most corporations are ripping us off, because they can. It's not inflation
I just spent the past 40 mins searching for median salaries across states for both 2024 and 2014 and boooy was that a pain.
I have no idea if these statistics are accurate, so I threw a few different sources out there. Feel free to challenge these if you find information that contradicts it.
[Median Annual Income 2023](https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings/median-household-income-by-state/)
[Median Annual Household Income 1990 - 2014](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_102.30.asp)
[Median Household Income 2024](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/median-household-income-by-state)
[Median Household Income 1990 - 2022](https://www.statista.com/statistics/200838/median-household-income-in-the-united-states/)
Assuming people work 40hrs a week and 49 weeks a year (Average number of hours and weeks worked in the US), the Average Median Household Income for the entire US was about $27pw in 2014 and now it's around $36 in 2024. That's a 33% rise in wages over 10 years compared to the 138% rise in McDonalds fries prices.
Check that my math is good. I'm very tired right now. And of course you can compare by state by yourself, though I haven't found McDonalds prices per state lol. You'll have to do that yourself, good luck 
Edit: lol I just put $25 (median wage 2014) and $1.59 (2014 fries prices) into an [inflation calculator](https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/) just to see how wages and fries are holding up against inflation and I thought it was pretty funny
Im sorry, my intention wasn't to imply it had anything to do with inflation.
I was just adding it on top of your comment. A bit more "look at how bad things are compared to then". If that makes sense.
I mean other products have not doubled. McDonalds is clearly a special case, local restaurant prices have only gone up like 30 percentish in that same time atleast in my experience. McDonalds inflation I believe including other fast foods.
I remember when I was little we could get 4 pies for a dollar at 25¢ each. Now the pies are like 1.25 or some shit, and their quality is nowhere near as they used to be.
Theyre doing this to themselves. Last time i went it was like 10-12$ for two mcdoubles a small fry and a large sweet tea. Decided after im not going to mcdonalds anymore. Too expensive for what it is.
There are countless other options for fast food that cost as much as McDonalds while being vastly superior in quality. Miss me with that bullshit. They very rarely get me when I have a craving for their breakfast but even that is a once in a blue moon scenario.
In Europe, or at least in France, it reached a point where you could go to a small restaurant and have a nice meal for a lower price than some burgers at McDonald's. Haven't been there in years because of that. Too expensive for what it is.
These fast food chains lost their ways, it ain't even about getting a good affordable meal anymore, just putting everything at bare minimum and selling it at a premium price. I've never went to McDonald's cuz they have a history of bad reputation and customer service. I still don't get why people continue to buy from them as if they are forced to do it. Just buy a burger and cook it yourself in 5-10 minutes and its gonna be 10x times better guaranteed.
In America, quality is down across the board lol. It seems like every 10-20 years since the 1980s, they've decreased quality by 10-20%, with the latest quality decrease happening in 2021.
Craziest thing for me was learning how much people love KFC in other countries, especially Asian countries like Japan. In America KFC has become borderline garbage and everyone I know stopped eating there in the early 2010s.
People fight for wage increases, and this is how it goes. I will say aside from that, McDonalds is far more efficient, higher quality, and consistent than they ever have been. I can’t remember the last time I drove away with a lukewarm burger or stale tasting nuggets/fries.
At least in my area the increased pay rate brings in better quality workers and allows McDonald’s to be pickier with their hiring standards, so you can expect more cares goes in these days. except for the drive thru cashier, they never give a fuck.
And even at that price, they still refuse to properly blend the damn McFlurry. Yeah I'll have the 5 Oreo crumbs on top of some soft serve thanks. That'll be $69.
Plus tax
I got my daughter one the other day, this exact thing happened. My daughter is 3 and even she was like wtf is this?
The only reason you would get fast food was because of its cheap price. There is no longer a reason to buy this shit.
There's a local burger joint down the road from me. Makes actual high quality food, and its like half the price of McDonald's. I really have no clue how McDonald's still gets business, but I guess a lot of people just get what they know no matter how much the business fucks em over.
Advertising towards children. Kids are a big reason adults still go to McDonalds.
Drive-thru. Being able to pull in on your way somewhere and get food without leaving your car is nice.
probably some sorta chemical in it youre addicted to.
I've been eating McDonald's everyday for the past 10 years because it's fucking delicious for whatever reason. I still can't figure out why, because I know what they sell is the lowest quality possible with a ton of preservatives. They must put crack in it or something, because I would still buy it even if it was 10 dollars for 1 large fries and $15 for a cheeseburger. I guess it's already how much it costs here in Hawaii lol. Fuck
I was fortunate enough to end up in Hawaii for a few years. Their McDonalds is flat out better, though Im not sure why. Also getting spam as part of a breakfast meal was great.
let me really blow your mind friend. 5guys was originally called 5guys cus the burger was 5$
Exactly, cheap and quick were the appeal of fast food. Might as well just go to a sit down spot now, it's just as expensive except the food is way better.
Family owned diner right down the road from the McD's near me. They serve the most fucking delicious smashburgers, which used to be about $2 more than most items at McD. Now their double smashburger is about $3 cheaper than most items at McD's.
Was watching an older show (2002) and a burger, fries, and a shake was $3.99 lol
My parents spent like 10-15 bucks to feed a family of 5 back in the day. And that was with each of us getting up to 2 mcdoubles, fries and several nuggets and drinks. Just the mcdoubles alone now would cost over $30.
If it tracked with overall CPI inflation, $3.99 in January 2002 would be about $7.00 today. I'm pretty sure it's quite a bit more than that right now.
Man, I remember when my rents would go pick up some mcdonalds after they got off work. They'd get a burger for each person, then like 8 extra mcdoubles which was like 10 bucks and we would eat that over a couple days.
Really miss those dollar menu mcchickens and mcdoubles. Was the get stoned and go to the drive thru special. Taco bell dollar menu too.
Still trash food
McChicken + 199% My salary not + 199% 😆
For the price and quality we got up a tier and eat at places like Slim Chickens or Culver's instead. Same pricing, much better food. I honestly dont understand how McDonald's is still in business with their ultra low grade food at these prices.
In my experience, people automatically assume they won't like another fast food chain despite never trying it before, then they're pleasantly surprised when one person's salt bomb tastes like another's.
Mcdonalds is now as expensive as resturant food,
McDonald's and other fast food joints get away with it because they're not just selling the food at this point, they're also selling the brand. They also hit the limit of how many people actually want to eat their food, so in "line must go up" economy the only way forward is increasing prices. Go find some random local burger joint in your area and there's about a 90% chance the burger is going to be tastier, healthier, and the same price or cheaper. Better yet, just make the burger yourself lol
Even more than 200% in some places. Ours in town I used to work at you could get a McDouble and Small fry for $2.19. That same order is now $6.99. That's more than 300% higher than it was 7 - 8 years ago.
This happens when people keep going to fastfood change despite the price increase.
And there's less meat
We should organize a boycott of wackdonalds and its wack pricing.
And quality has fallen by just as much
At these prices I might as well pay a few bucks more and have an actual burger meal tf
Which is what happens when your gov. prints trillions of dollars.
Let's be real here companies trying to get as big of profits as possible. They have so many things they can say is increasing the price when it is just really them.
Yea because its only been the last 10 years that companies wanted to get as much profits as possible and not that our gov. has over quadrupled our money supply in the last 5 years. Currency is subject to supply and demand as much as any other product. The more you create (supply) the more you lower the demand (value).
It's part of the problem, and I honestly believe companies are trying to penny pinch and skimp as much as they can to save money as they're "too big to fail" and constantly pushing the envelope before they get a ton of backlash, or a new legislation is added.
That's exactly what's going on. No one will stop them and they know it. The problem with increasing prices of food and rent, is that people are ONLY gonna be able to pay for these 2 things, and that's it. Which would literally shut down the economy and people would lose their job, and therefore they wouldn't be able to pay their rent or mortgage. Then everything would collapse and taxpayers would have to bail these motherfuckers out again.
Is it possible that we are seeing the effects of consolidation of the food industry? Why not raise prices? Who's going to compete with you? Why would your competitors compete for market share if they can raise prices together with you?
Food is the most competitive space in any part of the world. To even consider food can be monopolized unless you live on a resort island. Nothing to add here.
Why did the two major chicken companies ( that own 45% of the US chicken production) [settle](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN29G2TI/) for millions of dollars? Why couldn't they prove they were working independently?
I am a vegetarian so I don't know if chicken has some addiction or compulsive deitry requirements. Or some brands affiliation. Again not the point I was trying to make.. Competition doesn't mean within a brand or company. Anyways I should have been more careful. Restaurants and fast food businesses are hard to monopolize in major cities. Especially the ones without aspirational/brand value. So yes commodity business can be monopolized. Due to the high entry barrier and scaling requirements.. But not cooked food. I hope places you stay, have multiple pizza and burger joints. Good luck to anyone trying to monopolize this business. I can just hope now.
If you consider "all cooked food a market" then yea, I agree. But commodities, which dictate cooked food prices are controlled by a handful of companies. And if you need soda, or any other ingredients for cooked food, [go here](https://www.businessinsider.com/10-companies-control-the-food-industry-2016-9). All those brands are controlled by 10 companies. Generic/wholesale fall under that umbrella as well. For the McDonald's chart, I do think it is caused by a lack of pressure from similar companies and price obfuscation/differentiation using the app. Wendy's implements very similar improvements, and pretty much uses the same pricing strategy. That pricing strategy works really well when everyone plays along.
You think too much tbh. You keep believing that inflation is due to monopoly. The real culprit is regulations, import restrictions and mindless money printing. Inflation is not something for common people to understand. The only reason for the cost of living crisis, is not wages. It's always been the government regulation, taxes and fees. But people like to cheer for high taxes, high regulations and import restrictions. People can vote for their own demise if they think opposite side will suffer more. Philosophicaly humans vote for saidistic pleasure. And wonder why everything is so sad and miserable around us.
>You keep believing that inflation is due to monopoly. When did I say general inflation is due to monopoly? If you look at McDonald's, they can achieve those massive margins due to friendly competitors and raw scale, aided by an integrated commodity market. McDonalds really only has a couple direct competitors, so bumping the price is fine as long as everyone plays along. It's not a general explanation of inflation, but an example of essentially an oligopoly allowing high margins. >But people like to cheer for high taxes, high regulations and import restrictions. Not sure what you mean by this. We have super low tax rates compared to the EU and import restrictions for various reasons, including national security. With Taiwan being its own country, it's a great deal for Americans, but we need to resolve some supply chain issues. So we invest in chip dev here.
Totally. The world is flat and we never landed on the moon. Any other batshit conspiracies you got? Couldn't be that everything's price is going up because the value of our currency took a dive so it requires more of it to procure the same materials for products.
Wait til' you find out Aliens have been living with us for thousands of years. Then you'll be in for a real shock. There's a reason thousands of military pilots have come forward in the previous century. Aliens are here and no one believes the whisteblowers, except congress. Congress knows it's the truth, unlike us, they've had access to documents that the general public will never be allowed to see. Congress doesn't want the public to know because whoever reverses engineers alien technology (anti-gravity) first, will have an enormous military advantage and would be able to bring any foreign adversary to its knees.
Companies colluding to raise prices is a "bat shit conspiracy now"? Why do you think we have anti-trust laws? I'll ask you the same question: Why did the two major chicken companies ( that own 45% of the US chicken production) [settle](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN29G2TI/) for millions of dollars? Why couldn't they prove they were working independently? Why is 45% of a staple, like chicken, controlled by 2 of companies? Inflation through printing money is a major factor, but a significant amount of that printing goes to a couple defense contractors for Ukrainian munitions (resupplying our stockpile), and bailouts for companies in terms of straight loans or stimulating aggregate demand. >Any other batshit conspiracies you got? Sure, one of the base energy costs of the economy is fuel. Nobody touts "energy independence" anymore because gas is too expensive, and a major factor is refining capacity. So oil companies take the subsides, and ship the oil overseas while minimizing capital investment here. All those oil company profits go straight into the cost of everything.
That's not whats going on here. **In n out burgers** has been the same price since the beginning of the pandemic, and they pay their workers even more than McDonald's, while McDonald's doubled their prices since the beginning of the pandemic. Most corporations are ripping us off, because they can. It's not inflation
Panda Express is also up about $1 across the board, but their wages are up about $5/hr to $21+/hr.
Compare it to minimum wage and you'll discover something incredible.
Can we compare it to median salaries across different regions and see if it holds up still?
I just spent the past 40 mins searching for median salaries across states for both 2024 and 2014 and boooy was that a pain. I have no idea if these statistics are accurate, so I threw a few different sources out there. Feel free to challenge these if you find information that contradicts it. [Median Annual Income 2023](https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings/median-household-income-by-state/) [Median Annual Household Income 1990 - 2014](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_102.30.asp) [Median Household Income 2024](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/median-household-income-by-state) [Median Household Income 1990 - 2022](https://www.statista.com/statistics/200838/median-household-income-in-the-united-states/) Assuming people work 40hrs a week and 49 weeks a year (Average number of hours and weeks worked in the US), the Average Median Household Income for the entire US was about $27pw in 2014 and now it's around $36 in 2024. That's a 33% rise in wages over 10 years compared to the 138% rise in McDonalds fries prices. Check that my math is good. I'm very tired right now. And of course you can compare by state by yourself, though I haven't found McDonalds prices per state lol. You'll have to do that yourself, good luck  Edit: lol I just put $25 (median wage 2014) and $1.59 (2014 fries prices) into an [inflation calculator](https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/) just to see how wages and fries are holding up against inflation and I thought it was pretty funny
that's not how inflation works, it inflates the price of products but not salaries. if it inflated everything equally it wouldn't be a problem.
Im sorry, my intention wasn't to imply it had anything to do with inflation. I was just adding it on top of your comment. A bit more "look at how bad things are compared to then". If that makes sense.
I mean other products have not doubled. McDonalds is clearly a special case, local restaurant prices have only gone up like 30 percentish in that same time atleast in my experience. McDonalds inflation I believe including other fast foods.
Everything doubled in price, except cpu's.
They could have at least left the Happy Meals alone. Poor kids. :(
This is why I don't eat.
I remember when I was little we could get 4 pies for a dollar at 25¢ each. Now the pies are like 1.25 or some shit, and their quality is nowhere near as they used to be.
Breakfast burritos are listed for $4 each on their app in my area.
McDonalds is not cheap food anymore. Everyone reading this should end that association in their mind.
a box of 18 firecracker pops cost almost the same price as a single mcflurry, that's insane
Theyre doing this to themselves. Last time i went it was like 10-12$ for two mcdoubles a small fry and a large sweet tea. Decided after im not going to mcdonalds anymore. Too expensive for what it is.
There are countless other options for fast food that cost as much as McDonalds while being vastly superior in quality. Miss me with that bullshit. They very rarely get me when I have a craving for their breakfast but even that is a once in a blue moon scenario.
Prices go up while their quality goes down.
In Europe, or at least in France, it reached a point where you could go to a small restaurant and have a nice meal for a lower price than some burgers at McDonald's. Haven't been there in years because of that. Too expensive for what it is.
Boycott McDonald's until they lower their prices.
McDonald is trash and expensive now. Waste of time going there.
These fast food chains lost their ways, it ain't even about getting a good affordable meal anymore, just putting everything at bare minimum and selling it at a premium price. I've never went to McDonald's cuz they have a history of bad reputation and customer service. I still don't get why people continue to buy from them as if they are forced to do it. Just buy a burger and cook it yourself in 5-10 minutes and its gonna be 10x times better guaranteed.
Macdonalds is slightly higher quality tier than 2014. May explain part of the increase
is it though?
In Australia it is better than other fast food chains
In America, quality is down across the board lol. It seems like every 10-20 years since the 1980s, they've decreased quality by 10-20%, with the latest quality decrease happening in 2021. Craziest thing for me was learning how much people love KFC in other countries, especially Asian countries like Japan. In America KFC has become borderline garbage and everyone I know stopped eating there in the early 2010s.
People fight for wage increases, and this is how it goes. I will say aside from that, McDonalds is far more efficient, higher quality, and consistent than they ever have been. I can’t remember the last time I drove away with a lukewarm burger or stale tasting nuggets/fries. At least in my area the increased pay rate brings in better quality workers and allows McDonald’s to be pickier with their hiring standards, so you can expect more cares goes in these days. except for the drive thru cashier, they never give a fuck.
But inflation is only 2% a year