It's easy to tolerate price increases on products when you don't buy that product. The thing that concerns me though, is that if people stop buying McDonald's and instead buy canned beans... is my chili going to get more expensive because McDonald's wants 3 dollar hash browns? I'm pretty sure the answer is yes.
this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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Inflation and wage theft are absolutely out of control in this country. I'm a barista. My store makes $1600 in a eight-hour day. Mine and all of my coworker's wage in there probably adds up to about $50/hour on average. So the profit margin is ridiculous. And these businesses have the gall to think they can make MORE MONEY. No, fuck you. At some point the human beings doing the hard work need to get a bigger cut.
make sure you count utilities and rent for the building and supplies etc, its still ridiculous but slightly less so
And franchise fees. They take a percentage of gross. I really don't know why anybody gets involved with that stuff.
Yeah of course there are operating expenses, but you have these same companies buying the lowest quality equipment and products they can get away with as well. It's inexcusable.
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I worked for McDs in high school, around 2008. Big Mac meal used to be $6.08 with tax, $1 menu used to be $1.06 with tax. I went the other day and was shocked to see how much everything costs now plus I have to order via a screen (which I find bizarre, but maybe I'm just old now).
I also feel like working there used to be kind of fun. I'd take the order from the drive thru/take the money, kitchen would secretly prioritize drive thru orders (everything is timed), and window person would get the order together. Now it seems like they take 1 or 2 drive thru orders at a time and make the line wait until those are done.
Seems like fewer people working & prices went up - and I'm sure those poor folks working are making minimum wage. It's just sad all around.
Well yeah, how else will they post profits every quarter until the end of time?
would secretly prioritize drive thru orders
Fucking knew it! Thanks for confirming
Well metrics are collected for both dining and drivethru but dive thru was always pushed hard as the thing to maintain timing wise. That's when we figured out the smile button. A no charge but very abusable button that would count as an order. Ring a smile and wait 10sec and clear it. Ring one every 3 orders to be sly to corporate.... When your having wait time issues and you could clear them and have them count even before clearimg the order before it. Easy way to knock the occasional 5 to 10 minute order down that skewed my hours metrics.
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The cool part is I started working there just after you! I started around 2013 and worked there until about 2016 and it was STILL about maybe $7 or $8 for a meal, and the dollar menu was still $1.06
This shit happened during covid and they're literally only doing it because they can. There have been reports that the current inflation isn't driven by the state of the economy at all, but just corporate greed.
Don't waste your time and money guys, you can get food cheaper at the mom and pop restaurants now, and that food is usually at least half decent. When it's the same price to eat at McDonald's or a "healthier" place like tropical smoothie or Chipotle, why the fuck would I want to pay for ultra processed sludge
There have been reports that the current inflation isn't driven by the state of the economy at all, but just corporate greed.
Corporate greed definitely exists, but printing $15 Trillion also has an effect.
I'm no financial analyst and im no good at all of the legal jargon, but aren't the notes below this chart explaining they changed how they calculate this right around may 2020?
Like I said, I'm illiterate when it comes to the technical side of this stuff, so I just googled and from what I'm gathering from this article below, the fed changed the rules for what defines a savings account so they're almost the same as checking, and that caused them both to get reported in M1 and that's the majority of that surge of cash.
Feel free to correct me with better evidence, like I said again, I'm just trying to understand the legal wording here:
https://collabfund.com/blog/the-fed-isnt-printing-as-much-money-as-you-think/
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When it's the same price to eat at McDonald's or a "healthier" place like tropical smoothie or Chipotle, why the fuck would I want to pay for ultra processed sludge
Yes, exactly. Maybe I just take the amazing variety of local food choices near me for granted, but it just makes no sense to me anymore.
The only fast food I still get sometimes is Taco Bell. Not if I'm in the mood for Mexican, I've got a half dozen better places near me for that. Taco Bell is its own genre of food separate from Mexican and Tex-Mex.
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In high school (~1995) I used to work in light construction/carpentry, and I was ravenous on a normal day, so work days I would eat huge amounts - on payday I would go to McDonald's and order a Big Mac meal and a happy meal -- both for me. (It probably would've been more cost effective to buy two adult meals, but the first time I did it the cute girl at the register said something about how I seemed like a nice dad ... I should've just asked her out, rather than keeping up a bizarre charade for no reason -- I was tan and fit from working outside all the time, I should've had more confidence, but I was also undiagnosed autistic too, so, well, that kind of explains that.)
Anyway, the Big Mac meal was $2.99 united states dollerydoos, and I was making $7/hr. The price doubled in the 10 years between us... but wages stayed about the same.
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Fun fact: In Germany, the big US fast food companies are in a constant price war. They hand out vouchers at least once a week and offer big discounts online and in their apps. Because if they didn't their restaurants would be utterly empty. For the price of €12 for a Big Mac menu, I can go straight to a pretty good restaurant and have a Schnitzel with French Fries, a salad and a beer.
Especially Burger King and McDonalds are doing that all day. Subway and KFC a lot less.
Then there are Turkish and German fast food restaurants. They often have prices so low they simply don't have to lower then to beat the US chains. And to be honest, before I buy a burger for €5 I buy a Kebab or Shawarma which beat every burger in taste and amount of food. German fast food restaurants often sell grilled chicken, all sorts of fish, fried sausages and so on. And yes, we consider Pizza German Food nowadays. And the Italians agree, especially when talking about Pine-Apple Pizza or Pizza with pulled pork. They are usually cheaper than anyone else and the food is huge and easy to eat fast. German Fast Food makes all others look like slow food, you can easily stuff yourself in two minutes.
Some prices:
-The Croatian canteen in our town hall serves good Balkan cuisine from €5. A glass of tap water for €0.50. And it is a nice place, not looking like a canteen at all. Tips are included in these prices.
-I have a ton of vouchers of 50% voucher for Chicken McNuggets, Big Macs and Salads. I don't visit McDonalds too often as they require to order from a needless complicated touch screen but when I do I sometimes take a voucher "Two Big Macs for €5".
-a company I work for sometimes orders the "business menu" from Burger King which is something like "20 burgers of your choice and 2kg of fries" for €70. As the boss often invites his worker I am just happy with whatever I get.
-the local furniture store offers 50% vouchers for a a complete fish dish on Friday for €5 in his nice restaurant.
-they also offer Chinese and German Food often at 50% vouchers which equals to €4-€5 for a complete meal. And every day they have some cheap East European soup dishes like Borscht, Flaczki, Gulasch and so on for €2-3 and it is always a HUGE amount of food.
Seriously, if you open your eyes you would be surprised how many really cheap and great restaurants are around.
And to be honest, before I buy a burger for €5 I buy a Kebab or Shawarma which beat every burger in taste and amount of food.
Compared to a BK or McD's burger then yeah absolutely. But compared to burgers in general? Much closer call. If you haven't had a really good cheeseburger, then you're really missing out.
Fast food burgers should have a different name, the difference is so stark.
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Especially the much higher quality and freshness of food in Europe in general.
It feels like the days of 5EUR döner are in the past now. I see for 7 or 8 EUR sometimes.
Americans were told sometime in the 1970s that fast food = freedom.
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