A Boring Dystopia

They kept pushing the prices, became more expensive than restaurants in my area. I ate at a diner. 13 per person. Eat at McDonald's, 11 per person for the cheap stuff. The patty from the diner was as big as their fucking $3.5 Mcdouble. Then they overwork their employees and pay them like shit so you're lucky if they even give 2 shits about you or your food. There's just no point in going to fast food anymore. It ain't fast, it being food is questionable, and it's not even cheap.

I would consider myself a fast food connoisseur, despite having what I would call above average cooking skills.

The likes of McDonald's and KFC have never been in the same leagues as proper burgers/chicken. No one is comparing a Big Mac to a normal burger from home or a restaurant, so many of the comparisons here are unfair at best, and detached from reality at worst. You have McD because you want McD, not because you want a burger.

The fundamental problem is that fast food needs to be both fast and cheap. It's neither, because companies skimped on staff post-pandemic, and prices are just too high. Now, that cheap treat that you enjoy has to be worth both the price and the wait - and these restaurants are finding that it's just not justifiable any more.

They lost the battle the second you made it about low-income diners. These restaurants were about spectacle for the kids, and about value at speed for the families. When you market your food as "poor people food" people aren't going to want it, especially if someone with a good income still balks at the price tag.

I don't really know how many of them are going to survive, outside of revisiting what make them great places for kids and families. That's harder to do today than it was, but they really need to revisit who their customer actually is - because if your value proposition is "you'll be less surprised at how expensive the food the poors eat" then you're going to see fewer customers. Ultimately, that's probably what some execs want, because that real estate is probably worth a ton...

People learned how to cook again during the Pandemic ... found out it wasn't hard, and some even found it enjoyable. Tacking on a period of inflation right after that, and fast food is no longer anywhere near the economic staple it was in the Before Times.

I used to get a bic mac large menu for me and my friend for roughly €10, now it's around €12 for one if i'm not mistaken (haven't been to the place for quite some years now).

The food was never worth the money, we went there for the friendship and low barrier of entry. We could just do what we wanted and enjoy ourselves for as long as we wanted. Watch some video's, have a laugh, maybe get a cheap icecream or milkshake after a while.

Where any regular coffee place would start trying to get you to order more or let you know they needed to "free up the table" for other guests.

Maccers never gave a shit and it felt good to be there, so that's what we did...we hung out as it was affordable, especially when the weather was bad.

Note that McD’s no longer shows their pricing on their website. You have to add the item to the cart and log into a delivery service to see. Asinine.

After getting ripped off by McDonald's and then seeing how much they raised prices above inflation compared to the rest of the industrly, I'll never eat there again. Rip me off, fuck you, your food is shit anyways.

It's been good, pushed me to shop more local.

used to be national chain fast food was cheap, buy a meal for ~$3-6, and local chains / restaurants where more expensive, $7-15.

Now I can go to a sit down local chain for $7-20 or get a fast food for 15-20

It was $15 even the other day for a burger and fries. I won't be back.

Go to McDonald's about every 4 years because of some external circumstance

"Yup, still garbage"

Have one in 5 minute walking distance ever since I moved here 5 years ago. Never bought anything there. They'd need to pay me to eat their offerings.

But in fairness shoutouts to the McDonald's in Madrid airport terminal 4 outside of security. The only place in there not trying to rip you off. Had my share of salads there

Wtf? $6 is now a value for a shitty McDonalds hamburger?

Me, hungry with $10 in my pocket

Open McDonald's app

See ad for $5 meals

Click it

All meals are $6 or more

Close app

Make a sandwich

This is becoming a common thing with McDonald's. The 1,2,3 menu is all $4.50 or more here, too.