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.
What's actually infuriating are those bar charts.
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.
Mildly infuriating is +122% being the largest bar graph and +199% is the smallest.
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.
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.
Plenty small restaurants have not seen price increases this stark over this period of time. Eat there instead.
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. Get down to your local McDonald's now and buy yourself at least 57 Big Macs which I've calculated to be the optimal amount until global warming renders this planet a cinder. And get me a chocolate milkshake while you're at it, please.
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.)
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.
Prices fit for a billionaire who wears depends
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"
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.
More reason to stop eating fast food.
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.
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.
To compare, inflation from 2014 to 2025 has been about 33%
Based on the comments here, McDonalds probably made the graphic.
Everyone is more focused on how it should have been done rather then fuming at McDonalds for price gouging.
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.
Good! People should not eat that crap. It’s hardly food.
I don’t eat there so the jokes on them!
If this was just McDonalds, shouldn't there be a Burger King that didn't raise prices to try to gain back market share?
And if this was all fast food joints, is there a common reason besides greed that it happened? If it was just greed, you would think one of their competitors could WALMART (lower prices until competition dies) them.
2024 their sales went down for the first time, so they cut the prices a bit on some meals, but you get a small drink and a small frie like we're fucking stupid. If you up it back to medium fries and drink it's the same shitty overpriced deal.
It got me over the idea of stopping for fast food. Fuckem
Back ~2010/11 I used to go to McD's once a week with friends after practice. I'd order a McChicken, a mcdouble, and a medium fry and pay with just random loose change from my car. Thanks for confirming this for me with this infographic, these are the prices I remember paying.
Not Worth it their food is not very good anyways its average.
Must eat at McDonald's.
mildy inflating
I haven't eaten "fast" "food" in basically forever. It's been decades. Unless 2010-ish Subway counts, and that was only consumed b/c I was driving cross-country and one whole sub was a day's eats that I could stash as-needed.
These prices blow my mind. I can't believe that people are paying so much for so little, and for crappy fried heart-attack and diabetes fare too. I can eat for a day for the price of one of these "burgers" (or "meals" - just because there's more than one item in the bag doesn't make it a "meal" no matter how much the marketers use the term). For the price of a "quarter pounder" here, I can get at least three big cans of "chunky"-style soup, each of which is a meal in itself - all you need is a bowl and a microwave and a spoon and a few minutes to heat. For the price of that burger I can (and do) get 3-4 boxes of cereal at Walmart, each of which will, along with a little milk in a bowl, provide a week's-worth of breakfasts.
Frozen veggies, basics from the Winco bulk aisles, a bit of dairy maybe, a little spice, and maybe a worn, curled recipe book you got from the used bookstore (or not, if you already have the intuition for cooking) and you can eat incredibly cheaply (and well, if you're careful) in the US. No need to fill your body with expensive McShit just because the ads tell you to and justify your doing it. Everything changes if you're already homeless of course, that's gonna cost you, but just be aware that McEating is going to get you to that state of being all the sooner.
I think that people eating all this McShit and justifying it as some kind of necessity ("too busy shop and cook!") are just addicted to sugar/fat/salt/industrial-chemicals and who demand "treats" of such things each and every goddamn day (vs maybe once every few weeks 40 yrs ago) because that's what they "deserve". I understand, a treat is all you can aspire to, you're never going to buy a house or have a decent job, but blowing what little $ you have on ruining your health and mobility and sanity doesn't seem to me like it's going to help get more out of life. No more than a daily 12-pack of McBeer would, and for that you wouldn't have to wait in line.
We used to call this fast food. I would say it is barely 1 of the 2 words in that description.
It is of low nutritional quality, bad for the environment, and takes forever if you dont order the popular stuff. It is often lukewarm at best and they often fuck up the order.
I just see this stuff as a waste of time and health.
Im not sure how infuriating this is at least for me. I always knew I ate to much fast food but it was just to cheap and convenient and hard to kick. Now I pretty much don't buy it. In the last few years I have only had it a few times and it was under the most stressful of situations (wife in the hospital and running around and late at night and just needed something to fill the stomach). Fast food becoming to expensive to not think about budget wise is one of the few good things to come out of the recent inflation. Especially since I don't use smartphones or apps there of.
I was becoming more and more infuriated as I read through this, then I realized where this was posted. Carry on.
Where are these prices from? A quarter pounder meal is under $10 where I am.
It's called inflation right? Try to compare it with a cryptocurrency instead of the dollar ;P
They did bring back the 5 dollar meal though, at least in my region. Which immediately makes them a viable option.
But the five dollar meal is weird in comparison to everything else they offer.
For example, a small fries by itself is $2.50 half the cost of the whole 5 dollar meal.
To me this indicates that they're just arbitrarily increasing prices for the sake of them being more expensive.
The problem of course with raising prices at McDonald's is that people eat there because they're supposed to be cheap and fast. Not because of their "gourmet" food.
