$3 for a single McDonald's hash brown? Some customers are fed up and pushing back

McDonald’s used to be viable because it was shit, but at least it was cheap. Now it’s just shit. I haven’t gone of my own will in years, only with other people who wanted it. $3 for a hash brown is absurd.
- The level is lower than that. McDonald's used to serve the customer, the customer now serves the corporation.
  
  The customer always served the corporation, they just used to hide it better.
- It used to be cheap, fast, filling and clean. It's none of those things anymore.
  What's their value proposition nowadays? Nostalgia?
  
  I think some of them still have working ice cream machines.
- No man. McDonald’s used to be cheap, fast and decent. The original burger in 1955 was 15 cents, or about $1.75 today. Don’t forget how far things have fallen lol

There's a burger place near me which makes a great burger - good quality ingredients, interesting toppings, great fries and they're cheaper than McDonalds. Given McDonald's prices on ingredients will be substantially cheaper, and their volume higher, this is just pure greed.
- My local burger places are just like that. Absolutely bonkers what people with a routine will tolerate if the change is slow.
  
  Some people are open to trying new things, they want the excitement of trying out a new restaurant or take out, they want to try types of food they've never eaten before.
  Then there are the other type. They behave in the same way as children do, they want what they like, and will not take a risk on something new, even on something as pedestrian as a burger.
- Yeah there is a little drive through burger stand 2 blocks away from me. Amazing burger and fries combo for $11. The only downside is their service is super slow, but that's a crapshoot at nearly every fast food chain at this point
  
  Yeah there is a great place near me that does a really, really good double with pimento, chili, fresh onion and jalapeno for around that too. 2 people getting food, a loaded fry (that's actually loaded), and tip is somewhere around $30. I don't see why I would eat at any fast food chain.
- I don't understand how McDonald's does so well in Australia, since our traditional takeaways do such good burgers and better chips (fries) a home cooked version true to the fish and chip place original
  Though my partner prefers the burger "plain" which omits the bacon, egg, and pineapple
- https://www.ddir.com/employment/

It's a good thing we haven't raised the Minimum Wage! Otherwise they may have Raised their prices!
- The legal minimum wage hasn't risen, but the real minimum wage has. Around here, in a poor little redneck town, you're getting $10-$12 to start at McDonalds.
  
  That’s actually even more depressing. The legal minimum wage is so low that it’s not even lifting up the wages of the most modest jobs in the lowest COL areas. It functionally doesn’t exist.
  
  I mean, I think part of the recruitment policy for each workplace is to state "We're above minimum wage by a decent margin!" But if minimum wage were bumped up to $10, that would no longer be the case, and McDonalds would be doing little to differentiate themselves - at least until they offer $15-$18.

"Some customers are fed up and pushing back"
But continuing to buy things from them, yeah? Companies are not going to change until people stop buying from them.
Nobody needs McDonald's. I'm not even sure most people actually want McDonald's. Just stop going, seriously.
- I hate McDonald's. I eat McDonald's. If I get into some tiny town or get off work in a tiny town at 11pm or later it's often the only place open.
  What I don't understand is people who eat there by choice. I sometimes work with a guy who will go to McDonald's by choice, even with better/cheaper options, three times a day.
  I wonder how much of McDonald's average franchise net income is from road warriors.
  
  God damn. What fucked up nightmare is this if your ONLY choice is this toxic shitty unhealthy food?
  You poor fucking bastard. Your health will pay for that in time.

I can't believe that the US Government believes that a little more than two McDonald's hash browns are worth one hour's work.
Fuck that. That isn't dignity.
- I'm just trying to pay for housing with my meager allotment of 80 hash browns per week
  
  💀
- Maybe those lazy millennials would be able to buy a house if they stopped eating McDonald's hash browns

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.
- 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
  
  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.
  
  I hear people talk like this, but I don't think it is actually true. Sure, fast food use to be half of a smaller joint, but now you are only paying 20-30% less at the fast food places. That ignores the fact that a lot of the cheap food is on the apps now. My Mcdonalds has had buy one get one Big Macs for about 2 years now. Even if I get that and a fry, I am looking at a $8 bill as opposed to a local joint that is going to charge $9 for their basic burger, no fries.
  This doesn't even take into account the speed of the fast food places, which is much slower than it use to be, but still the fastest places in town. So yes, the days of a late night snack run to Taco Bell are over, but the restaurants still have a purpose. The purpose is for when you need some food right now, and not for a huge price.
  
  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.
- 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.
- so you order on a touch screen that has been used by every nosepickin' customer before you and then chow down on food you eat with your hands? Sounds delicious.
- 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.
  
  It's truly scary how minimum wage hasn't changed
- Well yeah, how else will they post profits every quarter until the end of time?

It is so sickening how capitalism normalizes stripping people of their humanity
- People are just wallets that cry sometimes
  
  Poke poke C'mon... Quit crying! I want some money!
- I think it's even more disturbing how people can continue funneling support into capitalism then turn around and think they've got a leg to stand on by complaining about it.
  
  Breathing doesn't strip me of the right to complain about the bad air.
  
  So I assume you mean you don't complain about capitalism at all? Think its an amazing system?

the customer is tolerating it well
Sure am! It's been over four years since I've had McDonalds (or any other fast food restaurant). Prices are absurd and the food is meh at best.
- I do get a craving for McDonalds fries that I give into probably once or twice per year. Usually I'll get a Big Mac combo, or a couple McMenu sandwiches. The other surprising factor aside from the absurd price is how mediocre the flavour has gotten. While it was never culinary art, it somehow tastes even less like food than I remember just years ago.
  I'm disappointed every time.
  
  Maybe it's not that McDonalds tastes less like food but you just go used to eating proper food instead and your palate changed?
  
  It probably hasn't changed a whole lot over the years, it's just that the cravings make it sound so much better until you have it again. I'm the same with KFC, I get massive cravings and remember how good it was last time, then when I get it I end up regretting it and being disappointed, then the cycle happens again
  Tho that's my personal experience yours could differ
  
  We lose taste buds over time, so probably nothing tastes as good as it used to. 😉
  
  A relative lost most of his taste during Corona. Good thing though, he can eat food so spicy that everyone else falls into pain coma.

Just uh... don't eat there?
- Not many places open when 2nd shift closes.
  And yes, there's food at home or in the lunchbox, but sometimes home is 40 minutes away and you already ate lunch 5 hours prior.
  
  This is my life. Home is 45 minutes away. I pull into McDonald’s praying, “Please let it be fresh, oh lord. Please. I haven’t eaten since 8:00 AM, it’s 10:30 PM now. I don’t want to gag it down. Please Buddha, Krishna, Allah, Jesus of Nazareth! Please!”
  I open the wrapper, it’s dry and cold, or it’s fresh but the dude cooking it decided I wanted a whole brick of salt on it, or they decided, “Hey, these onions are better than those! Fuck consistency! They want it like I want it! With different onions and 40 pickles!”
  I’m about to try to find tv dinners that taste good or something. I legit starve sometimes because I literally can’t eat it.
  It’s the only restaurant that’s open on my way home.
  
  When I had that commute I would buy boxes of clifbars and power bars that permanently populated my glovebox. Trail mix in Adams peanut butter jars. Flavored oatmeal with raisins in old jam jars, just grab a cup of boiling water on your way out and pour it in. See also, instant mash potatoes, stuffing, ramen (adding boiling water to ramen and just waiting for it to be ready is the only way I like it now). That was the best idea I ever had before a multi day road trip, please use it.
  If anyone has ideas to add to that, I'm all ears. Or any other food-from-home non-shopping ideas (like eating potato salad with Tims salt and vinegar chips, bombdotcom)
  
  What happens if you go 6-hours without food?
- It's the most convenient restaurant around the corner from my home but I stopped going there.

Sunday morning, fire up the air fryer and park just outside of McD's. Selling hashbrowns at $1 a pop.
- And get fined by the city for not having a food vending license. And the audited by the IRS.
  
  The first point makes sense, that's why he needs to sell 10¢ trinkets for a dollar with a "bonus gift" of a hash brown lmfao
  I don't see why he'd get audited by the IRS, first he'd need to make more than 600 off it and even if he did, as long as he reports it the IRS DGAF as long as they get their cut lmao
  
  In the corporate world, that's known as "the cost of doing business". As long as the profit exceeds the fine, we're good. If the profits exceed the threshold, it would get claimed come tax time as "additional income". There'd be no audit because local PD doesn't report to the IRS.
  If the profit IS good enough, I'd totally pay the fee to register as an LLC so I can do the "fancy accounting" and afford myself all the tax and corporate bonuses that come along with it.
  Had I thought of it 5 years ago, I could have used the LLC to apply and get me one of those fancy COVID loans (that didn't need to be paid back). Though, I'll admit the money would have been invested in dividend bearing stocks and actually paid back at the end of the term; minus the profit I made off the money of course.

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.
- Pro tip, if you have access to a stove and several hours of free time to spare for cooking-- dry beans are super cheap!
  
  Extra pro tip: put them in a bowl or pan of boiling water the night before to make them cook quicker the next day. Extra extra pro tip put bicarbonate of soda in the water to make them cook quicker.
  
  It's truuuuee. I actually cooked my first pot of dry beans in a crock pot over the course of like 8 hours the other week, and it was very satisfying.
  
  An InstantPot (or other pressure cooker) can cut that time down quite a bit. I set mine on 40 minutes, but it takes a little while to get up to temp/pressure at the start and at least 15 minutes to slow/natural release the pressure at the end.
  Still, dry beans to food in about an hour is great! Also much easier to control your sodium intake, it that's a concern.
  
  Getting an Instant Pot was my game changer for dry beans.
- They won't tho. If these people could just buy other things they would have already imo. I stopped going to McD's when their prices got to high for me. That's why they're making a big stink about it, because they still want McD's but don't want to pay so much.
  
  I used to take my kids out to McDonald's for a quick bite - it was easy, food-allergy safe, and cheap -- but now it's the same price as the local burger place so fuck mcd
  
  No Macdonalds is making a stink because it's now cheaper to make foods at home for their core demographic -poor people. The article says they will drop some food prices accordingly.

It's one hash brown Michael, what could it cost?
- Here's some money. Go see a Star War.

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.
  
  Not to mention one of those la marcozzo espresso machines cost like 40k
- What most irritates me about this - plus layoffs to increase profits- is that the corporate numbnuts overlook the fact that every employee they stiff is a customer. Everyone is someone’s customer. A customer who has a shrinking amount of disposable income to spend on white goods, new clothes, eating out etc. They think hurrah, with AI we’ll be able to sack our creatives! Next thing they’re whining because there are so many homeless people on the streets. There’s a link! It’s exasperating.
- ngl if you think being a barista is hard work you've never really worked hard
  
  Ah yes, let's start belittling people so that the working class continues to infight. Thank you for your contributions to the rich.
  
  I've literally worked in the oil field throwing pipe wrenches around, and it was usually easier than what I see some food service employees putting up with lol
  
  It's brutal. More draining than any other retail job I've worked, and I've been in warehouses, unloaded trucks. Especially near a airport or hospital some locations do business NONSTOP. And the customers? FIENDING for sugar and caffeine in the form of some obscure, brand new tiktok hack that uses ingredients we probably don't have in stock and is made the total opposite of how a reasonable person would want it. It's like any other job, a lot of people DO put in hard work and most of those get nowhere but burned out.
  
  I've worked a lot of jobs. I much preferred moving furniture and pulling carpet to my work as a barista. It's still a physical job where you are on your feet all day but with the added stress of dealing with entitled customers.
  Now that I've moved on dealing with other humans is still the worst part of my job. Leave me alone and let me fix shit and I'm happy.

I actually don’t hate the burgers McDonald’s has now. They are hot, and often hit the spot for me.
HOWEVER, a double quarter pounder meal is now like $10, and it’s just not worth it when I have other options next door or across the street that sell better food for about the same price.
- Same, my daughter wanted their fries recently and we caved and bought it, and it was actually quite juicy and tasty.
  Ironically the fries were undercooked soggy potatoes, so win some lose some I guess.
  
  It's very location dependent. It was the only place to stop that was open on a recent road trip that I took. The bun was stale and the patties were overcooked. The pickles were fine I guess.

LOL McDonald's hasn't seen my shadow in 10 years at least
- I'm more surprised that they thought they could double prices, but yet somehow still very noticeably drop in quality. McDonald's quality drop isn't quite as bad as say, Taco Bell and others but wow, seems like hubris is in the air lately with these corporations' executive boards.

Three bucks for a hash brown? You know Simplot sells packs of ten for four dollars, right? And you can cook them on a stovetop with a tablespoon of vegetable oil, right? Hell, if you're desperate, you could even throw a pair into the toaster, although they won't taste nearly as good that way.
- And it’s not like McDonald’s gets a different hash brown. Simplot has supplied McDonald’s for decades: http://visitsoutheastidaho.com/2017/01/j-r-simplots-french-fry-pact-with-mcdonalds-was-key-for-company-idaho/
- My local burger chain has cheeseburgers for $3.50 and fries for $2.00. They are bigger and taste way better than McDonald's, and it's real food that doesn't destroy my stomach. They also have breakfast burgers and a big serving of breakfast potatoes for $2 each. Why would I ever go to McDonalds
  
  Not everyone has a good local place like that. There's a ton of bad local places. If you're in an unfamiliar place, sometimes it's easier to just go with a mediocre place.
  
  What is a breakfast burger? Is that just like a burger with an egg on it?

Unless pushing back means not shopping at McDonald's, then it doesn't matter
- Definitely not buying $3 hash browns there when I can go to Kroger and get a 2 lb sack of frozen hash brown patties that are about the same for $3 to $4. They are great in the air fryer
  
  Until all the grocery stores merge, create a monopoly and do their own round of increases. Kroger/Albertsons merger would be awful here in Washington.
  Within a couple miles of my house I have: QFC (Kroger), Safeway (Albertsons), Fred Meyer (Kroger).
- i dash. Mcdonalds was dead until they came out with free delivery and a bunch of other coupons again 🇺🇸
  
  I haven't had McDonald's in over 20 years, the only thing worse than McDonald's food that I can think of is home delivered cold soggy McDonald's. Is free delivery really that appealing?

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.
- Americans were told sometime in the 1970s that fast food = freedom.
- It feels like the days of 5EUR döner are in the past now. I see for 7 or 8 EUR sometimes.
- Especially the much higher quality and freshness of food in Europe in general.
- It's kind of the same here price wise. But people in the US tend not to care and love the convenience of fast food or are just stuck to a brand. Some of the lines I see at places here are nuts.
- 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.
  
  I know what you mean. A couple of years ago I bought a "Sandwich". Man, it was THE BEST Sandwich I ever ate. It was just "from Heaven". It was totally worth €10. And no, it wasn't from Subway or the Kind. It was tiny Bavarian Restaurant pretty unknown outside its town. To bad it made a GREAT name meanwhile and nowadays charges like twice as much for anything.
- 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
  Man, I miss doner kababs so much. I haven't quite found anything similar back stateside.
  
  A buddy came over here and fell totally for Turkish and Arab food in Germany. Seriously he started to sell Kebab and Döner on the US West Coast and got ludicrous rich. His trick, he doesn't use Turkish or Arab names for his food. He sells it as "Yummy Wraps" and other fancy names and people stood half around the block to buy it.

Just think of all the hundreds of millions of people who won't be affected by this because they refuse to eat at MacDonald's regardless of their prices.

Y'all aren't boycotting?
- I'm stunned people are bitching about fast food prices. Just don't? FFS, what do you expect?!
  "I keep buying and prices keep going up!"
  Yeah. That's how it works. Have you considered maybe stop giving them money?
  "I can't! I'm helpless and have excuses!"
  
  But but, people of limited means don't have any option but to....overpay for fast food? Yeah that's it. There's just no competition in the food game at all... You're forced to eat big macs even if they're $3500 a mac... Because that's the only option you have as a poor person I assume...or something.
  
  Been wondering the same thing about apple products since the iPhone.
- Idk about boycotting but I'll tell you that I haven't had McDonald's since I went and it was like $20+ for two people for some breakfast sandwiches (meals). I'd rather buy the frozen ones or just have none. Like everyone else, we don't have a ton of extra money and if we do go out, we want our value for our time.
  I got used to thinking about money being time. If you make 15/hr then one meal is roughly one hour. Don't think of your dollar, think of how many hours something costs.
  
  There was an article on here the other day about the $20 big mac meal. Basically McDonald's is trying to exploit higher grocery prices, assuming more consumers will go to them instead. But they seem to not realize that charging as much as a douchey hipster restaurant for a burger and fries while being literally on par with frozen food is a losing proposition. It's like they forgot they're still in competition with the entire rest of the restaurant industry and that their prices have to stay below grocery prices to be competitive with groceries in the first place.
  Hilarious, not gonna lie.
  
  Insane how little it costs to rent a human.
  
  "time is money" etc and inversely
  
  When/where was this? My wife and I just had breakfast sandwiches with sides and drinks, each, a week or so ago and it was like $8 total for both.
- There's this one McDonald's on this busy road where we live and I jokingly started calling the right lane the "McDonald's lane" because so many cars in that lane were always turning in. I realized earlier this week that these days most cars drive past instead.
  
  Here it's Popeye's... which they seem to have at least maintained a decent quality/price ratio. Their wait times are atrocious though. Zaxby's is even worse, but they at least have a big enough parking lot to stay out of the road. That line has taken a half hour to move up 1 car length before.

I heard about this and lmao no deal mcdicks.
Hash brown is 99 cents. Figure it out. We can see your market value.
I vow to not buy a McDonald's hash brown until it is below $1
- Honestly where I live I can get a ni e pub meal for about the same price as one of their burger meals.

Don't mind the prices as long as the quality is there. All of the fast food chains in my area have tanked in quality. Except for Five Guys.
- the taco bell near me is always on point. but the CEO is a fucking moron. constantly removing great items for no good reason, like the quesarito and beefy melt burrito. i can even still order those, for cheaper, with item adding
  
  What?!??? How do you stil let quesaritos?!? That was the only thing I ever got from tbell
  
  the taco bell near me is always on point.
  I want to know where this unicorn exists!
  I've tried going to Taco Bell three times, three different locations, over the past 3 - 4 years and I've regretted it every single time.
  The last time I went to one, it was like almost everything that could go wrong did. Long wait of 20+ minutes. Employee(s) smelled strongly of weed. The 5-layer burrito was disgustingly dry and missing about 2 layers. And the price for 2 crappy, tiny burritos and a drink was around $12.
  Back when I used to eat there more frequently (broke college kid), the same exact meal was less than $5.
- The first 5 guys in our area was great quality and cheap! Then a couple years later the quality has been way down and prices about 4x. Just insane and disappointing.

True, but fuck KSL, it's a Mormon-owned entity.
- What's wrong with Mormons? In South Park, they were the only religion whose devout followers have been treated kindly.
  Though I haven't seen The Book of Mormon...
  
  You mean besides being an uber controlling cult that embezzles millions if not billions of dollars?
  Also Book of Mormon is excellent, highly encourage you to go see it! There's not a bad seat in the house for Broadway.
  
  The race bigotry, the anything that isn't hereto hate, the normalizing of totally cutting people off if they deviate from the cult?
  But if you're basing your views on south park I've got bad news for you.

That's the McConomy
(badum tsst)

McDonald's is a waste of time
- There's faster food for less and better food for the same price. There's no point unless you're traveling.
  
  I’ve had gas station sushi that was better on the road
  
  It's really the food of last resort. Most times if that's the only option I'll just wait until I'm somewhere more civilized with better options.
- McDonald's is absolute garbage.
- I occasionally buy Chik Fil A (even though they're assholes), and they cost just as mucj as McDs and are far better. I prefer KFC though (fam hates it).
  
  Chil-Fil-A is a Y'all Queda owned restaurant that serves dry, mediocre chicken sandwiched between crappy bread.
  Their only notable contribution is managing to destroy traffic for blocks around their stupid restaurants.

They're not talking about human beings.
They said "consumer." Which they don't see as human, only as meat with eyes.
- We're just money cattle

As someone who works in a mom and pop restaurant, I understand this. McDonalds is huge and buys/manufactures in bulk, sure, so their prices are gonna be cheaper, but their costs are still going up like the rest of us. It kills me to keep seeing our menu updates, but food is fucking expensive now. I'm not saying that McDonalds isn't pulling down a tidy profit, and if food costs dropped they probably wouldn't drop their price, but I don't put the price increase solely on them. Food costs are rising all over, and it's killing the business. I have a spreadsheet from 6 years ago when I first started analyzing our costs, and my most recent sheet shows anywhere between 150 and 200% increase across the board. That's absurd. So, blame McDonalds for whatever you want, I won't stop you, but make sure to aim some hate at the production side of things as well.
- The end solution is still the same. If we stop buying it, McDonald's stops ordering it which gives the production companies shockedpikachu.gif
  It's gotta start somewhere.
  
  The issue is how many people love paying for McDonald's. Go home and cook for my family tonight? Nah, that's too much work. It's much easier to spend $50 at McDonald's.
  
  And that will never happen. That is the consumer equivalent of kicking the can down the road. "I'll do my part and stop buying, surely everyone else will do the same and corporations will stop being greedy." That's never going to happen, and if you stop at that point, you may as well just keep buying it. Costs have to be regulated. Bailouts have to stop happening. Tax breaks have to end for corporations that don't act in the best interest of the taxed. We have to hold the government accountable for protecting it's people, because for as long as people have been people, we've found new and creative ways to fuck others over while justifying it as supply and demand. Supply and demand has been a lie since the dawn of the industrial revolution. There is no demand on the supply of necessities that cannot be met with modern means. The cost of grain is still the seed the soil and the sweat. Stop inflating costs, and the economy will balance. However, without regulation, those costs will continue to inflate, and the lowest will always have to suffer.
- Pretty sure McDonald's has had more than a 200% increase in menu prices over the last 6 years. Pretty sure labor and other overhead has gone down, and last I checked those were a bigger portion of the menu price than the food itself.
- I've heard food prices are up because of the Russian war raising the price of fertilizer (depends heavily on natural gas) and animal feed (Ukraine was one of the world's largest suppliers). McDonald's profits are up 17% year-over-year though, so they're definitely raising prices faster than their costs are increasing.

This is how supply and demand and inflation are supposed to work. Prices get inflated because the supply is low and the demand is high. We’re now at the tipping point where the market is saying it’s too much. We should have been saying it was too much, via our wallets, years ago.
Cry all you want about corporate greed but it’s largely unregulated so the supply for their wallet still counts as supply. If you’re still paying for it, they’re going to keep raising the prices. What’s something worth? What someone will pay for it.
Why is beef still expensive? Because people keep buying it. https://www.marketplace.org/2024/01/10/if-inflation-slowed-down-in-2023-why-is-my-grocery-bill-so-high/
- It's not supply being low, it's about captured markets via strategic regulation chokes.
  I can literally buy a half pallet of hasbrowns for less than 4 or 5 trips to the family at McD. I just am not going to invest in a fryer...
  
  Air fryer works extremely well for hash browns and tater tots.
  
  You could probably cook those in a toaster.
  
  They sell mini fryers for under $100. I was gifted one that I never use because one liter of oil, is one liter too many.
  
  The worst part is a fryer is the cost of 4-6 value meals or 20 hashbrowns on the low end.
  
  You’re going to have to explain this to me better. What “market” is being captured by what strategic regulation chokes?
- Around here I can get shrimp cheaper than most beef, if I hit a good sale...

I’m so mad about it I haven’t been there in a decade.

McDs is one of a handful of optuons I have so I cant really boycott; however, today I found a dastardly trick: the order kiosks suddenly switched medium and large so you will accidentally order the large size. Almost got me, but not quite

I stopped eating fast food, oh… shit, almost 20 years ago.
these things, though. CRACK. these and sausage egg McMuffins. once a year on my birthday. I’ll pay whatever for them.
edit: before you even… I’ve tried finding the ingredients elsewhere and replicating them— it’s impossible!
- Are you sure you can't replicate them? They're just English muffins with some kind of fake liquid butter squirted on the inside (then toasted), frozen sausage patties, and eggs fried in metal egg rings. I think their English muffins may have a little more salt on the outside than the ones you typically get from the store. I guess it may be hard to cook the eggs exactly the same, since they use a grill that heats the top and bottom at the same time (same with the sausage, but those can easily be flipped).

Not for me. My fast food intake has drastically shrank. Better for my health anyway

My favorite Korean restaurant raised prices twice in a year. It went from $16 to $19 to $22 for a box of Korean fried chicken.
Where the big companies can handle it (and at times, are the ones doing it), mom and pop shops are getting fucked and have to raise prices too.
- I learned that Korean fried chicken is pretty easy to make, so I freed myself from the retail price increases. Also, because the place that made by far the best Korean fried chicken closed leaving me with all these watered down fried in olive oil lame places.
  Fun nostalgia: Korean chicken joints in Korea in the nineties were frequently late night (like three in the morning late night) drunken smoke filled brawl infested shit shows of soju chugging drunk munching goodness. It's always a little strange to me to see modern day "nice" chicken places.

Simple solution seems to be just eat the rich.
- What does the working class, the largest of the classes, not simply eat the ownership class?
- They look nasty. We can still cook them tho.

Many other chain restaurants have increased their prices too.
Even smaller ones here, have gone crazy:
16" pepperoni pizza, 26.99
- I went to Burger King a couple months back and got me, a friend helping me and my wife each a #1. Nothing special, just basic whopper meal
  $51.
  When did a number one start costing $17 each? Fuuuuuuck that. I paid it knowing full well that that was the last time I'm ever eating fast food, unless its a pair of freshly made deluxes from Dick's in Seattle.
  Fools trying to charge sit down pricing for their cut rate food, poverty wages and phenolic benches. Fucking, never. I'm all for millennials killing the fast food industry, c'mon guys, let's get on that.
  
  Yeah totally, I swore off mcds (even though I only eat it once every 6 months, hate myself, then crave it again) once I saw that a single big-mac went up to $8.99 (just the burger!) And it has just increased since
  It's fucking madness

What I hate most is that they removed the mcchicken biscuit... makes no sense for me to go there for breakfast now

For the longest time I knew fast food junk was not good for you so I ate less of it.
During the pandemic I completely avoided fast food.
It's been three years now and I haven't gone to any fast food at all.
Now I can't rationalize eating it any more.
It isn't healthy, it isn't food, it has no nutrition, it has too much of the things that degrade your health. It's also prepared by people being paid as little as possible to maximize the profit to the people who do the least in the transaction.
From a health point of view is like investing in degrading your body .... it's like investing in rust for your car or pouring tiny amounts of water or sugar in your gas tank ... it's paying a premium for an unhealthy body in the future.
And now it costs more ... it costs more to ruin your health. So you spend a lot of money now to ruin your health and then spend a lot more money to fix your unhealthy self when you get older.
When you look at it over a lifetime, it's far cheaper to just not eat fast food

If you have an alternative to McDonalds and you still eat McDonalds anyway, get some self-respect.

While McD is gouging their customers hard, I'm still considering restaurants as a luxury.
I'll do my hashbrowns in the toaster-oven in the morning and make myself a "McMuffin" at home for dirt-cheap.
Like any other businesses you won't make them change their price unless their cashflow is impacted. Want to send a clear message? Stop going, and you may end up not coming back later because you'll see all the money you wasted. Or at least make it a rare treat, not a habit.
- Restaurants have always been a luxury.
  People don’t realize how good we have it. Eating out isn’t supposed to be normal. Fast food like soda and pizza and burgers and snacks are all supposed to be an occasional treat because they don’t positively contribute nutritionally to our diets. Eating at a restaurant is supposed to be a treat because it’s more expensive and luxurious to have someone purchase and prepare and serve the food to you.
  If you don’t have the time to make food for yourself, something is wrong. It may not be your fault but it should be your priority to figure out a solution. Consuming calories and sleeping are the two primary things that permit our bodies to function. Our lives should revolve around these things. Because they literally do.
  
  You can't hear me, but I'm clapping loudly.
- OP on another thread got buried for saying that. LOL, another poster pointed out the obesity epidemic. Not seeing the connection. 🤷🏻‍♂️
  Americans, let's face it: We've been a spoiled country for a long time. Do you know what the number one health risk in America is? Obesity. They say we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic. An epidemic like it is polio. Like we'll be telling our grand kids about it one day. The Great Obesity Epidemic of 2004. "How'd you get through it grandpa?" "Oh, it was horrible Johnny, there was cheesecake and pork chops everywhere."
  Nobody knows why we're getting fatter? Look at our lifestyle. I'll sit at a drive thru. I'll sit there behind fifteen other cars instead of getting up to make the eight foot walk to the totally empty counter. Everything is mega meal, super sized. Want biggie fries, super sized, want to go large. You want to have thirty burgers for a nickel you fat mother fucker. There's room in the back. Take it! Want a 55 gallon drum of Coke with that? It's only three more cents.

I stopped buying the hash browns years ago because of how overpriced they are. They are worth no more than 50 cents.
- And why the fuck are fries like $5 now... I swear a large was like $3 a year ago.

Enshitificaion, complete!
- McDonald’s has always been garbage food. Not sure what people are expecting. If you eat that shit you deserve it.

I'm overweight, not especially healthy, and even back in the day when I was dirt poor and on heroin (I'm good now, for 17 years, thanks) I never ate that shit. It just made me miserable every time and my stomach was never full. Even simple sugar cubes were a better short term solution back then, used to put 12 in my coffee.
- How are you being upvoted for this bs.
  
  I'm curious as to what your issue with their comment was?

Good for the customers.

Someone needs to organize a boycott.
- I'd organize one but I don't ever eat there
  
  Oddly enough you can do things with other people even if you're not necessarily the same as those people.
  Organizing a boycott of one is just not eating there.

Sausage biscuit is still a buck. I’m kinda shocked it’s stayed that cheap.

I admit it's been a while since I've been to a McDonalds, but it can't have been more than a couple of years and hash browns were definitely way less than that. Maybe a dollar.

I've had Mcdick's once in the last 2 decades, and that was easily 5 years ago. It wasn't as good as I remembered.
- Imagine being able to say you haven't eaten in a place for two decades, but still sound like a 14 year old with stupid shit like "mcdicks."
  
  Hey, it's the tone police. Imagine thinking you have a point about a comment and still sound like a Victorian era dandy.

- ...is everything alright? You feeling good? Rough day or something? Jeez.
- You’re not wrong you’re just an asshole. I only go out to eat for social events. Everything else is home cooked. But also being this asshole doesn’t help change habits or minds or just makes people think less of people like me who actually do live this life.
  
  Again, I'm not going to ask permission as to how I'm going to express certain opinions to appease people out there and check on their emotions. Your emotions are not my responsibility.