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Comment by sammalloy | Hacker News Reader

Have you been inside a McDonald’s recently? The prices are outrageous. I don’t see how the average person could afford to eat there.

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I’ve entirely stopped eating fast food because every time I go, I’m enraged by how I am charged full service prices for low-quality, greasy, garbage and poor service. I’ll instead make my own food, which is much cheaper and tastes much better. I’ve resigned myself to only eating at restaurants socially, or if they make something better than I can.

I feel the exact same way. I don’t understand how the fast food industry will continue without major changes due to the “low cost” factor being completely evaporated. They cost almost as much as fast casual places these days, yet the quality is nowhere near as much as them. I generally just cook these days, and if I happen to be out and about, if I have the time I’d rather just find a few things from the grocery store than to pay outrageous prices for low-quality food. It’s inconvenient but the prices that are being charged these days make the inconvenience necessary.

FWIW I basically stopped eating at McD's in my 20s and 30s then we've started going again in our 40s. There's one reason: kids. McD's is incredibly kid friendly, from its ubiquity on every street corner and major tourist attraction, to the drive-thru that means you don't need to wake the kids up from their nap when you pick up food, to the online ordering app, to not having to cook, to the kid-friendly menu where it's basically guaranteed there's something they'll eat.

We rarely eat fast-casual nowadays despite being voracious consumers when we were in our early 30s. Our kids don't eat it (so we need to cook separate meals for them), and there's less infrastructure built up around making sure parents never need to go into the restaurant.

I feel like McDonald's has always served the families-with-small-kids demographic - it started in the baby boom and then massively expanded as the baby boomers were themselves having kids. To the extent that the fast food industry is seeing its customer base decline, it's probably because fewer people are having kids. It's likely that childless couples didn't eat at McDonalds in the 80s and 90s either, but being kids then, our only experience tended to be with other families that had kids.

Totally agree. I’m in Portugal now and it’s even more shocking here. It’s €9 for a cheeseburger menu. Meanwhile I can get a menu meal at a local joint for €6.50. And it’s about the same size, much healthier and even had Coke Zero in a glass bottle not the garbage mix from McD. I don’t get it.

So the reality with a lot of the mass market fast food like McDonald’s is there’s functionally two ways to look at it: You use the app for deals, and any coupons from circulars you get via mail, and buy only what’s a great deal. Or you get what you want and pay what’s on the board, price be damned.

There were consecutive months this summer where I could get a Spicy McCrispy (Big Mac pricing), a large fry, and any size soft drink for $2.14 with tax, across two transactions 15 minutes apart... every. Single. Day. Or I could get exactly what I might’ve wanted - including a shake - for about $13 and change.

If you want a good deal, you, “play the game.” You can order from a Domino’s and pay $50-60 for two pizzas delivered. Or you use the in-app coupons, pick it up yourself and pay $16.

For $13+ I’d rather cook real food at home for that money. For $2.14? Yeah, I’m up for that.

I think part of this is you need to be using their app and loyalty program to get decent prices. Although to me the entire point of this kind of fast food is you can just pull up into drive through and order while, say, on a phone call, without needing to give it any more thought or start looking for coupons in the app.

that's it for me as well; when I was a child, McDonald's was the cheap option. Nowadays it's more in the middle of the price range of where I get my food, which is crazy considering what you're getting. It's cheaper and healthier to get Japanese, Thai, or Chinese takeaway.

What mcd are you shopping at? Mine in Seattle has $0.99 large coffee, BOGO burgers, free ice cream, and half off apple pies. I can purchase 900 calories for less than $7.

Also, if you're familiar with race conditions, you can double use promos.

> Have you been inside a McDonald’s recently?

The state of your average McDonalds site has extremely little to do with the corporation.

To those who don't know: McD's allows franchising. Your local McD might be Corp or some local group w/ some Corp help.

But prices are up everywhere, so while McDonald’s is expensive now, it’s not like you would be better off in a sit down restaurant. Even eating a salad from the grocery store will set you back six bucks.

I have been inside a McDonald's recently. Prices are up but not outrageous. You can still get a meal for under $10. I don't see why an average person cannot afford this. Here's how much Big Mac costs in every state.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/20/mcdonalds-big-mac-prices-sta...

I think most people here grew up with the idea that McDonald's is cheap junk food, but I grew up in a country where it was not, and so my expectations are different.

Many American chain restaurants are commoditized in America, but are not elsewhere.

This is true of all restaurants. In fact, I would expect McDonald's to be a beneficiary of this as consumers replace more expensive options with McDonald's.

Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just eat at home? A full meal for three people at McDonald’s in my area is around $35.

You have to cook. I'm a good cook, but it takes an hour in the kitchen to prepare and average fast meal. (More or less, some meals are faster, some slower)

I do meal prep. I have a set of Pyrex food storage containers that I bought at Costco for $20 and change. I do an hour of cooking and it allows me to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three days at a time. It’s hard to imagine what life was like before this.

I like a variety of fresh meals. There is a difference in quality between vegetables you cut just before the meals and what you cut latter. Not everyone is that way, but I am. (this is also one reason I can't stand fast food - it is obviously not fresh.

They're effectively upcharging anyone who buys from them without using their app. If you're willing to use their app and all it entails re: data they get from you, they're still pretty cheap.

In the Bay Area I can get 2x breakfast sandwiches and a large iced coffee for $6.29, taxes included, which is pretty damn cheap. Their Big Macs are regularly 2-for-1 in their app, and accumulate rewards.

I dislike the trend of harvesting all this data using apps, but I also don't really get fast food unless pressed for time.

In the UK the app prices are the same as in-store, except for some occasional offers.

You’re referring to just offers and rewards right, not an across-the-board special set of app prices?

Correct, they're effectively coupons in the app, so various items are discounted, and not just cheaper across the board. Their biggest sellers like the Big Mac and Quarter Pounder are regularly 2x1 though, so not a terrible deal.

That only makes sense if McDonald's is cheap but it's not. Their quality has significantly declined - most are severely understaffed and can't keep workers, leading to crappy product to the consumer. Nicer restaurants offer different things - atmosphere, better quality food, a night out and serve a different market. McDonald's used to be quick, cheap, and good. Not anymore.

McDonald's had cheap, fast, and good "quality." Now it is no longer cheap, it is no longer fast, and expecting a burger properly put together will only set you up for disappointment.

We usually use the McDonalds app to accrue points and score discounts.

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