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Comment by josephpmay | Hacker News Reader

The trick to inexpensive McDonalds is to use the app

I’m not installing an app to eat at McDonald’s. There are better options for less.

Trading one currency for another. It’s still the same price. Using the app, they get to market to you like it’s a video game so you spend more. It’s the Starbucks playbook. It’s not cheaper to use the app, in the long run - it’s more expensive.

$1 Large fries

$5 Spicy Deluxe Crispy Chicken Sandwich meals

The app is a LOT cheaper than the original pricing. The deals are also pretty consistent. They were giving free Large fries until I took advantage of the deal x3 without getting anything else and now I no longer get that deal...

eh, In a lot of cases you can get the equivalent of any extra value meal for way less if you use the deals page of the app. You can go there today and get like half off a meal.

Starbucks tries to gamify buying certain items or repeat visits for extra stars.

And getting deals to get you to open the app so they can track you isn’t? It’s the same game. Offer deals through the app so they can sell your data. Subsidizing the fries. All your cookies are belong to MarTech.

How else would they offer fries for $1? Cheap transportation? lol. I built it, I know.

Sure maybe. What do they know though? my email, name, and I went to mcdonalds? is this valuable information?

Someone else in this comment section said it, but I think it's more about a way to do price discrimination. They can still sell at a lower margin to more price sensitive customers through the app, and get higher profit from people who don't care about the higher prices.

If the app works and doesn't lose your order. It has bugs so does the Burger King app.

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