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Comment by ElCapitanMarkla | Hacker News Reader

It's the 100% down to the price. As a family of 4 with 2 young kids we more or less get the same thing each time, 2 Combos and 2 Happy Meals. That was pushing $50 NZD last week. Not that shopping at the supermarkets are any better here, $8.50 for a 500g block of butter yesterday because they can't source the cheaper $6.70 blocks.

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MCDonalds is expensive everywhere from what I can tell even though I haven't eaten there in over 30 years.

You can buy a lot fresh food with $50 USD, groceries are still very affordable in TX with only eggs costing more because of bird flu. Meat, Chicken and Pork are available and even with inflation are still close to pre pandemic prices, although you have to look for specials. I buy lamb chops from NZ at Costco for $5.99 a pound and they are absolutely delicious, Aldi sells 1 pound of ground Lamb for $4.99 from NZ. Steak is around $4.99 lb for NY or T-Bone on sale every week and dairy is not expensive either. Consider myself incredibly lucky to have excellent food that is incredibly affordable.

Right, if you’re willing to buy 5-10lbs of meat you’re saving a lot of money. I eat a lot of staples like rice, pasta, veggies, ground beef, eggs, and my food bill is just a fraction of what it would be if I ate out every night (even at McDonald’s). I’m not saying those who are really financially strapped aren’t hurting but for food-at-home prices vs restaurant prices, you can easily pay 1/4 as long as you’re just eating staples.

> 100% down to the price

It’s price and Ozempic et al. Disentangling these effects will require more work.

They could start by making something they actually tastes good ? The price is super high and for what ?

It appears you’re being downvoted - but this (Ozempic and the like decreasing fast food sales) may actually be happening. A couple of recent articles:

https://www.axios.com/2023/10/06/ozempic-weight-loss-drugs-f...

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/10/05/investing/ozempic-food-co...

And the trend is likely to continue.

I don't know if the fast food industry can reinvent itself like the tobacco industry seems to have (see vapes and now zyn) but it's going to be much more difficult I think.

it sure can. they keep up with the trend they've been following for the past few years -- improve quality, keep it fast, but with higher prices. keep a couple of low-cost / slop options on there, but this has been an already existing trend in fast food and "microwave grill" restos for a while now.

Just replying to to say I did the conversion expecting to pay less and to my surprise it's almost exactly the same price for 1lb/450g blocks in the US. I live in metro Raleigh NC and our prices are very close to the US mean. I guess globalization is strong enough that even the price of food is approaching the same, even across the world?

Maybe in areas with comparable sourcing, regulation, and market conditions. Globalization hasn't arbitraged food prices (yet?).

https://commodity.com/blog/food-prices/

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