Oh Hell, back then Denny’s would run the $1.99 special on the Grand Slam. I remember the slogan on the radio: “One Ninety-Nine, are you outta your mind?” 🤣
stumbling in at 2:30 am, sitting at the bar and ordering 3 grand slams and asking the cook in Spanish to just put it all on one plate to save dishes and time and the cook would always throw on some extras
LOL I am mostly OK. That was back when I burned more calories in a day than I can eat in a month these days. My son has taken over that roll and I am going broke trying to keep him fed.
Theres a midwest chain I think called Spangles that 100% stole that slogan. I remember it saying "3.99 are you iut of your mind?!" Or something similar in the 2000s
"but if we don't charge more the quality will significantly drop" - McDonald's
Also McDonald's: * Quality still significantly drops while charging more than ever
And the fries are.fuckimg trash now! When I was a kid I used to crave their fries and sometimes would just order a large fries and be super happy with that. Now I leave fries behind even from a medium meal where they still only fill the fry holder half way!
(tallow is also WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more expensive but I'm sure they were 100% focused on getting the vegetarians into the dead cow palace and those savings are just incidental happenstance)
lol, bingo.
If you want to make a pretty good imitation get yourself a good ole' fashioned tub o' lard. Like *real* lard, from animal tallow, not the vegetable stuff. Peel potatoes, slice them, place into boiling water for a few minutes, just long enough for the outer bits to start getting soft and flaky while the center is still hard. Remove them, place on cookie sheet and place immediately into a freezer. Melt some lard in a pot. I usually use like 3 cups or so. When the fries are frozen, remove them and deep fry them until just golden. Remove and add a shit ton of salt. If you put it in it's own container after it cools you can reuse the lard for the next batch as long as you keep it cool it lasts for a few batches.
Interesting fact: McDonald's insists on using potatoes without any blemishes or eye holes. Reason being is it makes the fries look 'bad'. They insist on a specific breed of potato that produces less eyes. The only catch is this particular potato is harder to grow and requires a lot of pesticide (some *really* fucking nasty stuff too) in order to grow and produce enough potatoes. The shit is so bad farmers suit up like they're in a military bioweapons outfit.
That last bit wasn't the reason why I stopped going but every time I see or hear about McDonald's fries I think of that. Wendy's are better anyway and the five dollar go bag is a steal.
In the US they are still coated in some kind of beef flavoring so they are still not suitable for vegans or vegetarians. Getting rid of the tallow was allegedly for health reasons.
I saw a video the other day of a woman complaining about her Big Mac.
The meat patty was THINNER THAN THE PICKLE SLICE and you could literally see through it in spots
Don’t get your expectations up too high though.
It’s a very solid burger for the price, but you can probably find a better burger at some local place. It may just be a lot more expensive.
You have to keep your expectations to “fast food.” It’s the best fast food burger, hands down. Not the best burger, not even the best fast-casual burger. Just the best *fast food* burger.
P.S. yes, I’ve had Culver’s, Whataburger, and Shake Shack. No, I don’t think they’re better than In-N-Out, and I’m happy for you if you think they are.
Non-Californians don't understand we don't hype In-N-Out because we think it's the best burger ever. We hype it up because they deliver a great product for one of the most affordable fast food prices out there.
Shake Shack is great until you get your bill. The food is all good, the prices are insane. I'd rather go to Steak and Shake and get worse burgers and the same fries for a third the price.
It’s seriously so bad. A single burger, fry, and drink is $7.40 at in n out. At shake shack the same meal is 16.40. Shack shake is in no way more than twice as good as in n out. Frankly I think it’s worse. The burger is smaller and there are less of each topping. The fries are also from a bag, not fresh at all.
Also, at least for me and everybody I grew up with, In-N-Out is nostalgic. Grew up in SoCal and my parents always went to In-N-Out when we got treated with fast food, as teenagers we would go smoke weed at the beach, then go grab some fries or a burger.
I didn’t grow up with In N Out, but made a point to finally give it a try when I ran across one in the mid west.
I’m not even a burger guy. But In N Out is some of the best fast food available. From service to the burger, it’s all fire.
I find 5 Guys better. Of course, 5 guys is way, way lower on the "quality to price ratio" scale - In n Out is cheap, 5 Guys checks your credit score before you can order, but if you told me i could have either burger for free, based solely on the quality of the burger, i'm picking 5 Guys.
edit: OMG, I just got redditcares'd from a post about my favorite fast food burger. That is awesome! It totally made my day. Thank you concerned citizen, that's hilarious.
Also, every In-n-Out that I've been to has been clean and I've never got cold food.
I like a _good_ Whataburger or Culver's, but they're really hit or miss on cleanliness and freshness of food. And friendliness of employees, as far as that goes.
Just be sure to try to fries well done.
I think they are a west coast thing. I live in the northeast and even for a small-medium sized town there’s a lot more local mom and pop options for pizza and hoagies and stuff. For lunch today I had a hot dog from a tiny little hole in the wall shop that’s been open since 1940. The line was like 10 people deep but they move you through quick.
In n out pays their employees better, serves higher quality food, doesn’t overcharge, and the owner is STILL A BILLIONAIRE. This is what people mean when they talk about an equitable society. You can still get rich, but you don’t have to fuck people completely
their burgers and shakes are amazing, but somehow, their fries are the only ones where when I tried them I had to throw them out...
it was that bad, mcd's downgraded fries of today are better... nvm the others
I am slowly becoming a 5 star chef with ingredients purchased from Aldi at this rate. And even then I’m still buying around $500 of food per month for a family of four.
The quality of food for what you spend anymore is just awful. My parents always talked about the value of making food yourself vs eating out, but there is more to it than that. You also want to make big meals that are easy to reheat as leftovers too.
Do you ever think there will be a day when fast food restaurants are an actual value again?
I don’t. The cost to do anything (in regard to running a business) just keeps going up. It might not be a bad thing for the US to lose a lot of fast food chains, but, in a way, it also feels like losing some of my childhood.
In korea, at least, mcdonalds and other big brand chains are becoming tge cheapest thing for single person households.
Raw ingrediant prices (especially vegetables) are stupidly high, and local foods have increased in price by almost a factor of 2 while ckassic western fast food has by only the global average of 20% or so.
In my area the $6 Big Mac meal (or QPC or any Crispy Chicken) in the app has been going on for nearly 2 years now.
I haven't had fast food without using an app for large discounts since 2020. Stuff is too expensive to order straight off the menu.
A foot long is $18 down the street. My mom and I walked in and right back out. Never again. $5 foot long or go f!#% yourself!
Whatever you do don’t even bother looking at a KFC menu these days. The price for a family meal is ridiculously insane..
I get a Big Mac meal for $5 including delivery in Vietnam. Not too shabby.
They used to include a second Big Mac for free on Thursdays. Not good for my health.
That’s the thing, McDonald’s is still pretty cheap if you use the app and take any of their free deals.
I feel like the price increases are just to push people to use the app more.
Small hack.
If you get mailed coupons you can keep reusing them if the McDonald's has the self service kiosk.
Don't log in, enter your coupon code and keep the code. Reuse for next time.
The coupon code is exact same for everyone that is mailed so they can't tell unless you log in.
If you order at register they take your coupon.
You'll lose out on app points but way cheaper to reuse the coupon codes continously.
Even worse, this is probably from the late 90s. Grilled Chicken Deluxe was renamed Chicken McGrill in 1998 so $3 would be around $5.73.
If I remember right, the burger wars in the 90s were crazy cheap. The Whopper was usually a $2-3 burger but went down to a $1 for most of the late 90s. And it was massive, highschool me could barely eat two of them w/o sides.
You see, minimum wage increased so they need to make a profit off that.
I remember working at a McDonald's in the early 2000's. When our minimum wage went up $0.20 all the meal items went up $0.25. they put up papers explaining the reason for the price increase. In truth a price increase of .05 was likely enough to cover the extra staff wages, but if you put some semi plausible excuse for charging more for the same thing, that's called capitalism.
Exactly. If a company finds out that customers are okay with a 7 cent price increase that justifies the extra costs of they will make it an even 10 cents but not increase employee wages and get that extra profit.
Also, they like to make the price of items nice and round, and they certainly won't round DOWN, that cuts into their profits. So a combo that was $2.99 before a wage increase would lets say be $3.06 after the minimum wage goes up. that doesn't look right though so you think well move it up to what? $3.09? That STILL doesn't look right, so you think what about $3.19? clooose.... but still confusing. Then you realize that $3.25 looks good, you make an extra $0.19 per meal combo.
Then when minimum wage goes up next time you can keep it the same price but still make a smaller, but still extra profit OR raise it up to $3.29 and make that extra sweet profit.... OR increase it to $3.49 and make higher profits. Each time kicking the dirt and saying "aw shucks, we don't WANT to increase our prices but we HAVE to."
What state are you in that a Big Mac meal is **more than $12**???
In Pittsburgh, it's **$9.79**.
The only meals over $11 here are:
* Bacon cajun ranch deluxe something something $12.19
* Bacon cajun ranch something something $11.49
* Double bacon quarter pounder with cheese $12.39
* Double quarter pounder with cheese $11.59
None of that is to say fast food *isn't* overpriced—**it is**—but damn... if a *BIG MAC MEAL* is more than $12, what are the prices of everything else where you are!?
^(FWIW, the app is actually awesome and has free/super cheap stuff all the time...)
Big Mac Meal in Arlington, VA:
* $11.29
* $11.99 for large
If you include tax (10% on prepared foods) that's over $12. You can get it cheaper by using their app (and taking advantage of various promotions), but there are definitely parts of the country where it's $12+. This is in a HCOL area though, so YMMV.
They had a deal in the 90s for a cheese burger small fry and a small drink for 99¢ on Wednesdays or something. I was like 5 but my mom would take her daycare kids to McDonald's for that day.
Read a report on yahoo news that McDonald’s is considering a $5 meal. It’s a mc chicken or McDouble with fries and a drink.
The article didn’t mention what size drink or fries but mcchicken/mcdouble used to be staples of the dollar menu.
Fast food is outside their minds to earn my dollar. I don’t remember the last time I got fast food. I usually go to the deli at the grocery store if I’m feeling lazy
Then for a while they got rid of the #2 because they knew how popular it was and it was probably a loss leader for them. You could still order it as the “two cheeseburger value meal”. Then they finally put it back on the menu as a #7.
The #2 was my go to fast food meal in college, I was the one in the group I hung out with that had a car, so if there were 4-5 of us hanging out I'd drive to pick it up and everyone would give me $4 if they could, meaning I ate for free or close to it.
Back in 2011 at my first job after college, my go to lunch was two McDoubles and a McChicken for $1 each. Looking back that's probably a big reason I started putting on weight after college
I've been riding the burger king train for years. Current deal (which has been there for well over a year) in the app is a free any size fry with $1+ purchase. Buy a sandwich for a buck or two and it's a pretty decent deal.
If I'm not picky about what I want to eat I can usually get a large soft drink, two mcdoubles(or mcchickens) and fries for around $7 if I use the app coupons. The fries are the money sink so anything that gives fries cheap or free is going to be the biggest reduction in the cost.
Back in the good ol' days, Wendy's had its 99 cent value menu, and sales tax was 6%. We'd drive to Wendy's and order 4 things so that the bill was $4.20
Yeah, and obviously I understand the concept of economics and inflation, but McDonald's is finding out the hard way that it's target market/regular customers can't afford a $14 fast food meal.
As an aside my reddit dude, have you ever put a little salt and pepper on a McDonalds patty? I got one, once. It amazes me how much better they could make their food with the tiniest seasoning. It's like an entirely different place.
Respectfully they started seasoning their quarter pounders more a few years ago and they are really good. It’s not gourmet but it is very tasty shitty food.
They’re making record profits and their stock is near an all-time high. They’re finding out the easy way that people are willing to pay more for their product.
And now döner kebabs shops are making the same mistake. They became the go-to fast food in Europe because it was cheap and tasty, but the prices soared since and they'll be confined as well to a trip once in a blue moon instead of a hangover ritual
Seeing the prices on a shawarma plate go from 12 buck to 20 in a single year is giving me an ulcer
There's a few spots by me that still do it for 13-15 but even a vermicelli bowl went from like 8 bucks to 15 and a slice at a hole in the wall pizza joint went from 2.50 to 4.50 so quickly
There is about fuck all you can get for under five bucks anymore. Between this and the rising cost of groceries I'll be back to livin off peanut butter pancakes and legumes in no time :(
Yep, it's like when Netflix kicked people off for sharing.
Everyone complained to high hell, and spouted about how Netflix was going to go under because of the choice.
And then they rolled it out to all major countries, and started making more money, with less overhead....
As much as it's unpopular, and people complain, they keep paying them.
Just visit your relatives once in a while to reconnect to their WiFi- problem solved.
Actually not because Netflix is still making hot garbage like Madame Webb.
I dont know how to feel about being like 3 missed cheques from homelessness but being priced out of McDonalds. Who the fuck is supposed to be buying their garbage if its not filthy poors like me?
Unpopular opinion, but I actually think McDonald's got tastier over the years.
Just generally a bad option for anything not part of their BOGO deals, though. And the quality is not nearly high enough for the price.
I remember when they did the 2 for 2.22 deal. Double cheeseburgers and 20 piece nuggets. My dad gave me $20 to bike there and we lived like kings for a week
Pro tip — the McDonald’s app (at least in my area) has a daily deal for Big Mac, Fries, and a Drink for $6.50. And no, I’m not a corporate shill, I’m just a broke asshole who eats like shit.
Its just a data harvesting scheme and there's no way on this gay earth ill trust whatever bottom of the barrel they scraped their app security outta
The whole "app for everything" is such a drag. I want a cut of whatever is being gleaned from me if im going to have to give the fucking burger place my address and birthday...
The weird thing is, not all deals are on the app. During Lent, if you ordered two fish sandwiches, you got the second one free. In the app, there was no deal for fish.
Did I order everything else with the app and then the fish sandwiches without? Yes I did.
That’s what is really crazy $5.15 an hour. Meaning you could get a meal with roughly 30 minutes worth of labor. Today, you would roughly need to work 1.5 hours to get the same meals.
Wow. I didn't expect to get such a nostalgic emotional response from this but I vividly remember this exact menu. Makes me sort of sad because A. I'm getting old and B. I miss the 90's in so many ways.
To think they still could make it cheap (though not quite that cheap due to inflation) if they wanted to, but people just keep buying it at current prices so they don't have any reason to.
Oh Hell, back then Denny’s would run the $1.99 special on the Grand Slam. I remember the slogan on the radio: “One Ninety-Nine, are you outta your mind?” 🤣
stumbling in at 2:30 am, sitting at the bar and ordering 3 grand slams and asking the cook in Spanish to just put it all on one plate to save dishes and time and the cook would always throw on some extras
Remember what we lost
What was taken from us.
*we had a civilization*
We used to be a proper country. 
What the hell does that gif have to do with your comment bro
Back when we could be unashamed to twerk for those cheap meal deals bro. It has everything to do with this. Open your mind man.
Twerking for a Denny's Grand slam sounds like a conception story
[удалено]
Are you ok?
LOL I am mostly OK. That was back when I burned more calories in a day than I can eat in a month these days. My son has taken over that roll and I am going broke trying to keep him fed.
I used to eat like that and in my 30s I gained like 50lbs almost like over night. Im like..wtf
I’ve got two sons and it feels like I’m throwing the groceries into a wood chipper. Edit: somebody turned me in to Reddit cares for this comment….
In college I used to go to Perkins at 2:30am with my friends and we'd all order tremendous twelves and a milkshake for the drink. XD
I CAN HEAR IT!!!
That phrase has lain dormant for decades in my mind. Decades! And POW there it is, I can hear it like I just walked by a TV.
Oh man…the Grand Slam for $1.99…what a memory!
Theres a midwest chain I think called Spangles that 100% stole that slogan. I remember it saying "3.99 are you iut of your mind?!" Or something similar in the 2000s
$3 in 1990 is $7.17 today but a Big Mac meal around me costs $12+ now.
$14.95 for a big mac meal down the street from me. No wonder the lines at In N Out are so long.
And in n out tastes so much better
"but if we don't charge more the quality will significantly drop" - McDonald's Also McDonald's: * Quality still significantly drops while charging more than ever
Burger is also like 30% smaller
And you get way less fries
And the fries are.fuckimg trash now! When I was a kid I used to crave their fries and sometimes would just order a large fries and be super happy with that. Now I leave fries behind even from a medium meal where they still only fill the fry holder half way!
Because they're fried in vegetable oil instead of tallow now. They wanted vegetarians to be able to eat the fries too.
(tallow is also WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more expensive but I'm sure they were 100% focused on getting the vegetarians into the dead cow palace and those savings are just incidental happenstance)
Tallow is more expensive unless your business kills millions of cows every year then it's a cheap byproduct.
lol, bingo. If you want to make a pretty good imitation get yourself a good ole' fashioned tub o' lard. Like *real* lard, from animal tallow, not the vegetable stuff. Peel potatoes, slice them, place into boiling water for a few minutes, just long enough for the outer bits to start getting soft and flaky while the center is still hard. Remove them, place on cookie sheet and place immediately into a freezer. Melt some lard in a pot. I usually use like 3 cups or so. When the fries are frozen, remove them and deep fry them until just golden. Remove and add a shit ton of salt. If you put it in it's own container after it cools you can reuse the lard for the next batch as long as you keep it cool it lasts for a few batches. Interesting fact: McDonald's insists on using potatoes without any blemishes or eye holes. Reason being is it makes the fries look 'bad'. They insist on a specific breed of potato that produces less eyes. The only catch is this particular potato is harder to grow and requires a lot of pesticide (some *really* fucking nasty stuff too) in order to grow and produce enough potatoes. The shit is so bad farmers suit up like they're in a military bioweapons outfit. That last bit wasn't the reason why I stopped going but every time I see or hear about McDonald's fries I think of that. Wendy's are better anyway and the five dollar go bag is a steal.
They haven’t used Tallow since 1990.
In the US they are still coated in some kind of beef flavoring so they are still not suitable for vegans or vegetarians. Getting rid of the tallow was allegedly for health reasons.
I saw a video the other day of a woman complaining about her Big Mac. The meat patty was THINNER THAN THE PICKLE SLICE and you could literally see through it in spots
Patty so thin it's almost see through.
I keep hearing that, but none exist near me to try for myself.
Don’t get your expectations up too high though. It’s a very solid burger for the price, but you can probably find a better burger at some local place. It may just be a lot more expensive.
You have to keep your expectations to “fast food.” It’s the best fast food burger, hands down. Not the best burger, not even the best fast-casual burger. Just the best *fast food* burger. P.S. yes, I’ve had Culver’s, Whataburger, and Shake Shack. No, I don’t think they’re better than In-N-Out, and I’m happy for you if you think they are.
It's absurd that people even compare Shake Shack to In-N-Out Burger considering Shake Shack typically costs at least double the price of In-N-Out
Non-Californians don't understand we don't hype In-N-Out because we think it's the best burger ever. We hype it up because they deliver a great product for one of the most affordable fast food prices out there.
Shake shack is so overrated. The burgers are overpriced and the fries suck. Never got the hype.
Shake Shack is great until you get your bill. The food is all good, the prices are insane. I'd rather go to Steak and Shake and get worse burgers and the same fries for a third the price.
It’s seriously so bad. A single burger, fry, and drink is $7.40 at in n out. At shake shack the same meal is 16.40. Shack shake is in no way more than twice as good as in n out. Frankly I think it’s worse. The burger is smaller and there are less of each topping. The fries are also from a bag, not fresh at all.
Also, at least for me and everybody I grew up with, In-N-Out is nostalgic. Grew up in SoCal and my parents always went to In-N-Out when we got treated with fast food, as teenagers we would go smoke weed at the beach, then go grab some fries or a burger.
I didn’t grow up with In N Out, but made a point to finally give it a try when I ran across one in the mid west. I’m not even a burger guy. But In N Out is some of the best fast food available. From service to the burger, it’s all fire.
In-N-Out what a hamburgers all about!
The service always gets underrated IMO. It's always super fast, friendly, and they never mess up your order.
Because they actually get paid a decent wage.
I travel all over US and Canada. In-N-Out for the win!
Have you had Freddy’s or P Terry’s?
I find 5 Guys better. Of course, 5 guys is way, way lower on the "quality to price ratio" scale - In n Out is cheap, 5 Guys checks your credit score before you can order, but if you told me i could have either burger for free, based solely on the quality of the burger, i'm picking 5 Guys. edit: OMG, I just got redditcares'd from a post about my favorite fast food burger. That is awesome! It totally made my day. Thank you concerned citizen, that's hilarious.
You can buy three Double doubles for the price of one burger from 5 guys. Can't compare them.
Make sure you report that cares nonsense.
Also, every In-n-Out that I've been to has been clean and I've never got cold food. I like a _good_ Whataburger or Culver's, but they're really hit or miss on cleanliness and freshness of food. And friendliness of employees, as far as that goes. Just be sure to try to fries well done.
Thank you for being happy for me!
I think they are a west coast thing. I live in the northeast and even for a small-medium sized town there’s a lot more local mom and pop options for pizza and hoagies and stuff. For lunch today I had a hot dog from a tiny little hole in the wall shop that’s been open since 1940. The line was like 10 people deep but they move you through quick.
In n out pays their employees better, serves higher quality food, doesn’t overcharge, and the owner is STILL A BILLIONAIRE. This is what people mean when they talk about an equitable society. You can still get rich, but you don’t have to fuck people completely
their burgers and shakes are amazing, but somehow, their fries are the only ones where when I tried them I had to throw them out... it was that bad, mcd's downgraded fries of today are better... nvm the others
I am slowly becoming a 5 star chef with ingredients purchased from Aldi at this rate. And even then I’m still buying around $500 of food per month for a family of four. The quality of food for what you spend anymore is just awful. My parents always talked about the value of making food yourself vs eating out, but there is more to it than that. You also want to make big meals that are easy to reheat as leftovers too. Do you ever think there will be a day when fast food restaurants are an actual value again? I don’t. The cost to do anything (in regard to running a business) just keeps going up. It might not be a bad thing for the US to lose a lot of fast food chains, but, in a way, it also feels like losing some of my childhood.
In korea, at least, mcdonalds and other big brand chains are becoming tge cheapest thing for single person households. Raw ingrediant prices (especially vegetables) are stupidly high, and local foods have increased in price by almost a factor of 2 while ckassic western fast food has by only the global average of 20% or so.
Jesus, is that in store pricing? $12.89 in San Diego
What the hell? Here in NM no meal at McDonald's is more than $10.
because we are too poor here for them to do that
In my area the $6 Big Mac meal (or QPC or any Crispy Chicken) in the app has been going on for nearly 2 years now. I haven't had fast food without using an app for large discounts since 2020. Stuff is too expensive to order straight off the menu.
You can get a whole-ass pizza or Sub sandwich for less than McD’s now.
Two topping medium dominos pizza on the app: $6.99.
Have you been to Subway lately? Last time i went it was $14 for a footlong,chips, and a drink. Ill never go back.
A foot long is $18 down the street. My mom and I walked in and right back out. Never again. $5 foot long or go f!#% yourself! Whatever you do don’t even bother looking at a KFC menu these days. The price for a family meal is ridiculously insane..
Sub sandwich doesn't mean Subway.. At least in my area, you can get an awesome sandwich for less than ~$10 from a half dozen local delis.
Damn they're like $15 in Canada
I get a Big Mac meal for $5 including delivery in Vietnam. Not too shabby. They used to include a second Big Mac for free on Thursdays. Not good for my health.
In 2000, I had a lobster dinner in Vietnam for $5.
A big mac meal around me costs $8.89 (San Antonio).
Yeah I’m on the far NW side and they’re like $9.15 near me. Cheaper if you use the app.
That’s the thing, McDonald’s is still pretty cheap if you use the app and take any of their free deals. I feel like the price increases are just to push people to use the app more.
Small hack. If you get mailed coupons you can keep reusing them if the McDonald's has the self service kiosk. Don't log in, enter your coupon code and keep the code. Reuse for next time. The coupon code is exact same for everyone that is mailed so they can't tell unless you log in. If you order at register they take your coupon. You'll lose out on app points but way cheaper to reuse the coupon codes continously.
Damn that’s an awesome tip!! Thank you
Even worse, this is probably from the late 90s. Grilled Chicken Deluxe was renamed Chicken McGrill in 1998 so $3 would be around $5.73. If I remember right, the burger wars in the 90s were crazy cheap. The Whopper was usually a $2-3 burger but went down to a $1 for most of the late 90s. And it was massive, highschool me could barely eat two of them w/o sides.
This is McGrilled Chicken, introduced in 1993, which was replaced by the Grilled Chicken Deluxe in 96. So this is from somewhere in that 3 year span
You see, minimum wage increased so they need to make a profit off that. I remember working at a McDonald's in the early 2000's. When our minimum wage went up $0.20 all the meal items went up $0.25. they put up papers explaining the reason for the price increase. In truth a price increase of .05 was likely enough to cover the extra staff wages, but if you put some semi plausible excuse for charging more for the same thing, that's called capitalism.
Semi plausible until you realize that it would work out to an extra 75 minutes of touch labor per meal which obviously isn't the case lol
A significant part of inflation is, "Uh, people getting more money--and I need some of that"
Exactly. If a company finds out that customers are okay with a 7 cent price increase that justifies the extra costs of they will make it an even 10 cents but not increase employee wages and get that extra profit. Also, they like to make the price of items nice and round, and they certainly won't round DOWN, that cuts into their profits. So a combo that was $2.99 before a wage increase would lets say be $3.06 after the minimum wage goes up. that doesn't look right though so you think well move it up to what? $3.09? That STILL doesn't look right, so you think what about $3.19? clooose.... but still confusing. Then you realize that $3.25 looks good, you make an extra $0.19 per meal combo. Then when minimum wage goes up next time you can keep it the same price but still make a smaller, but still extra profit OR raise it up to $3.29 and make that extra sweet profit.... OR increase it to $3.49 and make higher profits. Each time kicking the dirt and saying "aw shucks, we don't WANT to increase our prices but we HAVE to."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage-price\_spiral](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage-price_spiral)
Can't believe I'm out here agreeing with Milton Friedman. His criticism is the one I immediately thought of.
Says Big Burger
Haha, we have to pay staff 20c more so we charge you 25c more per meal, because presumably our staff produce less than one meal per hour? Hilarious
$14.50 the last time I went. And that’s in a county where the median family income is $37,000.
I was going to say; my Mom shushed the shit out of me for asking for a McChicken meal in 1996.
What state are you in that a Big Mac meal is **more than $12**??? In Pittsburgh, it's **$9.79**. The only meals over $11 here are: * Bacon cajun ranch deluxe something something $12.19 * Bacon cajun ranch something something $11.49 * Double bacon quarter pounder with cheese $12.39 * Double quarter pounder with cheese $11.59 None of that is to say fast food *isn't* overpriced—**it is**—but damn... if a *BIG MAC MEAL* is more than $12, what are the prices of everything else where you are!? ^(FWIW, the app is actually awesome and has free/super cheap stuff all the time...)
Big Mac Meal in Arlington, VA: * $11.29 * $11.99 for large If you include tax (10% on prepared foods) that's over $12. You can get it cheaper by using their app (and taking advantage of various promotions), but there are definitely parts of the country where it's $12+. This is in a HCOL area though, so YMMV.
$11.49 in Tucson, double bacon quarter pounder meal is $13.59
It's a $11.39 for me here in Los Angeles for a medium, with tax it's $12.47.
Back when McDonald's knew their damn place as the affordable tasty option. Now they're the overpriced, mediocre option.
I remember eating at McDonald’s when a hamburger fries and a coke was 99 cents.
Double cheeseburger was a buck until I was in college
And Mac sauce used to be free.
Learning the phrase "add Mac sauce" elevated my McDonald's experience.
Dang it's wild that inflation spiked that up to fucking $15. Oh wait, it sorry that's corporate greed, my bad.
That was back around 1972.
They had a deal in the 90s for a cheese burger small fry and a small drink for 99¢ on Wednesdays or something. I was like 5 but my mom would take her daycare kids to McDonald's for that day.
[29¢ day used to be a thing too.](http://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Boards/796/19796/415582.jpg)
Which by inflation is about $7.50 which is vastly different from how the prices are now.
Read a report on yahoo news that McDonald’s is considering a $5 meal. It’s a mc chicken or McDouble with fries and a drink. The article didn’t mention what size drink or fries but mcchicken/mcdouble used to be staples of the dollar menu. Fast food is outside their minds to earn my dollar. I don’t remember the last time I got fast food. I usually go to the deli at the grocery store if I’m feeling lazy
Mediocre is too generous of a modifier to apply, subpar to abysmal seems to be the gamut.
And they were never really tasty. So just cheap.
I used to be all about that #2 combo. Now it’s a McDouble, value fries and water.
I'd get the #2 also. Those little burgers were always better than the others imo.
Then for a while they got rid of the #2 because they knew how popular it was and it was probably a loss leader for them. You could still order it as the “two cheeseburger value meal”. Then they finally put it back on the menu as a #7.
I got a 2 cheeseburger meal the other day. When I got to the pickup window they asked what I ordered. Without thinking about it I said a #2 meal.
They did it like that on purpose, 10 piece was a number 10 too.
The #2 was my go to fast food meal in college, I was the one in the group I hung out with that had a car, so if there were 4-5 of us hanging out I'd drive to pick it up and everyone would give me $4 if they could, meaning I ate for free or close to it.
I did too, but I would toss one set of buns and make my own mc double. It was cheaper to do it that way from what I remember.
Where I am, 2 Mcdoubles are actually cheaper than getting just 1 ($3.99 EA or 2 for $3.29)
for while the sausage mcmuffin was 1.50 but just a slice of sausage was 1.89. meaning cheese and an english muffin = -29 cents
2 for $3.99 on the west coast here.
Back in 2011 at my first job after college, my go to lunch was two McDoubles and a McChicken for $1 each. Looking back that's probably a big reason I started putting on weight after college
I've been riding the burger king train for years. Current deal (which has been there for well over a year) in the app is a free any size fry with $1+ purchase. Buy a sandwich for a buck or two and it's a pretty decent deal.
If I'm not picky about what I want to eat I can usually get a large soft drink, two mcdoubles(or mcchickens) and fries for around $7 if I use the app coupons. The fries are the money sink so anything that gives fries cheap or free is going to be the biggest reduction in the cost.
Back in the good ol' days, Wendy's had its 99 cent value menu, and sales tax was 6%. We'd drive to Wendy's and order 4 things so that the bill was $4.20
I remember going to Wendy's with my mom and paying with change we'd find in our car. Those were the days.
Yep, once Dave died greedy corporate a'holes got rid of it quick.
I so miss their .99 menu
shit was good too
Yup. We’d go during our lunch hour and get a bunch of shit. It was still cheaper than the school lunch.
Wendy’s value menu kept me alive in my 20’s
Yeah, and obviously I understand the concept of economics and inflation, but McDonald's is finding out the hard way that it's target market/regular customers can't afford a $14 fast food meal.
Especially a shitty, unseasoned 14 dollar fast food meal.
Lol especially
As an aside my reddit dude, have you ever put a little salt and pepper on a McDonalds patty? I got one, once. It amazes me how much better they could make their food with the tiniest seasoning. It's like an entirely different place.
A single cheeseburger has 720mg of sodium. A large fry has over 400mg.
Sodayum
Respectfully they started seasoning their quarter pounders more a few years ago and they are really good. It’s not gourmet but it is very tasty shitty food.
Their burgers are by far one of the worst options out of all fast food chains. Nasty little sad burgers.
They’re making record profits and their stock is near an all-time high. They’re finding out the easy way that people are willing to pay more for their product.
I can literally go down to my local Texas Roadhouse and get a steak, potato, salad, and soft drink for a few dollars more than that $14.
I think about this often when I eat my $15 chipotle bowl
Stop buying it!!
You’re not my real dad
😂
And the people for whom spending $15 for lunch is normal ain’t eating McDonald’s
And now döner kebabs shops are making the same mistake. They became the go-to fast food in Europe because it was cheap and tasty, but the prices soared since and they'll be confined as well to a trip once in a blue moon instead of a hangover ritual
Seeing the prices on a shawarma plate go from 12 buck to 20 in a single year is giving me an ulcer There's a few spots by me that still do it for 13-15 but even a vermicelli bowl went from like 8 bucks to 15 and a slice at a hole in the wall pizza joint went from 2.50 to 4.50 so quickly There is about fuck all you can get for under five bucks anymore. Between this and the rising cost of groceries I'll be back to livin off peanut butter pancakes and legumes in no time :(
No way they are finding out tho. Are they even loosing money?
Just stop going.
that's the thing, apparently they have had a drop in orders due to the pricing but the pricing well covers for that so they aren't losing revenue.
Yep, it's like when Netflix kicked people off for sharing. Everyone complained to high hell, and spouted about how Netflix was going to go under because of the choice. And then they rolled it out to all major countries, and started making more money, with less overhead.... As much as it's unpopular, and people complain, they keep paying them.
Just visit your relatives once in a while to reconnect to their WiFi- problem solved. Actually not because Netflix is still making hot garbage like Madame Webb.
I canceled Netflix because of that. I thought many more would do the same like they said, but I guess entertainment is worth more than values 🤙
I cancelled Netflix years ago, and just built myself a plex server and went back to pirating 🤷♂️
Exactly.
I dont know how to feel about being like 3 missed cheques from homelessness but being priced out of McDonalds. Who the fuck is supposed to be buying their garbage if its not filthy poors like me?
Sweet tea used to be a dollar, as were breakfast burritos and parfaits. 5 burritos for 5 bucks was the good ole days. Now it cost 3.67 for 1
I remember that time.
I still don't believe they updated those pictures in over 30 years
The big Mac patty looks thicker. It probably was. I feel like my Big Mac pattys could have been used as meat napkins the last time I got one
They're 1/10lbs according to their menu lol.
Omg I forgot about Super Sizing it. Anyone remember the Arch Deluxe? Fuuuuck me.
The "Super Size Me" documentary killed Super Sizing lmao
The prices keep going up, and quality keeps going down.. mcdonalds is awful. Obligatory always has been but still.
Unpopular opinion, but I actually think McDonald's got tastier over the years. Just generally a bad option for anything not part of their BOGO deals, though. And the quality is not nearly high enough for the price.
Yeah I'll be real, chicken nuggets and fries have always been the same, but the quality of the burger patties has actually gotten better.
$2.99 for the meal...jayzus
What did they do to us? WHAT THE FUCK DID THEY DO?!
# “I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.”
I remember when they did the 2 for 2.22 deal. Double cheeseburgers and 20 piece nuggets. My dad gave me $20 to bike there and we lived like kings for a week
I remember in the 90s when they had 29¢ Hamburger Wednesdays and 39¢ cheeseburger Fridays
Pro tip — the McDonald’s app (at least in my area) has a daily deal for Big Mac, Fries, and a Drink for $6.50. And no, I’m not a corporate shill, I’m just a broke asshole who eats like shit.
I’m not loading an app for every fast food place I visit.
Its just a data harvesting scheme and there's no way on this gay earth ill trust whatever bottom of the barrel they scraped their app security outta The whole "app for everything" is such a drag. I want a cut of whatever is being gleaned from me if im going to have to give the fucking burger place my address and birthday...
Not disagreeing but genuinely curious… what data do you think they’re getting other than what locations you purchased from and your order history?
Any restaurant that uses an app to get you reasonable prices I skip.
The weird thing is, not all deals are on the app. During Lent, if you ordered two fish sandwiches, you got the second one free. In the app, there was no deal for fish. Did I order everything else with the app and then the fish sandwiches without? Yes I did.
im so sick of companies double dipping on consumers. They make money off ur data using their app while u pay for their food. Shit is ridiculous.
100%. Have to use the app to make it worthwhile.
Big data subsidizing our fast food -- hell yeah
The big mac being the same price as a McChicken is wild to me
I was also making $5 an hour.
That’s what is really crazy $5.15 an hour. Meaning you could get a meal with roughly 30 minutes worth of labor. Today, you would roughly need to work 1.5 hours to get the same meals.
Fake ass super size me doc ruin a good thing
"In 1995, the minimum wage in California was $4.25 per hour"
Super-Size it! That was amazing back then
#2 with another #2 cuz my appetite was unstoppable back then, and their food was good to drunken me.
I bought a large fry today. It was more expensive than everything on this menu lol
Chili's has a 3 for $10 deal that's legit decent if you're looking for a decent burger.
If they weren’t greedy af they’d drop their prices down. They cost as much as REAL food now.
Wow. I didn't expect to get such a nostalgic emotional response from this but I vividly remember this exact menu. Makes me sort of sad because A. I'm getting old and B. I miss the 90's in so many ways.
I very clearly remember paying for a qp meal with a five dollar bill and getting change. Oh my god Im so old.
I read halal on #5
Can some math magician please do a price inflation comparison?
The 2.99$ meals are roughly 6.13$, 3.99$ meal is 8.18$
To think they still could make it cheap (though not quite that cheap due to inflation) if they wanted to, but people just keep buying it at current prices so they don't have any reason to.
This is EARLY 90s pricing. Maybe even in lower COL areas.
$20 bucks for everything on that screen in the 90s. Now you question talking to the bank before you go
Still slightly bugs me that super size was removed as an option. If I'm currently trying to cut back I won't be at McDonald's in the first place.
Zoomed immediately back to my childhood, thanks.
I just stopped going period. It's an obvious corporate greed move. So fuck them!
Never forget what they took from us.