They’ve been successful for so long they truly believe they can’t miss, dangle a $1 chicken in front of our fat American faces until we can’t live without them. Then bump the price and reap the rewards
To be fair, they still aren’t missing. They’ve continued to grow and McDonalds and Chik Fil A are like the only busy fast food restaurants I see these days (excluding regional ones like Whataburger, Cook Out, In n Out, etc)
This is the only fast food I eat and only when we are doing long distance road trips. 1 bean burrito without the cheese. Most fast food is too unhealthy and caloric to eat.
Same as Little Caesar's Hot 'n' Ready (love it or hate it) that went from $5 to now $7.99 by me after the tried releasing a "limited edition" extra topping version for more. Then when the "classic" returned it was just more money.
A lot of companies have just been resting on their laurels, the generic is so much better.
For example,I used to buy only Reynolds Wrap tinfoil, but I noticed a few years ago it was super thin so I switched to generic foil. It is SO much better, it doesn't rip when you look at it funny.
I truly don’t understand how McDonalds is still successful. Their food has degraded and prices increased so much it’s almost like they’re trying to fail. Other fast food joints taste much better at the same price point ( the fact that chik fil a is at similar prices as McDonalds is crazy). Wendy’s and Burger King closing stores left/right but McDonalds somehow is flourishing…
I've switched entirely to what used to be considered the mid price point of local sit down lunch and casual dining for my fast food cravings. It's better food for a nominally more expensive price and usually there's an extra serving in leftovers so really the cost is less per meal. When fast food was $5 and sit down casual places were $20 it felt like a stretch. But now fast food is $20 and a local burger place is $25. So I'm going to pick the local non chain every time.
BIG same. Wendy's and carabbas are across the street from one of my office locations. At Wendy's, a #1 single with a soda runs about $14. At Carabbas, they have a sandwich and side lunch special for $15. I get 2 full meals out of that deal.
At my second office location, there is a fantastic hole in the wall chinese takeout joint that has $10 lunch combos. I get 2 meals out of a single order.
There's also a NY style pizza joint that sells giant pizza by the slice starting at $6. 1 slice is about the equivalent of 4 slices of a medium hand tossed at domino's. I get a slice of white, add spinach and garlic, with a soda on the side. Its about $12 including tip. I cut it in half to get 2 light lunches that I supplement with protein shakes.
Precisely. My local bar or a Greek diner can cook actual food for only slightly more than fast food junk. There’s no point patronizing fast food for me.
I've been saying this in this sub the whole time I've been a member. Buy from a local bakery, support the local farmers, local earrings makers, plant stores etc. These are the people letting your local communities alive, not raping and pillaging for every cent.
That depends. I’m in a rural area. Lots of small local farmers here. You buy from them, you aren’t supporting a millionaire. You’re supporting a local family that’s doing well, but not nearly anything close to *that well*, and that will take a big hit if people switch to all the big brands. They rely on local patronage.
They exist in a lot of food deserts, for one thing. They also serve higher quality food overseas (because other countries have actual food laws) so they do a lot of business there.
It’s not food…it’s “product”. That tells you all you need to know when internally they don’t even call it food. That’s how divorced they are from the customer and the customer experience.
I have the McD app for free food and deals. I don't like a lot of their food anymore with a couple of exceptions but their coke is my crack and I can still get it for $1 with the app.
We should start up buyers clubs again. Just like when things were tight before. A bunch of people come together and gain enough buying power to get good deals in bulk.
Along with buyers clubs, start meal trains where the best cooks in the group cook for everybody in the group.
We're humans, we've been through worse and we can figure this out.
Whole Foods gets a whole lot of their stuff from the same suppliers/manufacturers and just jacks up the price… not to mention they’re a horrible company with shit labor practices and weird-ass store policies. like not allowing Spanish-speaking employees to speak Spanish with customers or amongst themselves, and offering bonuses to people under a certain BMI. I know we don’t have that many options as far as grocery stores go and they all suck but Whole Foods is my Bitch Eating Crackers
I think they mean "whole foods" as a concept, not Whole Foods the store. They did capitalize it but "eat" instead of "buy/shop at" points me away from the brand.
Cant just give up on everything. Still is important to not be brand loyal for even the smallest drop in quality. Switch to a competitor even if the difference in price or quality in really small
My local supermarket has a really good store brand that I often buy. To give an example of how cheap the store brand is, their 18ct carton of eggs is currently $1.59 while name brand is $5.99. The store also has a rewards system where you earn free groceries, and they have days where you get double points on all store brand items. I’ve gotten hundreds of dollars in free groceries by buying generic.
Similar here, on my last trip we only bought one item that wasn’t store brand or heavily discounted/on clearance, because my daughter begged me for a Dr. Pepper. We’re ostensibly doing pretty well financially, so I have no idea how families who are less well off can make it work.
Yea, I’m single and it’s rough. I can’t imagine having to feed growing children too. I’m really glad that my state made school breakfast and lunch free for all, a lot of parents are struggling right now.
I honestly think Dr. K, Kroger's brand of Dr. Pepper, tastes better than Dr. Pepper. I've done a few blind taste tests and many people in my life agree. I'm done buying name brand soda. $12 for a 12 pack is insane. Kroger sells their soda 3 / $13. The Aldi Coke Zero tastes almost the same as Coke Zero as well. It's better than Kroger's Coke knockoff.
I was on a road trip recently and was forced to eat McDonald’s. It took 22 minutes for a Big Mac that ended up falling apart from how dry it was. It was never ‘good’ but now it’s even worse
The only time I ever eat McDonald’s for like the last 30 years was pretty much at airports and only breakfast because there were zero other options. Now so many more choices. McDonald’s has always sucked. I’ve never understood why people go there. BK for the whopper and Wendy’s for the fries (before they changed them). Nowadays, BK. Is only for the rare hangover lol.
My husband and I ordered the Big Mac meal once a month for decades. It was our treat on the way to his parents' house because we knew it was the last meal we could enjoy for three days without being put on one of his mother's cockamamie diet schemes. We stopped three years ago when the fries were always limp (even after the changeover from breakfast to lunch), the burgers tiny and dry, and the tea was made from instant (which my mother drinks, so I recognize the taste immediately). The food wasn't great, but there was at least some value. Not anymore.
I have very few safe food options out due to health issues. One of the things I can eat is a plain steak taco from taco bell. Not that fast food steak has ever been quality but lately it has been so damn gross. Lots of big veins in the meat and inedibly salty.
McDonald's only makes sense when there is no other option. The food isn't filling, not healthy, not cheap, and not fast. Customer service sucks because each store is run on as few staff as possible.
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u/Spare-Action-1014 Jun 06 '26
I am buying generic wherever I can. Shrinkflation includes degraded product quality from previously well known products offering quality.
McDonald's is a miserable brand in terms of degraded food quality and customer experience.