this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
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Many people believe it’s an astounding $18 after a post on X of McDonald’s menu prices at a rest stop in Connecticut went viral and made national headlines. (Narrator voice: It’s not.)

Now, almost a year after the post, a top McDonald’s executive wants to set the record straight. In a recent letter, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said $18 for a Big Mac combo was the “exception” and not the norm across all 13,700 restaurants in the country.

The average price of a Big Mac in the US was $4.39 in 2019,” Erlinger said in his recent letter. “Despite a global pandemic and historic rises in supply chain costs, wages and other inflationary pressures in the years that followed, the average cost is now $5.29. That’s an increase of 21% (not 100%),” he added.

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[–] PenguinMage@lemmy.world 136 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Until these assholes stop taking in record profits each year & their ceos get more money than some countries generate they can fuck off on saying wages are a problem. The working poor deserve every penny they can get.

[–] joekar1990@lemmy.world 45 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Agree. None of these CEOs have any groundbreaking ideas either. It's all the same strategies for short term profits rather than longer sustainable growth.

[–] ArbiterXero@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

They’re paid in stock, so line must go up because MONEY.

[–] ArbiterXero@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

That’s just it, as a business owner, some years may be good, and some years may be bad.

So some years your profit should be less.

That doesn’t mean you’re going under. Less profit is still profit. That means everyone (including yourself) has been paid and you have money left over.

But because CEOs are paid mostly in stock, the profits have to rise every year, for no necessary reason besides “I like money”

And eventually that’ll break, and it’ll happen all at once.

[–] Jerkface@lemmy.world 74 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Did anyone else feel like this article just reads like an ad for their new value menu?

[–] harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 month ago

Yes. There should probably be some sort of disclaimer about how much Rotten Rons paid for this incredibly in-depth reporting.

[–] ealoe@ani.social 64 points 1 month ago (4 children)

They're scared. Continue to avoid McDonald's and they'll keep lowering prices. We have the power because we have the money they want and can choose where to spend it.

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 1 month ago

And as much chain fast food as possible. They're all doing it to varying degrees.

[–] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

we have the money

With the way things are going for the lower and middle classes, that’s a bold statement..

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[–] Chainweasel@lemmy.world 61 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

I would admit I used to get McDonald's quite a bit for lunch because it was pretty cheap. But, where I live a Big Mac meal is on average about $16 right now and I can get a burrito bowl from Chipotle with a drink for $13.
I'm not saying Chipotle is high quality food but I don't think anyone's going to argue it's not better quality than McDonald's, so why on earth would I pay more for McDonald's?
They overreached on their price gouging and now they're just trying to backpedal because they're losing money.

[–] hamFoilHat@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Started eating at Culver's recently. Same price as McDonald's but tastes like actual good quality hamburgers.

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[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Pretty sure Chipotle is owned by McDonalds.

Invest in real food. It is the foundation of your body.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Pretty sure Chipotle is owned by McDonalds.

It is not. McDonald's was an early investor but hasn't been for a long long time (almost 20 years now), but the idea has stuck around.

[–] absentbird@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago

Chipotle is a publicly traded company.

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[–] sunzu@kbin.run 4 points 1 month ago

Chiptle is real food... Mcshit ain't.

I don't got to chiptle because customer service is shite tho

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 61 points 1 month ago (7 children)

consumers were willing to pay more as their paychecks rose and they were sitting on loads of savings accumulated during the pandemic.

Wait, who got more money dumping into their savings?

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[–] walter_wiggles@lemmy.nz 37 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

"Available for a limited time." How magnanimous of them.

[–] jprice@kbin.run 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A Mac is worth $3.00. The ingredients cost them $1.60.

[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 53 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Love how they compared the $18 combo to the average price of just the sandwich, it’s just insane to me.

[–] Burstar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 month ago

Thank you. This should have been a top comment as it needs more direct attention.

[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Went on a trip recently and we always stop by a McDonald's for breakfast and holy crap, a freaking hash brown was almost three bucks.

I get having to pay workers more but that's just some bullshit price gouging there because there's no way in hell what workers are still there are getting paid that much better in order to justify a the dollar hash brown.

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 1 month ago

They also have less workers per store now as they employ tablets for ordering, I believe, and some cooking processes have been simplified or removed.

[–] Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago

They gauged a little too much and boasted about record profits a little too loudly, and now have to deal with backlash. Too bad, so sad. 🙄

[–] 555_1@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

No they aren’t.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Imagine working for two hours to be able to afford a single fucking Big Mac meal!

[–] pikmeir@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Now imagine working for two hours and then having to eat a Big Mac.

[–] ramble81@lemm.ee 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But a $15 minimum wage will cause prices to skyrocket! …. Prices have skyrocketed, wages remain stagnant.

[–] Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It's not that we can't afford to pay you $15 an hour, or even $30 an hour, but if we did that then we couldn't give that money to the shareholders. You see, they've purchased a certificate which entitles them to the wealth created by your labor. We assure you we can imagine it must be somewhat uncomfortable to live in constant grinding poverty, but you can understand how our hands are tied here. They have a certificate. What are we supposed to do, ask a rich person to be a teeny tiny bit less rich? That's just crazy talk.

[–] ArbiterXero@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

We promised those shareholders that we’d pay you as little as we can….. you wouldn’t want to make us liars, would you?

[–] ramble81@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago

Fiduciary duty is one of the dirtiest phrases on the planet…

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I can make a hamburger and fries in like ten minutes active cooking time for £3, and it'll have proper beef and be perfect.

What is even happening at Burger King?

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[–] sunzu@kbin.run 7 points 1 month ago

Peasants are not buying our over priced trash!

Why would they do such a thing?

No way to know, out some PR on it!

[–] FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 5 points 1 month ago

For me, the most egregious example was huggies diapers increasing prices while production costs went down.

[–] sunglocto@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

username checks out

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