My lower middle class family of 4 kids was raised on $1 McChicken sandwiches through my teen years. I don't know if there is an equivalent today.
McDonald's is losing its low-income customers
11–20 of 611 posts
Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers
#12The cost increases are real: beef, wheat, labor. Some of it is from inflation during the covid period, some it is from the Russia-Ukraine invasion causing havoc in fuel and grain supplies globally. There is currently a beef shortage in Europe (of sorts). The reason is that buying cow feed has gotten too expensive/unpredictable. I think people generally underestimate the global impact of shutting down production in Eu…
We should consume a lot less beef. Wages haven't caught up with inflation in a long while, I'd hope McDonalds paying more would trigger a nationwide increase in wages (I know, too optimistic).
Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers
#13Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers
#14> “Happy Meals at McDonald’s are prohibitively expensive for some people, because there’s been so much inflation,” Josephson said. I find the phrasing odd. It is because corporations have raised prices that inflation has increased. Rising prices aren't a result of inflation.
No, inflation is a monetary and political phenomenon. Companies cannot set prices arbitrarily, in particular not the fast food industry which faces what is probably the strongest competition on the planet. The entire restaurant industry does not collude on the prices of burgers. In this particular case it's wage-push inflation. The lowest quintile of workers has seen very strong wage gains among other reasons because…
> Companies cannot set prices arbitrarily
[Source required]
Edit: how are you downvoting me? Go look at corporate profit margins now, 10 years ago, and 40 years ago.
If you believe you can hand wave with simplified BS like "Supply and Demand" you probably have some heavy reading on price elasticity to catch up on.
Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers
#15> “Happy Meals at McDonald’s are prohibitively expensive for some people, because there’s been so much inflation,” Josephson said. I find the phrasing odd. It is because corporations have raised prices that inflation has increased. Rising prices aren't a result of inflation.
.. no, corporations raise prices in response to the falling value of the dollar which has been occurring predictably since 2020 when the money supply was increased 20% (remember the "printer goes brr" memes and the "stimulus checks")?
Make more money supply -> money is worth less -> prices go up
simple stuff
I guess the next step is: blame corporations, nationalize them, see it causes economic problems (we're here), and then repeat (Trump promises $2k checks to everyone, this is coming soon)
Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers
#16I’m trying to be illustrative through glibness here, but… If consumers can’t afford the prices required to pay a restaurant’s labor living wages, then perhaps they’re not viable customers of that restaurant. Minimum wages above the market-set rate are a form of price control. The distorting effects of price controls—in this case, contributing to shortages of low-margin restaurant meals—are economically inevitable.
I think the bigger issue is the 500 mil/quarter stock buybacks and the several million compensation packages for the executives than the burger flipper wanting enough money to make it worthwhile to leave their house.
Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers
#17It's very odd there are few comments in the realm of, "Maybe McDonald's has grown to be bad at 'fast-fooding.'"
Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers
#18Perhaps this is a good thing? Are people eating healthier home-made foods now?
Anecdotally... No they are not. My middle school daughter says many of her friends just eat ramen packets every night.
Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers
#19I’m trying to be illustrative through glibness here, but… If consumers can’t afford the prices required to pay a restaurant’s labor living wages, then perhaps they’re not viable customers of that restaurant. Minimum wages above the market-set rate are a form of price control. The distorting effects of price controls—in this case, contributing to shortages of low-margin restaurant meals—are economically inevitable.
It is quite the juggling act: you have employees demanding to be paid more, the cost of goods/inflation steadily rising, while customers wanting everything to be cheaper. Something has to give somewhere, the challenging part would be to know where.
Don't forget company leaderships and stock owners taking more and more profit out of companies than ever.
Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers
#20> “Happy Meals at McDonald’s are prohibitively expensive for some people, because there’s been so much inflation,” Josephson said. I find the phrasing odd. It is because corporations have raised prices that inflation has increased. Rising prices aren't a result of inflation.
OTOH, no company or item exists in a vacuum. If McDonald’s suppliers have increased prices, and their employees expect higher wages due to inflation, then McDonald’s must increase prices or eat the cost (unsustainable in the long-term). Does this only contribute to inflation? Yes. But so does every worker who wants higher wages - unfortunately everybody in the chain has such little influence on the wider economy that they must simply prioritise themselves.
This is an overly simplistic view, of course, not least because it presumes good faith, but that is really my point: the economy has too many moving parts to simply say “you’re to blame for inflation because you increased your prices”.