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McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

latimes.com

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Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#51

Post by acdha »

twoodfin wrote: post #28
SunshineTheCat wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Markets are the best mechanism ever invented to resolve that challenge to maximum aggregate benefit.

There’s an entire academic field studying ways in which it’s not that simple. Housing, employment, and transportation are somewhat famously areas where markets need help due to information and power disparities.

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#52

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

barbazoo wrote: post #2

> “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.

The inflation boom was caused by the free money handed out to everyone. Inflation is inevitable when the dollar is devalued.

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#54

Post by jameslk »

forgotoldacc wrote: post #33
Barrin92 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That's a nice excuse from the executives, but it doesn't align with reality. McDonald's profits have been rising every year. [1] If those dastardly minimum wage workers and their fat paychecks were putting even the slightest bit of pressure on struggling McDonald's, the expectation would be some sort of reduction in profit. But it's the total opposite. Profits are outpacing whatever losses they're (not) experiencing…

What are McDonald’s profits adjusted for inflation?

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#56

Post by chairmansteve »

twoodfin wrote: post #4

I’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.

You are correct.

But how do we address the wealth inequality in America?

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#58

Post by stego-tech »

shoddydoordesk wrote: post #32

[flagged]

Both things can be true, you know. Yes, its food is abysmally unhealthy, but it’s effectively the de facto national cafeteria of the continental United States by virtue of its widespread footprint and (previously) low prices.

In an ideal world, we should be challenging both, rather than throwing up our hands and pleading confusion because someone can’t hold two truths simultaneously.

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#60

Post by ToucanLoucan »

anticorporate wrote: post #36
geraldwhen wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McDonald’s is a franchise. Franchise owners bear the burden of employee and goods costs.

Franchise owner also bear the burden of franchise fees, which pay for these exorbitant executive compensation packages.

And they've been complaining for decades at this point that corporate is failing them. Not enough new products, bad business and advertising strategies, store renos, the list goes on.

The burger flipper making a lot more money is doing a lot more for their franchisee's than the executives are as of late.

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