91–100 of 611 posts
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Take 100% of their salaries and profits and it would make a negligible, likely unnoticeable difference in this issue.
Amazon made $311B in 2024, they employ 1.5 million people. That's $200k an employee, on top of what their regular salary is. McDonalds made $15B and employ 150k people, that's $100k per employee. So no, not negligible in the slightest.
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.
But meat is more expensive than beans and rice.
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Yes. You can still get over 2000 calories at Taco Bell for $8 (this would be five of the Cheesy Bean and Rice burrito, my personal favorite). Even a Cheesy Double Beef burrito for the meat lovers can get you over 2000 calories for just over $11 for four. And their box meals will throw in a drink for a decent price. You can spend a lot more, but you don't have to. This isn't meant as a Taco Bell commercial, just a com…
Taco Bell's prices are absolutely through the roof, too. I'm not seeing the "decent price" at my local TB that you're seeing.
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So even crappier food. The people have to be blamed for this at some point. Lower income Indian and East Asian families cook fresh food every night that probably costs less than $0.50 a plate. Beans, lentils, rice, eggs, pork and chicken can take you very far.
Some people aren't taught how to cook (though I suppose they could jump on YouTube these days). And for those who are, at the very lowest incomes, they may not have a working range or oven. While a cheap microwave can be had for under $100, the cheaper plug-in stove tops don't last if used daily.
We changed the quality of food on our home. The amount of money and time invested was much more than we expected. Everthing from a decent equipped kitchen, with enough room, knives and other tools are needed… I lived once in 15 sq meter flat… I can tell you, is difficult to cook in a kitchenette.
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.
Wage is not a determining factor for McDonald's pricing and has nothing to do with that. They successfully converted from a neighborhood fast food shop into a new chain of automats with almost no staff once touchscreens got cheap enough and the necessary software could be suitably amortized. They ditched the employees, minimized community features like playplaces and tables, dropped the low margin dollar menu that ma…
I can only speak for the UK but for quite a while now, McD's has become an uninviting experience, with miserable staff, menu screens that visibly tell you to hurry the f*k up and choose the product. Not to mention customers vying with delivery drivers for orders. I think the problem applies to all-income customers.
Also, £4.20 for a Double Bacon & Egg McMuffin is just ... no. Why? I could swear it wasn't that long ago it was under £3. For a fiver I can get a better 'real' Bacon & Egg bap from an independent.
Even going to the grocer the price for raw goods is way up.
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Anecdotally, a pressure-cooked pot of beans can take over 40 minutes to knock together. So it is not that simple.
Only if you lack the planning skills to soak them in the morning or the night before. Besides, hydrated canned beans are perfectly affordable.
Sorry I know such people that I profoundly admire. I feel is just unfair such a comment. I have enough time and little stress in my life, I can plan what I’m going to cook the next week. But I could never criticize that people for not being able to.
I feel like this whole article is seeking to 'maximize engagement', which I'm using as a lofty euphemism for trolling its readers. ------ Mariam Gergis, a registered nurse at UCLA who also works a second job as a home caregiver, said she’s better off than many others, and still she struggles. “I can barely afford McDonald’s,” she said. “But it’s a cheaper option.” On Monday morning she sat in a booth at a McDonald’s…
> The three beverages they ordered, two coffees and a soda, amounted to nearly $20 I don't live in CA, but this just seems insane? Even in "captive" locations like airports etc. where prices for stuff are higher than a typical brick-and-mortar location, I don't even understand how two coffees and a soda could approach $20. If they'd DoorDashed it, sure. But those numbers don't make sense.
But if you turn those into "specialty" coffees and upsize them, and then add ~10% sales tax, it's very plausible that the price was closer to $20 than $10.
Between prices inflating and people's tastes being pretty unmoderated and indulgent for a long while now, the total cost of "everyday" expenses adds up quick.
Even the simple black drip coffee drinks that have basically no material or labor cost are priced at $2-4 in a lot of places now because people have become so dependent on the habit of treating themselves to one, and often a very large one, that they've become price insensitive and easily exploited by any coldly calculating business.
Where I live (Switzerland), cost of going to some proper burger joint vs mcdonalds costs roughly the same, or its very mildly cheaper for mcd. Plus unlike say France they don't serve beer here(canned heineken but at least its still technically beer). The only reason to go there is their method of handling tons of customers (restaurant experience this ain't thats for sure), their opening hours and often location. That…
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I'm not sure that's true about wage growth, especially at the low end: https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/ > In stark contrast to prior decades, low-wage workers experienced dramatically fast real [inflation-adjusted] wage growth between 2019 and 2023
Your source lists wage growth during that period as 13.2% Meanwhile inflation over that period is significantly higher at 19.18%. So, no, low end wage growth has not kept up with inflation.