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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

#141

Post by reppap »

SunshineTheCat wrote: post #26
reppap wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget company leaderships and stock owners taking more and more profit out of companies than ever.

Take 100% of their salaries and profits and it would make a negligible, likely unnoticeable difference in this issue.

I'm not suggesting everyone would be a millionaire with a more egalitarian distribution of wealth. But, to suggest America's skyrocketing inequality has nothing to do with the poor being unable to afford a burger is a bold claim to make.

Because if the wealthy are not extracting their fortunes from American companies, what then?

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

#142

Post by dyauspitr »

anonymouskimmer wrote: post #73
dyauspitr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not knowing to cook is a personal failing. Like you mentioned cooking basic things is something you can pick up in one session of doomscrolling on TikTok these days.

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

#143

Post by nutjob2 »

plorkyeran wrote: post #139
somenameforme wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have quite a lot of difficulty eating out once you start cooking at home, because think of what you are buying: - one English muffin (is it called an English muffin in England?) - one slice of cheese - one egg - one slice of ham - one cup of coffee - one hashbrown £5.09 for that? Obviously when you buy from a restaurant you're paying for their labor, rent, electric, and much more so it makes sense - McDonald's fran…

The price for each of those at my local supermarket when buying the low quality option in bulk: English Muffin: 70¢ Slice of cheese: 40¢ Egg: 40¢ Slice of Ham: 50¢ Hash browns: 40¢ Coffee: $1? In total $3.40. £5.09 for that in hot, prepared form ready to eat sounds cheap to me, not expensive.

I calculated how much I spend on food, shopping at Lidl in the EU in a mid range expensive country, and I pay about 3 euros per day.

That's about the same as $3.40, but for 4 full meals (one of those is smaller than the others)

Admittedly I've optimized my menu.

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

#144

Post by tzs »

ceejayoz wrote: post #136
FerretFred wrote: post #21

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.

The app drives me crazy on the occasions I do have to use it. Picking fries brings me to a one-item category where I can... pick fries again. Latency during the order process is insane, and then they add animations and little popup alerts throughout that actively interfere with me getting my all-important order code while I'm sitting like an asshole in the drive-through.

Yeah, the McD app is ridiculous. For some items it gives me an add to order dialog and then an add to bag dialog (I might have the order of those two swapped). I'm not sure what the distinction is between adding to the order and adding to the bag.

It also has some ridiculous restrictions. Nearly every week I take advantage of their in-app deal for free medium fries on Friday if you spend at least $1 on other stuff. I make a sandwich at home, order a couple cookies plus the free fries in the app, then go pick them at the McD that is about half a mile from my home.

Occasionally though instead of making a sandwich I decide I'd like to use my McD reward points to get a free burger. But you can't get both a rewards points item and a deal item on the same order.

I end up doing a rewards points order for a free burger, picking that up at the drive through, parking, then doing a cookies plus free fries deal order, and going through the drive through again to get that.

What's the point of not allowing both a rewards item and a deal item on the same order? If the rule was you could only use one reward or deal per day, then it would make some sense.

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

#145

Post by tzs »

dole wrote: post #122

You eat at McD's or most fast food places these days, you need the app to get reasonable prices, usually at a 15-20% discount. The app really does enhance the experience, order exactly what you want without human error, roll up to the drive-thru, give them the code, and they begin making the order at that point. They've been pushing $5 value meals recently because the dollar menu's just not fiscally feasible anymore…

Don't overlook paper coupons. A while back I took a look at the advertising junk that appears in my physical mailbox instead of just throwing it in my recycle bin and found some really good fast food coupons.

Where I am both Subway and Burger King have been sending approximately monthly a sheet full of coupons with some quite good deals.

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

#146

Post by zepolen »

zaphar wrote: post #85
zepolen wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Where did you get the $311B number? Because I get a net profit of $59.25B which is only 40k per employee. This assumes that the company doesn't need to keep any profit for future usage which may or may not be case depending on how big their war chest is. Not to say that 40k couldn't be life changing for many of the Amazon employee but the 311B number seems to be pulled out of thin air.

You're correct, it's wrong. I googled it, guessing AI just hallucinated that.

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

#147

Post by zepolen »

SunshineTheCat wrote: post #75
zepolen wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are you under the impression the only expense a company has is payroll?

Profit is after costs+investments removed, not just payroll.

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

#148

Post by ryandrake »

esseph wrote: post #126
daft_pink wrote: post #125

Every time I go to Mcdonald’s, I just think wow, I should have gone to Chipotle. Less expensive and healthier. Better in just about every way. Except no drive thru and you get less food if you order online with Chipotle

McDonald's is in far more places than Chipotle, somewhat sadly

You're not going to get value at Chipotle anymore, also somewhat sadly. Order a burrito and you're going to get a big flour wrap with a tiny lump of rice and meat in the very center. These guys have cost-cut themselves to death, just like everywhere else.

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

#149

Post by CamelCaseName »

bitshiftfaced wrote: post #135
dole wrote: post #122

You eat at McD's or most fast food places these days, you need the app to get reasonable prices, usually at a 15-20% discount. The app really does enhance the experience, order exactly what you want without human error, roll up to the drive-thru, give them the code, and they begin making the order at that point. They've been pushing $5 value meals recently because the dollar menu's just not fiscally feasible anymore…

> The app really does enhance the experience, order exactly what you want without human error, roll up to the drive-thru, give them the code, and they begin making the order at that point. They're particularly good at getting orders right compared to some other restaurants, so the additional value here to me is negligible. It's actually negative value to me, since if I can do a transaction without having to sign up,…

Try ordering a heated muffin. My current success rate at the drive through is 2/8. The other 6 times it's not heated.

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

#150

Post by ethbr1 »

Freedom2 wrote: post #133
esseph wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to be exactly the same quality at least here in the US, that it has always been.

In some ways the rest of the world's McDonald's are simply plummeting to the low quality of those in the US.

As of ~1 year ago, American-fast-food-in-France was still noticeably better than -in-America.
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