Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 611 posts

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

#301

Post by diogenescynic »

jaybrendansmith wrote: post #235
GOD_Over_Djinn wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. I feel bad for young people growing up in this broken world. They will never even know what was taken from them. I realize that I’m probably going to get dogpiled for saying it, but I think that the response to COVID (ie lockdowns) did far more damage than the disease itself.

I don't understand why people still blame the lockdowns. When the lockdowns started, it was unknown how dangerous Covid actually was. It could have killed 20%, or reduced lifespan by 30%, or something. Nobody knew. It takes 20/20 hindsight to blame lockdowns for what was a generational catastrophe. It's like blaming shelter in place requirements instead of the bombing of the reich.

[flagged]

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

#302

Post by ponector »

shagie wrote: post #275
ponector wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> decent equipped kitchen, with enough room, knives and other tools are needed But you don't need too much to cook a healthy food. One pan, one pot, one knife and a spatula. Yes, not everything could be cooked with such setup, but tons of healthy cheap food.

The per person time commitment and food options for cooking for one is difficult. I would contend it's harder to cook a balanced meal for one person than it is for a family of four. Buying things with portions for single servings has a premium on the price. Buying things at family size portions means that you have to have that for four nights in a row otherwise you've got wasted food (that is more expensive than the…

Or you can cook for 4 people and simply freeze 3 portions for later.

Same about veggies, you can get a frozen mix of veggies and cook with it.

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

#303

Post by lurker223 »

xg15 wrote: post #291
lotsofpulp wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is unusual to see young people make the choices to not turn into patients. It costs very little to eat mostly lentils/legumes/nuts/yogurt/vegetables, and drink mostly water without carbs dissolved in it, but no business is going to survive selling those things.

Where is the next cheap lentils/legumes/nuts/yogurt/vegetables fast food restaurant? I think it's a weird concept of a society where all the parts of it with money are directing people to do one thing - but at the same time, the people are expected to do the exact opposite and it's their own fault if they follow the coercion...

[dead]

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

#304

Post by cwillu »

ta12653421 wrote: post #177
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…

mahahahaaaaaa..... any restaurant that requires an App to access it, completely insane.

I had the mcdonalds app installed once, and then my phone pinged with a notification when I was driving near a mcdonalds. Never again.

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

#305

Post by wkat4242 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #220
delichon wrote: post #209

> Her brother, who works as a cashier, can’t afford meals out at all, she said. The cost of his diabetes medication has increased greatly, to about $200 a month, which she helps him cover. This is an often unacknowledged part of the cost of fast food. It turns susceptible people into diabetics. As a diabetic there is little I can eat there, since I manage it with food not drugs. When I do I get a burger and throw out…

It is unusual to see young people make the choices to not turn into patients. It costs very little to eat mostly lentils/legumes/nuts/yogurt/vegetables, and drink mostly water without carbs dissolved in it, but no business is going to survive selling those things.

There's a lot of quirky vegan restaurants doing really well at least here in Barcelona. And health/eco shops too.

But it's not quite as tasty as a greasy burger

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

#306

Post by wkat4242 »

whiplash451 wrote: post #208
GOD_Over_Djinn wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. I feel bad for young people growing up in this broken world. They will never even know what was taken from them. I realize that I’m probably going to get dogpiled for saying it, but I think that the response to COVID (ie lockdowns) did far more damage than the disease itself.

Genuine question: do you think that the lockdowns had such long-lasting effect on people as to explain the problems described above? Why would a few months of a “bad idea” induce decade-long changes?

For me yes. I'm not the same, much more depressed. I was already prone to it but two years of home imprisonment while living alone really damaged me. I also have a really bad reaction to the masks due to a youth trauma where I nearly choked. Being forced to trigger that memory daily was terrible. I did wear them of course (I'm in Europe so we had quite heavy restrictions). Maybe it was necessary for society but for me personally the damage was much higher than the benefit. On the bright side when it was over in 2022 it did make me go out again and I go out partying every weekend until 6am still. That probably wouldn't have happened because I'm in my 50s.

I think the measures were a bit overblown though some were necessary. But shit like curfews was ridiculous. It made contagion worse because the shops were only open during the day so everyone had to go there during a much shorter time. So they were always chock full of customers, exactly the thing you don't want during a pandemic.

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

#307

Post by jerlam »

mycall wrote: post #262
chiefalchemist wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

From day one, I was hearing about suggestions of social distancing and NK1 masks would do 80% of the work for you. It took waaay to long for that information to disseminate.

The playbook we followed was straight out of the 1918 pandemic.

Unfortunately, so was the public response to it.

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

#308

Post by wkat4242 »

bromuro wrote: post #212
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.

Here in Spain i have had only good experiences and i love sometimes going to McDonald!

Yes here they have the Uber cheap menu4you option too. A double cheeseburger which is pretty much a big Mac (but with nicer sauce), fries and coke for €5

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

#309

Post by wkat4242 »

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 doesn't work if it's installed from a location other than the play store. I install it via aurora store without a Google account for privacy reasons (I do have play services installed but it's not logged in, notifications still work). It's a ridiculous limitation for such an app.

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

#310

Post by shagie »

ponector wrote: post #302
shagie wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The per person time commitment and food options for cooking for one is difficult. I would contend it's harder to cook a balanced meal for one person than it is for a family of four. Buying things with portions for single servings has a premium on the price. Buying things at family size portions means that you have to have that for four nights in a row otherwise you've got wasted food (that is more expensive than the…

Or you can cook for 4 people and simply freeze 3 portions for later. Same about veggies, you can get a frozen mix of veggies and cook with it.

That's the idea behind meal prep Sunday... and you get things like https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/comments/1p365m1/ten... or https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/comments/1ov08r8/get...

That is certainly cheaper than individual and gets benefits from the scale. It isn't something that everyone can do (or tolerate eating the same thing every day for the next week).

Post reply on HN