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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

#351

Post by abracadaniel »

inglor_cz wrote: post #327
johnisgood wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are such restaurants around here in Europe but they are super expensive, so you are better off doing it on your own at home. Cooking a stew of lentils or any other legumes is very easy and does not consume that much time either, and you can cook for 3 days easily. Why are people not doing this?

Because they lack the skill? You seem to take the ability of people to cook for granted. I don't think it is automatic anymore. Generational transmission of some skills has ceased. Jamie Oliver famously asked British school kids to name objects such as an apple, a potato or a cucumber, and plenty of them did not know. They just stared at the raw vegetables/fruits, baffled. And as of now, you cannot simply vibe-cook u…

My grandmother cooked daily and taught her kids to cook. My mother cooked weekly and taught us to use the microwave. Sure anyone can learn to cook, just like anyone can learn to play the piano, but it requires time, money, dedication, and the push to get started. It’s much easier if you were taught some of the basics as a kid, or had an example in your life.

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

#352

Post by pjc50 »

goku12 wrote: post #187
silisili wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least from my perspective, COVID broke everything. People are more awful, quality is more awful, and prices are way up. I dread even eating out anymore as I fully expect to overpay for bad food and service. There's an argument to be made that inflation is ultimately the driver of all three complaints, but boy did that all happen seemingly overnight.

> I dread even eating out anymore as I fully expect to overpay for bad food and service. I don't know if HN is the place to say this. But, it's just infinitely better these days to cook your own meals. With some modest initial investment and planning, you can minimize the average time and cost of doing it, while still having access to a reasonaly healthy and delicious menu, though slightly repetitive. But if you real…

It always was? These discussions imply the existence of a large class of people subsisting primarily on restaurants and takeout, who surely are only a few percent of the population?

Restaurants are for special occasions. McDonald's is, or used to be, a cheap "treat", or standard food for travellers.

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

#353

Post by StopDisinfo910 »

StopDisinfo910 wrote: post #265
jaybrendansmith wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I seem to remember that Sweden applied the WHO recommendations as they were written and didn’t lock down because the damage of locking down is huge and everybody dog pilled on them about how it was stupid. Turn out their excess mortality was quickly better than the other Nordic countries and their economy and mental health did better if I remember correctly. People should complain more about the lockdowns. Most of th…

To the people downvoting me, you are welcome to actually look at the numbers. [1]

Feel free to read about what it shows about lockdowns. [2] [3] [4]

I understand that the US has somehow turned this topic into a political debate and people hate facing that they might have been wrong but I am thankfully not from this part of the world and the evidence is not in favour of lockdowns ever being such a good idea. If you read the BBC article, you will see that we have reached such a polarised and abusive moment in time that even some experts are scared commenting on the available data.

[1] https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/34/4/737/7675929?log...

[2] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11127-024-01216-7

[3] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ecaf.12611

[4] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250304-the-countries-th...

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

#354

Post by throw-the-towel »

johnisgood wrote: post #330
inglor_cz wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they lack the skill? You seem to take the ability of people to cook for granted. I don't think it is automatic anymore. Generational transmission of some skills has ceased. Jamie Oliver famously asked British school kids to name objects such as an apple, a potato or a cucumber, and plenty of them did not know. They just stared at the raw vegetables/fruits, baffled. And as of now, you cannot simply vibe-cook u…

It is very easy to learn. If I could learn it, so can anyone else. :P I have not cooked my entire life, for the most part, but when my situation requires me to cook, then I can. I find a relatively easy recipe and I just follow the instructions. It has worked out fine for me. > Jamie Oliver famously asked British school kids to name objects such as an apple, a potato or a cucumber, and plenty of them did not know Oka…

> If I could learn it, so can anyone else.

More than a billion people have successfully learned to speak Chinese, some of them very stupid. Yet here I am, struggling to remember the hanzi and the tones.

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

#355

Post by throaway123123 »

porjo wrote: post #164
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.

Australian here and the sentiment is the same. Drive-through is tolerable but dine-in is not pleasant due to basic cleaning like sweeping, wiping of tables not being done.

Canadian who agrees and will add that 95% of the employees are also new immigrants which really rankles us who have had to look hard for any kind of unskilled job!

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

#356

Post by throaway123123 »

stavros wrote: post #196
Freedom2 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Here in Greece, we have so much good quality street food that McDonald's is street trash by comparison. I don't consider it food, there are only about eight or nine restaurants in the entire country and I think most people go there because of the novelty.

Please don't let Greece get too wealthy, the quality street food will get pushed out and replaced with overpriced yuppie food that all gets sourced from the exact same company!

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

#357

Post by bdavbdav »

Libidinalecon wrote: post #341
f1shy wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not think this is exactly true. People may stop eating junk outside. But having a healthy balanced diet is more expensive than buying junk and eating at home; and not only in money, but more importantly (maybe) in time. Cooking takes time and effort, which families with both working parents may struggle with. Please do not forget often those people have more exhausting and abusive jobs. I know from first hand, h…

The idea you can't eat a healthy and cheap diet is just absurd. This is exactly how I eat. Lean chicken breast is some of the cheapest protein. Eggs have come back down to be a good deal. Oatmeal, sweet potatoes and rice are cheap. Olive oil is cheap. Walmart has frozen kale in a bag for $1.50. People don't eat healthy because they don't want to eat healthy. It doesn't taste as good and is not as much fun. My weekly…

Where do you live that chicken breast is cheap? It’s about £7/kg for the crummy water filled breast here in UK

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

#358

Post by epolanski »

I never understood how can eating at McDonald's be cheaper than cooking your own meals.

I'm not from US, but checking US grocery shops, you can eat meals made of chicken breast, bread and vegetables well below 5$ per person, well below 20$ in total for a family of 4.

Yet every time I see those discussions, fast food is always presented as a cheaper option?

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

#359

Post by fragmede »

GOD_Over_Djinn wrote: post #350
jaybrendansmith wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Some, including myself, were against lockdowns from day 1, and were viciously attacked for it.

It's a pretty anti-social viewpoint. Why do you think you shouldn't have been?

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

#360

Post by op00to »

StopDisinfo910 wrote: post #265
jaybrendansmith wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I seem to remember that Sweden applied the WHO recommendations as they were written and didn’t lock down because the damage of locking down is huge and everybody dog pilled on them about how it was stupid. Turn out their excess mortality was quickly better than the other Nordic countries and their economy and mental health did better if I remember correctly. People should complain more about the lockdowns. Most of th…

You remember incorrectly.

Norway and Sweden took opposite approaches in 2020—Norway used strict lockdowns, tight border controls, and intensive outbreak tracking, while Sweden kept society largely open. The results weren’t subtle. As the Juul paper puts it: “That resulted in 477 COVID-19 deaths (Norway) and 9,737 (Sweden) in 2020, respectively.” Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8807990/

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