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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

#451

Post by fzeroracer »

vunderba wrote: post #421
johnisgood wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still baffles me that people compare cooking to playing an instrument. It really is not that difficult to cook, depending on what it is. Do people know how to make schnitzel (breadcrumbed meat)? Make fries? Make rice? Make boiled potatoes? Or are those things difficult as well? Making a stew out of legumes is not that difficult either. Boil your legumes, then mix eggs, flour, and paprika together, put it in oil, h…

Agreed. The analogies to playing a musical instrument or speaking a foreign language are pretty silly. Cooking (provided you have access to some simple cookware) is literally printing out the recipe and FOLLOWING THE DAMN INSTRUCTIONS . If that’s beyond someone’s abilities then I weep for the general state of mankind.

> Cooking (provided you have access to some simple cookware) is literally printing out the recipe and FOLLOWING THE DAMN INSTRUCTIONS. If that’s beyond someone’s abilities then I weep for the general state of mankind.

I mean, if you don't understand how badly the US educational system is failing people then I don't know what you expect. There are a large amount and growing amount of people that are barely literate and can only follow basic instructions. This is by design because we're starving our educational systems and creating a two-tiered society where people either receive private education or no education at all. It should come at zero surprise that people can't cook because they were never taught how to cook nor how to even learn and integrate that knowledge.

My parents for example were fishermen, neither of them are functionally able to cook anything beyond tossing some meat in a crockpot and some rice in a rice cooker. Everything I know about cooking was shit I had to pick up on my own and it's only because I'm both literate and computer savvy that I can grasp and integrate these things smoothly.

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

#452

Post by heavyset_go »

silisili wrote: post #171
fellowniusmonk wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"They're poor, they don't care a about basic human dignity." - McDonald's CEO probably. It truly is the most "Shove this in your slop hole you wretch" experience in all of fast food.

It's pretty hilarious because your comment is exactly their goal. McDonald's is laser focused on low income customers. They do not want to compete in the middle income space, as they don't visit as often and there's ton more(and better) competition. Their CEO has been blunt about this recently, and trying to find ways to get low-income customers back. Dire straits ahead for them, they've priced themselves into a plac…

> McDonald's is laser focused on low income customers.

Like some other fast food restaurants, they're desperately trying to be thought of as being Starbucks tier, with Starbucks prices, trappings, etc.

It's like Taco Bell desperately trying to be thought of as Chipotle tier, with Chipotle level prices and trappings. Like McDonald's, they significantly raised their prices without any quality improvements to justify it.

> Their CEO has been blunt about this recently, and trying to find ways to get low-income customers back.

It's lip service because news like "low income people abandon McDonald's" makes investors get bad feels about their investment.

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

#453

Post by heavyset_go »

wkat4242 wrote: post #309
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.

You can thank Play Integrity for this, Google gives app developers the tools to implement remote attestation and "integrity" of the apps and systems they run.

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

#454

Post by hexbin010 »

bamboozled wrote: post #259
goku12 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Yet the price of good Parmesan has basically doubled since Covid? It’s so expensive now we ration its usage.

Eating out has risen significantly too

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

#455

Post by hexbin010 »

graemep wrote: post #234
ta9000 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The secret is to eat out less often and spend more when you do. Service is fantastic still at higher end restaurants.

Probably varies where you are, but in the UK (especially outside London) there are lots of places you can have reasonably good food an service at a decent price. A lot of pubs with good food now, for example.

For £15-35 for a main course sure. Even the weekday specials are £18-22. Sandwiches £15. Food is usually just average and service below average

Not the south

Gastro pubs are mostly full of land owners, rich pensioners and dual income high earners...

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

#456

Post by hexbin010 »

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!

Yeah pretty decent in Spain. Give it another 10-20 years when McDonald's realise the customers need them more than they need the customers (ie addiction) and that'll change!

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

#457

Post by hexbin010 »

im3w1l wrote: post #194
f1shy wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is that quality in McD is rapidly declining. We may agree was never a Michelin star restaurant. But I remember being more or leas enjoying the food. Now I just can’t. Maybe I’m getting older. But I would swear the quality is much worse now than say 5 or 10 years ago.

For me it's the competition. So many competing chains and independent burger joints have sprung up and spoilt me. For 20%-30% more than mcd prices I can get something way way better.

To be clear you're getting a banging artisanal burger meal for about £10? You sure you're not downplaying the cost?

My local proper independent burger place is just under £20 for a burger fries and drink.

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

#458

Post by stOneskull »

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...

one thing i miss about living in a city is being near a hare krishna restaurant or similar hindu place, like ones run by the sikh community. cheap, healthy and yum. some would offer free food to homeless or if you went to one at a temple it was pay-by-donation. sometimes the donation was just being there and singing the hare krishna song with them :D

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

#459

Post by esseph »

AngryData wrote: post #429
esseph wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest US, and McDonald's hourly pay here starts at $14.45/hr

The average wage of McDonalds my entire state is only $12, which means considerable amounts of people are working for less than that. But even at your local wage, that's only $29,000 a year for full time work before taxes, it is still a garbage wage.

Certainly, but it's also not $9/hr :-(

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

#460

Post by ta12653421 »

Libidinalecon wrote: post #344
ta12653421 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one who downvoted me obviously has a problem with high quality food. Animals held and then sold for 4-5 EUR per kg is pure shit. Period. I would rather eat groceries instead. Most people have no idea what high quality meet is because they buy their stuff always at large chains - remember: None of the sustainability-interested local farms sells to any of those supermarkt chains. You have to GO there to get your st…

This is total nonsense. There is the thermodynamics of calories in and out. Then there are micro nutrients. Everything beyond that is bullshit marketed to suckers.

From a thermodynamic perspective this is somehow true; but not regarding taste, structure etc. of the meat product: There is a clear difference between superlarge chickenfarms and my local farmer with only a couple of hundreds?

Also, depending on how the animals are fed, you have different substances in the final product, like Antibiotics.

So feel free to optimize only for the "thermodynamic calorie perspective" ;-)

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