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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

#601

Post by listenallyall »

ghc wrote: post #589
listenallyall wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real people, citizen journalists documented empty hospitals and ERs with no activity while the mass media tried to sell you on "morgue trucks" lol. Trump got that whole ship sent to NYC and they never used it.

I walked by the morgue trucks, so no. You've been blinded by propaganda made by the same people who "document" alien encounters. If hospitals were actually empty the rates of healthcare worker burnout and subsequent shortage wouldn't have happened.

Maybe, outside the nursing homes that racked up tons of excess deaths due to Andrew Cuomo's policies and later cover-ups.

But at hospitals? I'm sure you can point out a few specific times and locations but on the whole, they simply were not overwhelmed with Covid deaths to the point where anything like "morgue trucks" were needed.

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

#602

Post by kylehotchkiss »

anonymouskimmer wrote: post #47
jrm4 wrote: post #17

It's very odd there are few comments in the realm of, "Maybe McDonald's has grown to be bad at 'fast-fooding.'"

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…

You can get > 2,000 calories in 3 sticks of butter which is like $3-4 if the cost per calorie is the only metric that matters.

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

#603

Post by quickthrowman »

partiallypro wrote: post #9

In 2005 McDonald's net profit margin was ~12%, today it's ~30+%. Obviously that doesn't account for the entire price increase and wouldn't make that much of a difference...but worth noting.

McDonalds business model is to own real estate and lease it to franchisees, and to sell those franchisees supplies to make hamburgers and fries so they can pay the rent.

It’s a commercial real estate company with extra steps, not a restaurant company. Once you understand that, McDonalds net margins are easier to understand.

Google ‘McDonalds real estate’ for a longer write up about the business model of McDonalds

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

#604

Post by Telaneo »

Telaneo wrote: post #600
johnisgood wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got down-voted, which is odd, because I truly have not encountered anyone here in Hungary who do not know how to read nor write. The only demographic that may difficulties with that are gypsies because they typically do not go to school. Additionally, is it not common knowledge the US education system is bad?

Might be an American in denial. The 'meaningful' part of my original comment is carrying a lot of weight there. Most people are literate in the literal sense of that word, but I went to class with people who have not read a written work longer than five pages sine they went out of school, and I would not trust them to read an even vaguely complicated instruction manual without me explaining something to them. They ar…

And this is before you get into people who for most intents and purposes apparently can read, but their brain grinds to a halt when a computer requires them to do that very same activity and act accordingly. I'm not sure of those people have a similar problem of functional illiteracy, or if it's a problem of a different kind, but it sure is real and sure keeps happening.

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

#605

Post by [deleted] »

quickthrowman wrote: post #603
partiallypro wrote: post #9

In 2005 McDonald's net profit margin was ~12%, today it's ~30+%. Obviously that doesn't account for the entire price increase and wouldn't make that much of a difference...but worth noting.

McDonalds business model is to own real estate and lease it to franchisees, and to sell those franchisees supplies to make hamburgers and fries so they can pay the rent. It’s a commercial real estate company with extra steps, not a restaurant company. Once you understand that, McDonalds net margins are easier to understand. Google ‘McDonalds real estate’ for a longer write up about the business model of McDonalds

[deleted]

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

#606

Post by BizarroLand »

silisili wrote: post #162
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.

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 don't think COVID is responsible. I think COVID was the straw that made more people use doordash and then retailers saw that doordash was making profit on their product by bundling a service and they got greedy for that profit.

After all, if you'll pay $8 for a big mac + tip delivered to your door, then you'll pay $8 for a big mac. Then to get it delivered is another $2 or so, so you'll pay $10 for a big mac. Then to get it delivered is another $3 or so, so now you'll pay $13 for a big mac.

The only losers are the customers.

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

#608

Post by seec »

johnisgood wrote: post #311
xg15 wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

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?

Cooking legumineuse notoriously take a long time and you very often need to soak them before hand.

Even the simpler stuff like lentils have at least twice the cooking time of regular pasta (20-30 min at least) unless you like eating stuff hard as rocks.

On top of that; it isn't very good as is and need quite a lot of skill to taste great. The usual way to make it taste good, is to use animal fats/meats and various vegetables broths/sauces. It's a very time consuming process and very often quite expensive as well because the raw ingredients are not necessarily cheap.

So basically what happens is that either you are poor enough that one person in the household is basically dedicated to this task (especially if it's a large family) or both are working, most likely middle class, and then there is very little time to do that sort of cooking without completely destroying the possibility of having a life.

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

#609

Post by seec »

vacuity wrote: post #559
HumanOstrich wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been hooked on fast food before, and I still grab some on occasion, but I don't understand these common excuses for why people HAVE to consume fast food. It's far cheaper to 1) buy unprocessed foods at the grocery store, 2) spend $20 a few times for cookware that will last plenty long enough, and 3) cook for 20min a day or do more preparation on the weekend. It doesn't require becoming a professional chef or buy…

Moreover, changing one's habits to cooking requires effort upfront, and its benefits may not be apparent (at least in the start).

I have been doing all kind of strategies since I have lived largely alone for over 15 years. I have also worked in restaurant kitchens that were on the premium side. I can do very sophisticated pastries from the Ferrandi book.

If there is one thing I know for sure is that there is very little benefits in cooking, apart from the pleasure of eating something good. Even if you want to eat healthy there are plenty of ways that require very little cooking. The only problem is how much money you can throw at the problem, the easier it is the more expensive it will be. Sometimes you don't even have a choice because of time constraints (people who do 2 hours commute everyday just can't allocate time to that).

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

#610

Post by lewiscollard »

hackable_sand wrote: post #483
lewiscollard wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the UK too, and your experience is matched by mine. The last time I was in one (I mean "the last time" in both senses of the words) I waited over 20 minutes for my food; I do not know how long it would have actually taken because at that point I got bored, wrote it off as a loss and walked out. No sense in complaining to anyone because that would have consumed even more of my time. McDonalds is not food and it i…

It is not apparent that we are ambivalent because of compensation. I would argue an inverse corollary. I would argue that the most qualified people for the job are applying. What I am noticing in my own work is fatigue from processing volume. It's not personal. You are a statistic until you walk up to the front counter and make it personal. Only then we can actually solve your issue because we have a person to relate…

I think that merits an apology from me, then: what I said was wrong and I'm sorry. If I'd thought about that sentence for more than ten seconds, it'd be clear that it's all better explained not by indifference from the staff doing the actual work, but because (as you said) they are asked to work under impossible conditions, and as long as some line on a chart representing "money" goes in the right direction it's the people that set the conditions of the job who don't give a shit.

Some part of me understood this already, because...

> You are a statistic until you walk up to the front counter and make it personal.

Aside from the fact that the "front counter" is apparently deprecated these days...given what I know about my personality flaws, I am sure I'd not want to do this. It's not like they could make the food appear 20 minutes ago, and they're not responsible for the conditions that made it take 20 minutes in the first place, so what would it accomplish other than making their day worse? Maybe some warm feeling of "well I fuckin showed 'em" followed by "oh damnit, I was an arsehole" 15 seconds later which would hang over me for a LOT longer than 15 seconds. Walking out was a better outcome for everyone, including me.

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