McDonald’s is fighting back against viral tweets and media reports that it says have exaggerated its price increases.
In a post on the company’s website Wednesday, McDonald’s U.S. President Joe Erlinger said reports suggesting the price of the average Big Mac has doubled since 2019 were false. McDonald’s said the average U.S. Big Mac was $4.39 in 2019 and now costs $5.29, a 20.5% increase.
Erlinger acknowledged that he and many franchisees were frustrated by a post on X last summer about a Big Mac meal in Connecticut that cost $18, calling the price “an exception.”
McDonald’s saw a marked slowdown in store traffic in the first three months of this year as inflation-weary customers in the U.S. and other big markets ate out less often.
“It’s clear that we — together with our franchisees — must remain laser-focused on value and affordability,” Erlinger said.
They’re trading out low-value customers for high-value customers. It’s Business 101. I’ve done it with my old PC repair gig.
For the same revenue, do you want a bunch of people paying low prices or a few people paying high prices?
In any case, I’m all for higher fast-food prices. Maybe this will drive a culture shift towards healthier, less fattening food.
The problem with that logic is that McDonalds has not upped the value of their product. I didn’t take Business 101, but I’m pretty sure it’d be considered bad business to try and sell the same piece of shit you’ve always sold for a higher price than you typically sell for.
Business 101, the real goal is to try and sell a cheaper to produce piece of shit you’ve always sold, while simultaneously raising the prices. Now that’s building value 😎
Going with that logic, McD’s should cut costs by doing away with their septic system & just feed all of that shit directly back into their supply chain.
They could have a hose running back to the kitchen that plops some shit right on the bun with each flush!
If you’re lucky, you get to eat the same burger twice!!
You sound like a straight-shooter with ‘upper management’ written all over ya!
Nono no.
You see, that’s covered in the “Ethical Business 101”.
High value customers don’t eat at Mcdonalds.
Problem is the price of ingredients for cooking at home have gone up too, and with the value of labor for more workers falling in comparison, the cost of cooking at home is at best keeping pace.
It’s a safe assumption to make that the customers bearing the high prices are largely only doing so because they go to mcdonalds out of habit. Eventually they’ll shake out of that habit and mcdonalds will be left with dropping revenues, which is what we’re starting to see now. If mcdonalds wants high-value customers, then they’d have to offer high-value products and services, but they do neither.
Business 101 would be identifying an under-served customer base and appealing to them. What mcdonalds is doing is just squeezing their existing customers outside of the base that mcdonalds is known for (wanting cheap and convenient food). It works until the customers stop coming, then mcdonalds has to work twice as hard to get them back because those customers have moved onto other restaurants which they’ve found out offer better products and services and/or better prices.
McDonald’s business model isn’t that, though. They’re a volume business. They want to cut costs and sell as many as they can. They can’t really compete against the “fast casual” segment on quality.