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.
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.