Many people believe it’s an astounding $18 after a post on X of McDonald’s menu prices at a rest stop in Connecticut went viral and made national headlines. (Narrator voice: It’s not.)

Now, almost a year after the post, a top McDonald’s executive wants to set the record straight. In a recent letter, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said $18 for a Big Mac combo was the “exception” and not the norm across all 13,700 restaurants in the country.

The average price of a Big Mac in the US was $4.39 in 2019,” Erlinger said in his recent letter. “Despite a global pandemic and historic rises in supply chain costs, wages and other inflationary pressures in the years that followed, the average cost is now $5.29. That’s an increase of 21% (not 100%),” he added.

  • PenguinMage@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    82
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months ago

    Until these assholes stop taking in record profits each year & their ceos get more money than some countries generate they can fuck off on saying wages are a problem. The working poor deserve every penny they can get.

    • joekar1990@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      28
      ·
      10 months ago

      Agree. None of these CEOs have any groundbreaking ideas either. It’s all the same strategies for short term profits rather than longer sustainable growth.

    • ArbiterXero@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      10 months ago

      That’s just it, as a business owner, some years may be good, and some years may be bad.

      So some years your profit should be less.

      That doesn’t mean you’re going under. Less profit is still profit. That means everyone (including yourself) has been paid and you have money left over.

      But because CEOs are paid mostly in stock, the profits have to rise every year, for no necessary reason besides “I like money”

      And eventually that’ll break, and it’ll happen all at once.

  • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    I would admit I used to get McDonald’s quite a bit for lunch because it was pretty cheap. But, where I live a Big Mac meal is on average about $16 right now and I can get a burrito bowl from Chipotle with a drink for $13.
    I’m not saying Chipotle is high quality food but I don’t think anyone’s going to argue it’s not better quality than McDonald’s, so why on earth would I pay more for McDonald’s?
    They overreached on their price gouging and now they’re just trying to backpedal because they’re losing money.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    10 months ago

    consumers were willing to pay more as their paychecks rose and they were sitting on loads of savings accumulated during the pandemic.

    Wait, who got more money dumping into their savings?

  • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    10 months ago

    Went on a trip recently and we always stop by a McDonald’s for breakfast and holy crap, a freaking hash brown was almost three bucks.

    I get having to pay workers more but that’s just some bullshit price gouging there because there’s no way in hell what workers are still there are getting paid that much better in order to justify a the dollar hash brown.

      • ramble81@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        10 months ago

        But a $15 minimum wage will cause prices to skyrocket! …. Prices have skyrocketed, wages remain stagnant.

        • Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          10 months ago

          It’s not that we can’t afford to pay you $15 an hour, or even $30 an hour, but if we did that then we couldn’t give that money to the shareholders. You see, they’ve purchased a certificate which entitles them to the wealth created by your labor. We assure you we can imagine it must be somewhat uncomfortable to live in constant grinding poverty, but you can understand how our hands are tied here. They have a certificate. What are we supposed to do, ask a rich person to be a teeny tiny bit less rich? That’s just crazy talk.

          • ArbiterXero@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            10 months ago

            We promised those shareholders that we’d pay you as little as we can…… you wouldn’t want to make us liars, would you?

      • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        I can make a hamburger and fries in like ten minutes active cooking time for £3, and it’ll have proper beef and be perfect.

        What is even happening at Burger King?

        • BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          That’s crazy, i can’t comprehend. Americans told me that junk food is cheaper than actual food, so obviously i believe that.

  • Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    10 months ago

    They gauged a little too much and boasted about record profits a little too loudly, and now have to deal with backlash. Too bad, so sad. 🙄