McDonalds has a multinational presence, along with taking regional pricing into account (meaning the prices of food items differ and adjusted based on GDP per capita), like a Big Mac is $6 before tax while the same is $2 in another country.
The menu is different by country (certain menu items are only available in that region, like how Japan has burgers with teriyaki sauce or rice buns) along with the menu being around ¥1500 for a tray while the same is $40 in the US.
I mean, have you tried McDonalds overseas? If so, is it cheaper when you consider regional pricing and what item do you wish was available at US McDonalds but only remains in that country? Is McDonalds in other countries better or worse?
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Unfortunately yes, at least there are other fast food restaurants that offer better options
If you can afford to eat enough to get full at mcds, it will probably make you sick too. American mcds is garbage.
Yes, McDonalds in America is overpriced crap.
It didnt always used to be, but the past 10 years has seen a hard downward spiral in McDonalds America.
Fast food in America, In General, has had a hard downward spiral in the past 10 years. Quality is down, prices have skyrocketed.
Things you used to get off a dollar menu, now cost 3-5 dollars.
Yes. They used to be cheap and tolerable. Now they are expensive and shitty. Last time I went it was $16 for a 10 pc nugget meal. It’s Ridiculous.
Where TF do you live? In my app a 10 piece large combo is $8.89 and like $9.79 after tax. That’s if I don’t use a digital coupon. I live in Chicago.
Prices definitely vary from pace to place. I noticed cause the sausage egg mcmuffin meal combo is about 5 dollars at one near me and 7 at a different one also near me.
I live in a tourist trap unfortunately. They really crank the prices.
Long, long ago (2019) I could run to mickey d’s and grab two mcchickens and a large drink for $3 US. I think those same terrible choices cost $8 now.
Fast food got stupid expensive in 2020 and never went back, and its made my wife and I healthier because we stopped buying fast food.
just got two chickens recently, $6 a pop. so what used to be $3 now costs around $18 with tax.
Yep, thats been my experience. Breakfast Sausage Burritos used to be like a buck. Now they are almost 5.
I used to go in when i had an extra 10-20 in my pocket and buy a sack of Sausage Burritos and all the picante sauce they’d give me, and eat them over the course of the week… For that same money I’d be lucky to get 3 now. Its absurd.
Yikes
Everything did. I don’t know about where you are, but here the cost of going for food in a pub or restaurant is so expensive that McDonalds is still the cheapest option.
Cheapest option is home cooking.
Totally agree. I was talking about eating out. But you’re bang on. We hardly go out to eat anymore. Pre-covid it was normal we’d go out one a week. Not it’s only time when we’re away from home and want to treat ourselves.
Thats what we do now.
It may be the cheapest but its not good enough for what it does cost.
Totally agree. And when we’re feeling lazy we get some frozen, shove in the oven, type food. I know it’s not great but really it’s no different to fast food but cheaper.
This is not quite the case where I am. Restaurants/pubs prices went up by like a dollar or two per sitting, while fast food went up by like 50%, to the point where if you’ve got the time a restaurant is as cheap or cheaper than the fast food option.
I have seen that myself. It costs about the same for a sit-down place as fast food costs, but you get bigger portions and better food.
I havent seen that. Here in the PNW, even formerly cheap sit-down restaurants have doubled their prices in the last few years. Red Robin’s used to have burgers and bottomless fries for $9.99 and now those burgers are smaller “tavern style” and the fry portion is smaller and they want $18 for it.
McDonald’s used to be cheap decent food here in the U.S. but over the last decade or so the prices have kept going up while the quality has gone down.
To be fair no one has ever considered McDonald’s to be gorumet food but it didn’t matter because it was cheap and it was still pretty good.
Now they are neither cheap nor good. You could get a real burger at a much better restaurant for about the same price.
Since they’ve converted all of their restaurants into soulless little bland shoeboxes no one even stays there to eat anymore. The building is basically just a hub for drive through orders and DoorDash pickup.
It’s pretty depressing. I hardly ever go there anymore. A Whataburger just opened down the street where the food is much better and everything is at least 25% cheaper depending on what you order.
no one even stays there to eat anymore. The building is basically just a hub for drive through orders and DoorDash pickup.
i cant understand this…
I used to eat mcdonalds a lot… i’m talking about $1 value menu items, a long time ago… now its 3x more expensive, and way shittier…
And now people are paying these 3x, prices, for shittier food AND paying delivery and tip on uber eats…
I have young genZ coworkers who get a box of McDds fries delivered on a whim… and its $10… i do not understand… i’m such an old boomer
They didn’t have cheap and decent mcdonald’s to compare too. At the tail end of it their parents were buying it if they had any. You and I are basically the crotchety old people who used to say “You used to get a burger and a drink for a quarter!”. I mean shit, fries and a drink used to be an after thought, now they basically double the price of a meal. The cheaper items like a regular cheeseburger, with pickup selected are 2.99 each at my local mcdonald’s. If you select the meal it makes it two cheeseburgers (so $6) and fries and drink for 11.89 for medium. Medium is barely any fries and drinks still cost them almost nothing yet it’s just about double.
this is the inevitable fate of every publicly traded company. they all enshittify eventually.
I have young genZ coworkers who get a box of McDds fries delivered on a whim… and its $10… i do not understand… i’m such an old boomer
my gf’s gen z-son and his gf order a fries and a sundae each regularly from McD via Ubereats here in Aus. I am “but wot now” to myself. I don’t see them often but my gf does and she tells me its a bi weekly thing
I am old (Gen x) i don’t understand.
but over the last decade or so the prices have kept going up while the quality has gone down.
True for literally every fucking thing.
I’m so sick of it.
The funky colours in the 90’s were exactly meant to make ppl leave quickly again. This is no new development. Regarding the food itself, i’d avoid it like a plaque. There’s a reason mc donalds burgers dont rot compared to burger king.
The old colorful designs were meant to entice people into the restaurant, the hard uncomfortable seats were meant to ensure you didn’t hang around all day once you were done eating. They always wanted people to go there before. Now the interior is so depressing that it’s clear they don’t want people to eat there at all
They always wanted people in the building, that’s why they had a freaking playground in there
I thought the funky colours were to lure in the children. Same as the happy meal toys and ball pit play area and the cartoon mascots everywhere.
McDonald’s is different in every country. For me it’s Sweden > Norway > Spain > India > Thailand > USA.
The USA is the worst - most expensive, worst quality.
That’s not to say that McD is good anywhere though.
Yes. Go to a non-chain place. Support small business
I actually quit eating there over 15 years ago which is before I started traveling. Got tired of having hydro-dynamic gastrointestinal expulsion after eating.
That sounds like allergies rather than the quality of the food
Nope. I can eat a burger at other places without issue.
hydro-dynamic gastrointestinal expulsion after eating.
i.e. the shits
You can always rely on McDonald’s to sell the cheapest product they can make, at the highest price people will pay for it.
Is American McDonald’s expensive?
Now it is. Might as well go to a proper restaurant for a better meal at the same price.
Is American McDonald’s crap?
Also yes.
Have you tried McDonald’s over seas?
I went to one in Germany while I was there. It was more or less the same; the sauces tasted slightly different. But you could get a pint of beer, unlike American McDonald’s. They didn’t really have any special “Germany only” items. At least, not then. It was also back before it was expensive. I paid maybe a dollar less than I was used to back home for the same meal.
I was looking at McDonald’s prices recently and was high and wanted some food.
The prices are always elevated on DD, so I expected to spend more.
But uh. Holy shit. Their prices are on par with five guys and they’re so much better. (five guys in case that wasn’t clear)
I ended up getting White Castle because their mozzarella sticks at my local spot are fucking incredible.
You ain’t talking about no paper cup? You mean like a glass of beer?
I had McDs on vacation in France not long ago (it was the only thing open in town at that hour) and it honestly was pretty decent. Last time I ate McDs here in the states some years ago I had turbo shits.
Yes
Can’t speak to McDonald’s, but I can for KFC.
KFC outside the US is great. Genuinely good and typically not the cheapest food, but not pricey. In some places it’s just original recipe (which is fairly crispy) and spicy.
In the US it’s fully disgusting. Top to bottom, everything is gross, and it’s not cheap enough to be so gross. I would rather skip a meal than eat KFC in the US. But KFC anywhere in Africa is on par with the excitement of a Nando’s - guaranteed good food ahead.
Last time I had McDonald’s at all was 2007 in Morocco and it made me feel gross, so I haven’t touched it since.
KFC is regarded as midrange in China. And to be fair it’s not bad. My wife tried a KFC in the Netherlands and it was shockingly terrible.
My wife tried a KFC in the Netherlands and it was shockingly terrible.
I can see that. Ultimately, they do play to the local market, so maybe preferences that were closest to pickled herring won out (to be fair, I actually like pickled herring, so maybe I’d like KFC NL)
KFC is terrible in France. Then again, so is McDonalds, and both are waaay too expensive for what you get.
I actually prefer Burger King here, which is something cause in the states it’s… not great.
The McDonald’s in Indonesia is the first place I had black pepper sauce. It was a revelation to me and I love it to this day.
Vietnam and Indonesia McDonald’s have spicy fried chicken that is fantastic.
Off topic but for some reason in the Da Nang airport (Vietnam) there is a Burger King that has burgers that are fantastic. I don’t know why it’s so much better, and the first time I thought I must have just been hungry as hell but, I went back a year later and it was still good as hell.
I had a McDonalds in Jakarta a few years back. It’s a very different experience. They seem to price themselves in the way StarBucks does, which is opposite to what I’m used to. I prefer the local food still though.
I didn’t try it but I also saw Burger King there has a rendang burger. I liked the idea of it.
Yes. It use to be so cheap that you were OK with a slab of cardboard on 2 rocks. Prices gone up to where you would expect human quality food, but the cardboard got thinner.
