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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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.
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.
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
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. Go to a non-chain place. Support small business
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.
Guilty on both counts, Your Honor.
You can always rely on McDonald’s to sell the cheapest product they can make, at the highest price people will pay 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.
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.
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.
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.
this is the inevitable fate of every publicly traded company. they all enshittify eventually.
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.
Yes
If you have a family it’s definitely expensive. And I literally sat down in a booth the last time I went to a McDonald’s and there was a huge turd just sitting on the seat next to me, no lie, and so it’s literally crap as well.
I’ll never go back after that experience. I just can’t trust any location, the business model is to enshittified
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 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.
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 live in the UK and, on a visit to the US in 2017, I decided to try McDonalds in its home country, so to speak. It was significantly worse than what I’d had at home, which is saying something.
McD is crap everywhere.
Around 2014 or so, I used to go to McDonald’s for two McDoubles and a small soda. The McDouble was on the dollar menu, and all drinks, regardless of size, were $1. I could eat a filling meal for $3.
Today, a McDouble is $2.79 in my area and drinks are $1.59, $1.79, or $1.89 depending on size. I’m looking at a minimum of $7.17 for the same meal I used to eat a decade ago, not counting tax.
I used to go out to nice restaurants and spend around $20-30 to feed myself and my wife. Now I spend around that much just feeding the two of us at McDonald’s. Going out to a nice restaurant with my wife is easily gonna cost me $50-$100 today, plus tip.
And I always tip a minimum of $20 regardless of the cost of the meal. Much more if it goes over $70. I don’t agree with tipping, but I’m not gonna screw over waitstaff when their income is heavily based on tips.
[…] have you tried McDonalds overseas?
I lived abroad for nearly a decade, thanks to military service, and I always loved trying McDonald’s in every country I visited, just so I could compare with the US as my baseline.
[…] what item do you wish was available at US McDonalds but only remains in that country?
My favorite foreign item, which I miss dearly, was the teriyaki burger in Japan. It’s the best McDonald’s burger I’ve ever had. Japanese food in general is my favorite of all the foreign foods I’ve eaten and I’m definitely planning a trip back to Japan once day just to gorge on their local foods again. But I will definitely be making time for a McDonald’s teriyaki burger the next time I’m in the country.
Is McDonalds in other countries better or worse?
That’s kind of a complicated question, because it depends on the country and whether you’re looking for “healthier” or “tastier.”
In Europe, food regulations prevent American fast food joints from loading their food with tons of sugar, so they end up being (relatively) healthier than their American counterparts. And depending on the country and where they source their ingredients, it might be tastier too. Although it’s hard to beat a fattening greasy American burger on flavor.
But I remember being in Germany around 2011 or so when they introduced a “1955 Burger,” which they claimed was the burger McDonald’s used to sell in Germany in 1955. It was exceptionally good! I came back many times while the promotion was going on.
When I was back in America, I caught another promotional for the “1955 Burger,” but it was gross! And nothing like the German variant. Apparently, Germany made the burger differently than we did in the US back in the day, and I much prefer the German version.
Today, a McDouble is $2.79 in my area and drinks are $1.59, $1.79, or $1.89 depending on size. I’m looking at a minimum of $7.17 for the same meal I used to eat a decade ago, not counting tax.
They actually have a McDouble meal for $6 now that has a McDouble, 4pc nuggets, fries, and a drink.
