McDonalds price increase

[Sally090807]

I see that McDonalds are increasing their prices so from today their cheeseburgers are going up from 99p to £.1.19, a 20% increase.
I don’t eat there often but as the company made $12.58B last year, a 29% increase from the previous year, then I think it’s sheer greed to put their prices up.

YABU - the cost of living has gone up and therefore they should increase their prices
YANBU - they make massive profits therefore they should keep their prices on hold.

I mean, the fact that you could get a cheeseburger for 99p in the first place was a bit mad to be honest.

They’ve ruined happy meals though.

Haven’t they been 99p for 20 plus years??? (Thinking back to my student days) presumably they are loss leaders. I don’t eat at McDonald’s but think 99p is incredibly cheap for a burger.

That’s how capitalism works, no one eats into their profit margin unless they’re forced to by losing customers.

Also a lot of McDonalds are franchises so those billions aren’t necessarily seen by the people running that specific restaurant. They’ve probably had their costs increased too.

I agree they make massive profits, same as the energy companies but greed isn't going to stop them. There's a quota of profit that they plan to make every year and if they need to increase their prices to that then they will. Ridiculous but nothing we can do about it.

It’s not just the cheeseburgers that are going up though…

This summer, our restaurants will be adding between 10p and 20p to a number of the menu items impacted most by inflation.

It said they haven’t increased cheeseburgers for 14 years but they’ve increased everything else . I know most are franchises but it seems the prices have been going up slowly for a while . Just unannounced .

You think that's bad? Order on Uber Eats. They'll charge £4 deliveries plus add 20-50p to each item.

Is it the fact that they make a profit, OP? Obviously loss-making companies that go out of business don't have a chance to raise their prices so yes, companies that make a profit are going to raise their prices occasionally. That's why they are successful.

Or was it a goady post in the hope of getting anti-McDonalds posts?

I don't get this, people always say similar stuff about Center Parcs. It's a business, its sole purpose is to make money. Yes there are some CSR requirements but at the end of the day businesses only do those because it ensures they can carry on making money.

Unfortunately, although you might hope companies will keep prices down for good PR, you can't expect a business to willingly volunteer to make less money for some benevolent purpose. The price will be dictated by market conditions, by supply and demand. If they can charge £3k for a week at center parcs in August, and people will pay it, then they will. And if McDonald's can get away with charging an extra 20p for a burger they definitely will.

This summer, our restaurants will be adding between 10p and 20p to a number of the menu items impacted most by inflation.

So? They aren’t a charity. Cost of raw ingredients, utilities, transport have all gone up. If the price rises aren’t in line with the market then people won’t shop there. However I agree with PP and being able to buy a 99p burger isn’t sustainable and shouldn’t be something we aspire to. Meat has been too cheap for too long.

Well firstly, it's McDonald's, it's hardly essential. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

Secondly, the fact any burger is being sold for 99p (or £1.19) makes me question the welfare standards for the animals they use.

Thirdly, don't they run on the franchise model? So it's not one massive corporation taking all of that profit but rather thousands and thousands (I don't know how many restaurants they have) of individual business owners.

It's a small price increase across the board (10-20p per item) and tbh all the prices of food, fuel, wages are going up - they're a profit making business they can't just unilaterally swallow the costs of everything. I'm shocked they didn't do it sooner!

Good!

They need to make junk food more expensive

I never eat there so they can up their prices as much as they like, as far as I am concerned.

If all fast good restaurants tripled their price then it may help the absolutely massive tsunami of obesity related health issues that is upon us and growing.

Ok. So do you want the government to step in or something?

McDonalds is so cheap. You can feed - even 'treat' - a family for a fraction of what it costs even at a standard coffee shop. And many high street chains are nudging £100 to feed a family of four these days. I think that level of increase is fine and am surprised it's not going up by more given the increases on food shopping costs etc.

They're like 3 mouthfuls worth though.

They are ridiculously cheap and have been for decades. No issue from me

Food*

Ha. They were my entire lunch when I was broke. 263 calories. No wonder I was skinny

Did they make that profit just in the UK or was it spread over hundreds of thousands of outlets in hundreds of countries? I bet if you broke it down by restaurant it wouldn't look anywhere near as impressive

As you alluded to, they are a Public limited company. They have shareholders and employees to deal with.

shareholders expect profitability to remain at or above the levels they are currently - McDonalds is a ‘value’, not a ‘growth’ stock. It pays dividends etc.

20p on a £1 burger covers probably the rising costs in their supply chain, employee salaries rising (at the upper levels) etc.

now - 20% - that’s the interesting bit.

The Big Mac index has long been used as a proxy for currency strength and as such a measure of inflation.

that - you should be asking the Bank Of England and the ONS why their pathetic inflation figure is only 9.4%, when yes - we can wander around any find that most of our daily consumption - food, energy, housing etc is increasing much more ….
…. and ask them why they don’t have the balls to raise rates fast and hard.

Isn't that profit worldwide? Do you know what their UK profit was?

No one NEEDS a McDonald's cheeseburger, looks a bit grim to me.

Capitalism will always put profits before consumers. It’s not just McDonalds, look at the energy and fuel companies etc (and unlike cheeseburgers, we all need energy!)

it’s absolutely shit but unfortunately is the way of the world, and is wholeheartedly supported by the Tories. Remember they told workers not to demand pay rises but didn’t tell companies to limit profit or shareholder dividends.