• Adkml [he/him]
    hexbear
    56
    1 month ago

    How the fuck are mcdonalds not going out of business.

    Every day I see people complaining it's garbage food that costs more than actual restaurant food and every day they do more and more to jack up prices and lower value.

    But I can't rember the last time I saw a closed McDonald's.

    • FlakesBongler [they/them]
      hexbear
      42
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      They're entrenched

      For every Wendy's or Burger King, there's like four McDonald's

      When it's 3:25am and you want a hot, vaguely food-themed thing to put in your mouth to satisfy the primal need for salt and fat, it's liable to be something from McDonald's

      • anarchoilluminati [comrade/them]
        hexbear
        13
        1 month ago

        Yes. The last time I ate a McDonald's burger was about a year ago around that time of night when a friend and I were drunk and he insisted we go to McDonald's. I objected because I thought it was going to be shit, but I have to admit it was surprisingly all actually pretty damn delicious. Keep in mind though that I was very, very drunk and very hungry. Before that, I hadn't eaten a McDonald's burger meal for at least a decade, likely longer. I think they are kept afloat by people who are either very poor or very drunk.

    • Diuretic_Materialism [he/him]
      hexbear
      24
      1 month ago

      I think McDonalds owns a bunch of food and agro infrastructure that actually makes them the bulk of their profit, so as long at the brick and mortar stores are barely profitable or break even they can stay open.

        • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]
          hexbear
          10
          1 month ago

          exactly this, and for good locations the central office will own the land and if necessary just sell it or sit on it while the mcdonald's makes it look valuable

      • D61 [any]
        hexbear
        1
        1 month ago

        Pretty sure a chunk of their income is being a landlord, they own the property the franchisee is running a McDonalds shop on.

    • RoabeArt [he/him]
      hexbear
      24
      1 month ago

      Every McDonalds I see constant has a huge line of cars in the drive through, and almost every parking space is filled. Yet at the same time I always encounter people who talk about how they haven't gone to McDonalds in years.

      I don't think I've ever seen a McDonalds permanently close either, unless it was moving to a new location down the street or something. They always manage to stay open even in neighborhoods where everything else shuttered long ago.

    • RedWizard [he/him]
      hexbear
      15
      1 month ago

      Are they still one of the largest real estate companies in America? That was the initial grift with franchising.

    • CommunistBear [he/him]
      hexbear
      8
      1 month ago

      Because the slop IS still cheap and tbh the quality is the same as it ever was. If you use the app you can still get a full meal for like $5-6 if you're aiming for it and avoid the new trendy stuff. Yeah, the dollar menu is gone and everything is more generally more expensive but frequently there's a BOGO deal or a half off on a certain thing

      • Adkml [he/him]
        hexbear
        9
        1 month ago

        "It's actually not that expensive if you also just hand over all your personal info and give them access to all your data" is incredibly draconian and not a reasonable solution

        • CommunistBear [he/him]
          hexbear
          8
          1 month ago

          I mean yeah, it's incredibly dystopian and I hate it. But we're living in a dystopia and I'm broke enough to eat the slop in the first place