We did a quick road trip up to New England this past weekend. As we had gotten a late start and it was getting past lunch time, we decided to make a pit stop and go to the Golden Arches. I have not eaten at McDonald’s in a long time.
I ordered a quarter pounder meal and my wife got a filet o fish and coffee. She did add an extra fish patty as she eats just the fish and skips the bread. $30. I was sort of stunned by that.
So a family of four grabbing lunch would be $60. I would never have thought I would spend that much there. Food inflation is obviously very real. If this is what it costs to eat at McDonald’s what will happen elsewhere?
I ordered a 10 McNugget combo in Toronto in November, on a Tue night when everything else was closed.
I was shocked that it cost $13.99 CAD ($12 USD) before our 13 % sales tax. The cost of a 2 piece fried chicken dinner with fries, coleslaw and a drink at Mary Brown’s or Popeye’s is around $12.79 CAD before tax, which is a much better value than the nugget combo . I often get a takeout slice of pizza at Eataly for $6 or $7 CAD, or a heat at home piece of lasagna or gnocchi for maybe $12 CAD before tax, so $13.99 for McD’s seemed expensive.
I think that beyond the most basic burgers, McD’s is a charging more because people will pay it. To their credit, the McD’s near me is a good location, with a good staff and it’s open 24/7. Mary Brown’s and Popeye’s close around 10 pm or 11 pm.
I think of Wendy’s, Harvey’s and Burger King as a little better quality and a little more expensive than McD’s, but I think McD’s is charging the same as the others right now.
My local chain pub, with table service, has managed to keep most pub mains around $15-$20. It seems ridiculous that McD’s can charge the same as a full service restaurant.
I think they just messed up. A Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal is not $17. Something got screwed up there. Or you got unlucky and went to a silly McDonalds. I’m in New England and it’s like $8.50 or something like that.
Edit: Oh I just saw the top of the receipt. Darien hahahaha
Yeah, I live in Norwalk. Don’t go to McDonalds in Darien. Those people have enough money that they don’t even look at receipts. Still think it’s a mistake, but the fact it’s 10 minutes down the road in one of the wealthiest towns in the entire country means it could be anything.
Edit again: Oh shit, I got take out at that McDonald’s last week! I just checked my statements. It’s almost double the cost of the ones in Norwalk. You definitely got unlucky as that place is at the rest stop and probably purposely takes advantage of people. Upcharging for the convenience of it being right off the highway.
I seldom eat at fast food franchises because they are few and far between on outermost Cape Cod. That said, the last time I went through our local Wendy’s drive-through, I got a junior cheeseburger, a junior fry and a free senior iced tea and it was under $5.00. Probably pre-Covid, though.
That is just highway robbery!! $17 for a Quarter Pounder Meal deal… ridiculous.
Sunshine and I have some trips planned as soon as it gets a little warmer, I’m definitely packing a cooler with our own food.
We prefer our own food. We only stop to fuel up on gas and go to the bathroom. Sometimes will buy cold bottles of water. I’d rather spend money eating out when we get to where we’re going, if there is good cuisine - but even then we always stay somewhere we can cook for ourselves. It’s really hard to enjoy overpriced mediocre/crappy meals.
People should want living wages for all workers, not just fast food ones. Sorry if that ruins your appetite while you are eating the lousy food at McDs.
Most expensive thing I can find on the online menu of a McD here is $13.89 for a ‘Double Smoky BLT QPC Meal.’ What’s doubled??? Bacon?, Lettuce?, QP patty? I dunno. That’s not the meal you got, obviously.
It’s been some years since I’ve been to a McD’s, but not too long ago my sister remarked that she took her son to one and was floored by the cost . . . it was only slightly less than a local pub would have been for a real burger and fish sandwich (and in a much more relaxed environment).
My last McD’s in 2020 was a sausage
McMuffin, at a pit stop, while travelling on a 5 h bus from an airport to a ski resort. I went 2 years with no fast food other than fried chicken, then in April 2022, after a stressful situation, I went through a McD’s drive thru and ordered a Quarter Pounder with cheese. Which did hit the spot. A lot of restaurants are not open past 9 pm, and I probably ate at McD’s 10 times between April 2022 and Dec 2023, mostly when I needed a quick takeout meal and other restaurants were closed, or when I was on a 6 hour road trip by myself.
The full size combos in Ontario cost the same as a main with fries at many chain and indie pubs and restaurants. I think the reality is, that in Ontario, a restaurant cannot break even if a meal including a protein and side is not priced at $12 Cdn ($10 USD) before tax and tip. Our breakfast restaurants are charging $12 CAD for bacon & eggs, bennies or omelettes, lunch mains start at $12 CAD at most pubs. Pastas are usually $18 CAD and up on dinner menus. An order of take-out Pad Thai, chicken curry or sweet & sour chicken, runs $12 -$16 CAD. A food court combo in a typical mall, regardless of which restaurant usually starts around $12 CAD. Shawarma, doner or gyro in a wrap runs $7-$13 CAD, not including a drink or side.
My typical takeout lunch order anywhere these days is a burger or sandwich, which runs $5 Cdn -$12 CAD( $4 -$10 USD) and a coffee or cappuccino/latte, which runs $2 Cdn- $6 Cdn. It’s going to cost around $20, with the current economy.
That’s more like what I would have expected. But my guess is that Texas doesn’t have the same labor and land costs of Connecticut.
The quarter pounder meal cost me almost as much as a cocktail in midtown.
That crazy price inflation that started before the supposedly transitory inflation. I was floored by the first time I paid $100 for a round of 4 drinks. Now it’s completely normal in NYC. How did that happen?
No, it’s not. You CAN pay that, at Overstory or whatever, but I’m not seeing $25/drink very many places, more like $16-$19 (just checked Le Rock and Manhatta and Chinese Tuxedo). With lower prices certainly not extinct.
Went to a McDonalds today in Norwalk and can ensure everyone that the prices were normal. $7-8 instead of $17. Just don’t go to a McDonald’s at a 95 service/rest area I guess.
