Business, Economics, and Taxes: Eat Cereal for Dinner

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Lemme guess, the nude cruise out of Florida next year!

 

[Kepler]

Lemme guess, the nude cruise out of Florida next year!

I don't know what the Caribbean did to deserve this.

Fig. 1 Old, fat, drunk, white people temporarily not in the Midwest.

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

McDonald’s has noticed a drop in sales and particularly that people making under $45k are no longer buying their shit food.

i haven’t eaten at one in two decades but all I hear is how expensive it now is, and that many sit down restaurants are the same price.

more people need to stop buying this crap. These companies all put people over profit and they should suffer

 

[dxmnkd316]

That's the second one, isn't it?


I don't get down with conspiracy theories. Boeing and their suppliers employ an enormous amount of people. Sometimes people get sick and die for no "good" reason, even now (there's always a reason, but sometimes that reason is rather unsatisfying).


That said...

I thought I heard this guy was battling an illness for a while

 

[dxmnkd316]

McDonald’s has noticed a drop in sales and particularly that people making under $45k are no longer buying their **** food.

i haven’t eaten at one in two decades but all I hear is how expensive it now is, and that many sit down restaurants are the same price.

more people need to stop buying this crap. These companies all put people over profit and they should suffer

I'd be curious if that's more because they can't afford it or the fact that the wages of the bottom quartile have outpaced inflation and that 45k number doesn't represent the same population size anymore. In other words, can the people previously in that bucket now afford something else?

will be interesting if this is also something that impacts YUM, etc.

 

[St. Clown]

I'd be curious if that's more because they can't afford it or the fact that the wages of the bottom quartile have outpaced inflation and that 45k number doesn't represent the same population size anymore. In other words, can the people previously in that bucket now afford something else?

will be interesting if this is also something that impacts YUM, etc.

People responding to survey companies ah e stated that it’s due to increased prices. McD’s went in hard on their app, so people have to use the app to get the deals. Poorer people tend to not have credit or debit cards, so using the app is less attractive.

 

[RaceBoarder]

I'm sure some of it is people walking away....

Personally, when something is $10 in my head because it was that price for so long, it's jarring to see the same thing be $17 now... I mean, say what you want about Taco Bell's quality, but that is/was the ultimate "cheap eats"... A Beefy 5-layer burrito could be had for under $1 ($0.89 to be exact) within the last 20 years. That same item is $3.59 currently. It's quite jarring and difficult to shake established memories like this, as they are firmly accepted as "normal"...

 

[Handyman]

It's easy for stuff to be cheap when you don't pay an honest wage...

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

I believe I saw that McDonald’s has a 30% profit margin.

 

[Kepler]

This is fine.

Tesla has fired its entire Supercharger division, staff who worked in the team say.

 

[aparch]

This is fine.

One of the Big3 was just gifted the opportunity to leapfrog everyone in the supercharging department...


*edit* I didn't see it in my skimming of the article, but apparently Space Karen canned the whole team because the head of the division pushed back on Musk for wanting to make deep cuts to her department.

 

[dxmnkd316]

He's so fucking incompetent

 

[RaceBoarder]

It's easy for stuff to be cheap when you don't pay an honest wage...

No, I get that.

What ticks me off is that after increasing wages, companies still feel they are entitled to continue to have 5-10%+ increased in profit after absorbing the wage hits or whatever else hurts the bottom line. That's the root of all this. Can't be content making $1B in profits for a hot second. That number must be in a perpetual climb.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

*edit* I didn't see it in my skimming of the article, but apparently Space Karen canned the whole team because the head of the division pushed back on Musk for wanting to make deep cuts to her department.

God spoke to Elmo on his last ketamine trip and told him to fire them all.

Lots of talented engineers are about to be on the market.

 

[SJHovey]

I believe I saw that McDonald’s has a 30% profit margin.

That has to be the corporation, which owns very few of the restaurants. They're just generating their revenue off of franchise fees, training fees, marketing fees, etc...

I can't believe individual franchise owners are clearing 30%, primarily because no chance the corporate office would let them do that without trying to steal some of it for themselves.

 

[RaceBoarder]

That has to be the corporation, which owns very few of the restaurants. They're just generating their revenue off of franchise fees, training fees, marketing fees, etc...

I can't believe individual franchise owners are clearing 30%, primarily because no chance the corporate office would let them do that without trying to steal some of it for themselves.

McD's corporate $$$ is also tied up in real estate. Most Franchise owners lease their location from corporate.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

The McDonalds Corporation is ultimately a real estate holdings and brand licensing company. As of 2017, 70% of the restaurant buildings and 45% of the underlying land were wholly owned by the company, and leased back to their franchisees, along with the brand rights. This system has made McDonalds one of the most expensive franchised restaurants to operate, typically requiring $750k-$1m in liquid startup capital, and a total investment of $1-2m just to open a single new franchise. For comparison, you can usually open a Subway or a Jersey Mike's for about $250k.

 

[SJHovey]

One thing I've always wondered about McDonald's is this. Are the prices the same everywhere in the country? Does a McDonald's hamburger in Grand Forks cost the same as one in San Francisco?

 

[aparch]

One thing I've always wondered about McDonald's is this. Are the prices the same everywhere in the country? Does a McDonald's hamburger in Grand Forks cost the same as one in San Francisco?

No. Franchisees have the ability to change their pricing. So the downtown San Francisco location can charge a higher price than the Fargo McDonalds, but both are less than the Illinois Tollway McDonald's location.

That's why all corporate advertisements specifically state " * Participating locations only," "* Prices may vary," or other legal language. Franchisees can even charge different prices across their own portfolio of stores.


As the great Mitch Hedberg once said:

“Every McDonald’s commercial ends the same way: Prices and participation may vary. I wanna open a McDonald’s and not participate in anything. I wanna be a stubborn McDonald’s owner. “Cheeseburgers?” “Nope! We got spaghetti, and blankets.””

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

So the downtown San Francisco location can charge a higher price than the Fargo McDonalds, but both are less than the Illinois Tollway McDonald's location.

Gotta love a captive consumer.