Here's the latest hotness on the economy: Desperate fast food chains are being forced to offer cheap meal deals to lure back customers who have abandoned them due to high inflation. Maybe so. But first take a look at this:
This goes through Q1 and it's for all restaurant spending, not just fast food. But conventional wisdom suggests that when times are tight, cheap places do relatively better than upscale places. So this likely overstates the problems of fast food restaurants.
Even at that, spending dipped only slightly more than 1% in the most recent quarter and is still 15% higher than before the pandemic. This doesn't suggest to me that fast food chains are hemorrhaging business in any serious way. They advertise specials and deals all the time, and sales go up and down slightly all the time—in good times and bad.
I don't see any serious problems here aside from the possibility that maybe they got a little too greedy about raising prices well above inflation and are now paying a slight price. Them's the breaks, folks.
america doesn't eat bacon anymore.
ergo, the baconator, bacon mc double, bacon chicken ranch, etc., are clogging the menu & no one can fund an acceptable item beyond those.
America doesn't eat bacon? Speak for yourself!
Perhaps Americans don't want crappy food anymore?
Oh KD, one could just have a blog on fast food carry out. It is is own universe. First of all, the posted chart is too broad. Second, let’s just leave it there.
Shouldn't you be comparing spending with prices? If prices increased faster than spending -- say for instance McDonalds prices have increased 40% since 2019 but revenue has only increased 30% -- that would suggest a problem for the chain.
It doesn't at all suggest a problem for the chain. It suggests the chain chose to optimize profits by focusing on fewer people willing to pay more.
Uhh, 30% increase in profit last year alone. Your numbers are not comparable.
"I don't see any serious problems here aside from..."
You were a journalist. Why do many journalists have such a hard time providing reasonable analysis?
Fast food restaurants like Mickey D's are luring in customers with more and more deals. Here's why lower prices are bad news for Joe Biden.
New York Times
We stopped by Arby's yesterday for a quick lunch. 2 regular roast beef sandwiches for $6 is quite a bargain. Of course if you wanted fries and a drink, the price does go up quite a bit.
Back in my day you could get 5 roast beef for $5!
in 1998, sure.
that was -- egad -- 26 years ago.
Remember when we were talking about the worker shortage after the pandemic and how restaurants were effected? Well, you want people to work there and stay open, then companies have to pay and if they pay then they will raise prices like it or not. It's that simple.
I am always so pleased when greed comes back to bite.