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Chart Of The Day: When $0.99 Becomes Unaffordable, We Have A Problem
Earlier today, fast food juggernaut McDonalds reported same store sales for the month October. At -1.8%, this number was well below expectations of -1.1%, and a drop from September's 1.9%. It was driven by a 2%+ drop in comp store sales across all locations: US, Europea and APMEA, with the US performing just as bad as Europe. Most importantly, this was the first monthly drop in MCD comp sales since March 2003! So our question is: at what point does the perpetually self-deluded US population finally admit to itself that when even 99 cent meals are no longer affordable, that this country has a problem?
Charting the last 4 years of McD sales, and eagerly looking forward to 4 more years.
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How come to make fast food healthy? Big pharma can't make big profits without pink slime, pesticides, genetically modified organisms and too much sugar and salt.
Don't see as many homeless people are here......
Clearly a temporary pink slime issue, expect them to rename the "Dollar Menu" to be "Its a SNAP menu" and everything will turn around
The Dollar Menu is for people that work to earn their FRNs. SNAPers get to order whatever they want.
I'm not sure that's an entirely bad arrangement given the lack of quality in the "food".
Please pass the ketchup blend.
Quantity not Quality
"Looks like they will have to reduce the quality of the meat?"
But where would they find a large population of domesticated corn-feed animals to replace 100% All-American beef?
http://www.coolpicturegallery.us/2010/09/craziest-fat-guy-having-trouble...
Surprised they didn't keep pushing him back in the water?
Quick, his skin is drying out, put some water on him. No, don't pour water down his blowhole, he will drown!
pods
Well, it's good we can all laugh 'cause he's such a fat fuck, but he's got more hot pussy hanging around with him than 99% of the posters here...must be his sense of humor.
There is a difference in hot pussy "hanging around" and being able to actually fuck it. The only hot, wet piece of action that guy is seeing is a McRib.
Most guys will take whatever they can get.
Eat an appl while it still has value?
They should ask for Taco Bell's recipe..
Hint: sawdust.
Even cheaper than pink slime.
You can't reduce the quality of the meat any further while being able to say that it is meat.
No problem....Bernanke annouces Quantative Eating 4( QE4) where the FED will order McDonald meals for everyone and will sell all the toys from kids meals pay for it.
Next stop...Prime cuts in gravy.
Welcome to my world, bitchez!
I'll stick to Friskies, thanks.
My cats and grandma all agree that Super Salmon flavor is the best. A little catnip for desert and then sit and watch them all bounce off the walls. Though Granny's walker can do some serious damage to the picture window.
Sonny, if you haven't pulled rails of catnip off a male escort's ass, you haven't lived. Chase it with a snausage or two and that will put you right for the daytime soaps.
I'll pass on the catnip...but I'll thank you for the belly laugh.
McRib me baby!!
Unaffordable or inedible?
Just need to bring back the McRib.
Let me guess, MCD is too big to fail..
Too fat to fail.
Too fat to fall.
Mc Rib almost the same as pink slime. It is made with Mechanically seperated meat. Basically all of the junk left on the bone after they take the meat off.
They put this in hot dogs also. I stopped eating anyting with Mechanically seperated meat.
quick....halt the VIX!
Maybe people are finally getting that it isn't real food and are not going as often or at all?
I know I did. Cast off as much Frankenfood as possible.
Sadly, I am sure I am wrong.
Count me in that number too. Fast food doesn't see a dime from me.
not as wrong as you might think, sales of non GMO organic food are really picking up steam and big food is suffering for it across the board.
and it's all word of mouth, I know at least a dozen people where I work that have sworn off frankenfood after I started pointing out that there a dozens of easily accessible medical studies pointing out the fact that this shit is not anywhere near as safe or healthy for you as monsanto, walmart, mcdonalds or the USDA would like you to believe.
then they told there family and friends and so on...
I mean it's really not that complicated of a choice, eat poison or don't eat poison.
hmm...
What's truly interesting about this? It's all voluntary action based on education/awareness of the problem.
Gov. only comes in after the fact with their ad campaigns in an effort to seek credit for it (i.e. smoking rates).
Yesterday the news that prescription drug sales are down, now McDonlald's is feeling the pinch. Is it possible Americans are wising up and getting healthy on their own?
Is it possible Americans are wising up and getting healthy on their own?
No such luck,they are BROKE, and have no choice.Just give it another 6 mos.
If the POTUS makes in the full 4yrs, w/out impeachment,he will single handedly w/Bernies help,be blamed for the ENTIRE melt down.
The Dems will never see another White House(if one is left),for 30 years.
Look at the economic backdrop over the last four years, and Obama was re-elected...against a moderate no less. I don't think the Dems are the ones that need to worry about winning the White House for the next 30 years. If the Repubs don't change course and continue moving further to the right and pissing off all of the population growth in this country, they may never see the White House again.
I continue to be struck at the historical similarities: it's almost exactly like the events surrounding the last administration.
The Dems can EASILY throw it--all they'd have to do is run Biden in 2016.
Remember what happened with Gramps Maverickety and the Alaskan MILF...
I strongly recommend reading Wendells books, particularly The Art of Commonplace.
“The passive American consumer, sitting down to a meal of pre-prepared food, confronts inert, anonymous substances that have been processed, dyed, breaded, sauced, gravied, ground, pulped, strained, blended, prettified, and sanitized beyond resemblance to any part of any creature that ever lived. The products of nature and agriculture have been made, to all appearances, the products of industry. Both eater and eaten are thus in exile from biological reality.”
? Wendell Berry
The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.”
? Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
From what I have heard, big food owns a lot of the organic food that you can purchase (excluding actual produce).
I almost completely stopped eating fast food over the last year or so. I only lost about 5 lbs (I'm only about 180), but my BP dropped over 20 points. That shit'll kill ya'.
Just like everything else, the $1.00 meals are crap, and you need a magnifying glass to see the $1.00 item.
Local large gas/diesel stations in and around my A/O, were selling refills on fountain drinks, all summer for $0.53 up to 64 oz.
Now summers over,went back to reg price of $0.79, just went by this a.m., and was informed going to $1.07 asap.
I told them great, now you lose two vehicles gasoline fill ups each week.............LOL
Idiots.......anyone knows the fountain drinks,esp refills are like $.05 cost for them.
Just like Mickey D's, there are NO bargain meals there anymore.............NONE.
$4.00 and up......................never ate their crap anyway, except an occasional breakfast.
You think 99 cent burgers being unaffordable is bad? What will you call it when 99 dollar burgers are affordable?
No doubt Marketwatch will claim this a great success, as people are now skipping fast-food places to eat in proper restaurants.
Long Ramen Noodles!
What will you call it when 99 dollar burgers are affordable?
Incredible GDP growth.
I think the point isn't that $0.99 isn't affordable, it's that people are ordering the McDoubles and Bacon Double Cheeseburger, etc. for $0.99 rather than paying $10.00 for a Big Mac, thereby impacting revenues. I love ordering a couple of McDoubles for a couple bucks, but they get pissed off when you don't order a drink or fries with it, because that's where the margin is.
went to b-king yesterday while waiting for my car (first time in years), ordered a hamburger (no cheese) and a water....$1.06....I thought the guy was gonna hit me.
What kind of faggot goes to McDonald's and orders a hamburger and a water?
The slightly overweight ones. The obese ones order a lot more.
They order a diet coke
good point sorta....luckily i'm very comfortable with my man-ness for any clever comebacks....or just slow
I guess Manofbliss has a J.O.B. at MickyD's !
What kind of moron gets the name of the restaurant wrong while trying to insult someone else?
spastic
you really think the McD's labor force is that motivated?...that they care enough to want to hit you?
point taken.....i was safer than i thought
The general staff aren't motivated enought to get made, but the assistant associate management supervisor trainees who are on track to make associate management supervisor get really pissed off!
Sounds like a career for ManOfBliss.
My McDonalds offers coffee for $1.00. I get a large (24 oz?, sorry Bloomberg) and split it with my wife. Partying like it's 1979.
No, but your stomach probably hit you within an hour after eating that crap.
BOOM! great point here. Plus, I do think people are choosing better food. Prop 37 in CA (although it lost being outspent in ads by onsanto, et.all 46m to 8m), points to people saying, "You know what, maybe going to the grocery store to buy a burger to cook is a better choice. And, it tastes better!".
On top of that, McD's gives AWAY freebies all the time. My dad, who is a cop, get a shit ton of coupons from fast food joints all the time (I assume they the fast food joints this as most cops are on the go).
I think the majority of fast food joints become a bubble sooner or later. As inflation increases, they are going to have to either raise the prices of their food (the only reason ppl eat here in bulk is due to the price) or pay their workers more (which won't happen, and ppl will finally wake up and have respect for themselves).
Making you own will probably taste better, but when you factor in buns, onions. ketchup, etc..., you can't beat 99 cents for price.
Prop 37 was presented as a classic CA prop. The first sentence sounds great, but when you read the entire thing you find out who really is supporting it and other nasty side effects/carve outs. In this case it was the bloodsucking lawyers. Passing Prop 37 would have required labelling on dog food, but not steaks.
I have heard that it also put all responsibility for labeling on the retail store.
The margin has shrunk on the sodas, too, as (I'm guessing) people are always buying the large for $1 rather than the small for $1.29 like they used to.
When I want a coke, I go to McD's now to get the 32oz for $1+tax, rather than the drugstore get the 20oz for $1.59+tax+deposit.
This must be that "margin collapse" Tyler has been telling us about.
when i want a coke, i ask for a cup of water and then i get a coke
a coke .. look at the stuff in that drink.. sugar yadda , not one redeeming ingredient.
the aware folks who still shop macdonalds and the health robbing aspect of the american diet .
pour the coke on the battery poles to clean for crap build up.. then pour it in your stomack to get instant poison .
maybe the macdonald story ius getting out and folks are looking for healthy ..a hamburger and coke fries will increase the medicasl costs of the average american blind to things that are healthy ,
a 99 cent hamberger coke has hidden costs ..that come up in later health life .
I use Coke as an insecticide.
Sugar in coke?! Not in this country...that would considered health food
What do you think is in your stomach, rose petals?
Gag up some puke and it will melt the battery terminals, the battery and the firewall.
Who gets pissed off? Does the owner run the drive through window? Where I live, the central americans couldn't care less what you order.
McSoylent
No, this is an anti-problem.
America is finally beginning to eat fewer "Crappy Meals."
And more dumpster-meals.
"The term “the Obama Free Fish Filet” has been all around since the day Barack Obama became the president of the United States of America. Many people think that Obama is giving free fish filets to the poor in order to redistribute the wealth of rich people. Since then two groups are mudslinging at each other.
It’s true that government provides free fish filets to the poor and disabled people. But the Obama part is not true as Obama didn’t initiate this program. It’s on the run since the administration of Reagan."
The problem is you can't buy fast food with food stamps. That's all the long-term unemployed have now that their unemployment benefits have been exhausted.
I agree that's a big part of it. It's SNAP debit cards now. No longer called food stamps.
Incorrect. You just swipe yo EBT (NSFW):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzspsovNvII
ZA,
RI has a pilot program to change that. http://www.dhs.ri.gov/FamilieswithChildren/FoodAssistance/tabid/824/Default.aspx
At the moment is only for elderly or disabled or homeless people but not sure how they know if you have a home or not when you are standing in line ordering.
At the moment is only for elderly or disabled or homeless people but not sure how they know if you have a home or not when you are standing in line ordering.
There are these amazing devices called "computers" which communicate information about you when you use an identifiable transaction card. You should check that shit out. They're probably going to be big someday.
In NYC, you can if you're officially homeless.
The "pink slime" scam pushed MCD diners to Applebees and Taco Bell.
quick call the hamburgler and fry guys!!
NO PINK SLIME!!!
It appears there has been a sharp increase in the number of people adopting the no-wheat diet. This could be a factor.
In Greece, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people adopting the no-eat diet. A much greater factor
Since going primal, I don't even like the "better" restaurants. as the same damn poison-food truck stops at all of them.
I've also lost 15-20 lbs while pigging out on bacon and eggs.
www.marksdailyapple.com
Yes, and I bet your ass-stank could kill a city. Piggin out on bacon and eggs, have some mercy, that has to a a hell of a smell.
Spaniards have to wait as long as 3 days for a happy meal to show up in a dumpster now that's how bad it is
No big deal, the happy meal lasts for years who there's no bother on the lag time.
Same thing in Staten Island!
Funny how MCD's sales skyrocketed when they started accepting credit cards, does this mean that sheeple have reached their credit limit?
+1
I had a hamburgler doll as a kid. Hamburgler was cool.
Nice chart
McDonalds is a rip off, if you are not exclusively eating off the .99 cent menu it's going to cost you like $8 for a crappy meal. My allegiance is sworn and true to In-n-out burgers, I have pity on anyone in this country that doesn't have access to one!
In-n-Out is fantastic. Ditto with Five Guys (with free peanuts).
Haven't tried five guy's yet though there is one in my area. May actually try it today on my way to the tungsten shop.
Five Guys is ridiculously overpriced.
Agree. Took 3 teenagers there a week ago and it cost me $50. They ate everything and took a couple pounds of peanuts for the road.
Five Guys is very expensive. Yet again, its actual REAL food, and if there is anything to be learned during this pre-hyperinflationary phase......REAL stuff that has actual VALUE is going UP in price. On top of that, the Five Guys folks know that ppl are getting sick of McD's, and milk the customers a little to make profit due to this.
In and Out Burgers are AWESOME.
99 cent problems and Mcdonalds got one!
The homeless population looked at the 99 cent menu and then at their own poop and decided homemade was healthier.
Ugg, thats nasty. But oh so true.
Also you need a car for the Drive through. A couple of years ago, A guy was standing at the outdoor Mic and gave me a $1 to buy burger. He said they would not sell to him if he was not in a car. Homeless cant catch a break!
He gave me the exact amount of money, down to the cent after tax. I told the window maid I was buying a burger for the non-car owner and asked them to bag is seperate. They did.
Homeless can use their SNAP card at Subway in Providence, RI.
Before I could drive, I got my friends to act as if we were sitting in a car and acted like I was driving it. We sat in mid air and when I went to place the order, the pricks still wouldn't serve us. The inside was closed. Oh well, one less meal at Taco Smell.
The "no car, no service" policy was implemented for indemnity 'cause so many drive-thru customers are unconscious enough to roll over someone standing in front of their vehicle. It's just corporate legalism stuff.
I vaguely remember this as starting some time in the mid-'80s, as I had friends who were working at McD's at the time.
"So our question is: at what point does the perpetually self-deluded US population finally admit to itself that when even 99 cent meals are no longer affordable, that this country has a problem?"
Well, if Greece is any indication we have a long way to go yet.
If they could start excepting SNAP cards the sales would go through the roof!
Most states do allow the cards to be used for fast food!
The new normal, I work and don't eat out much, but I pay taxes to facilitate recipients eating out!!!!
Makes me want to work harder to pay more taxes! LOL!
I thought they were having to rely on Frozen cheese burgers from the grocery store. Had no idea they could buy fast food with them. That pisses me off!
It's all my fault! I have not eaten at Mickey Dee's in over a month. Have not eaten at any of the fast food joints in over a month. Look for negative reports from them, coming up soon. ;-)
Once again, go long Ramen noodles.
McD's marginal consumer are kids on the way home from the gov't youth indoctrination prison camp and 20 somethings. Kids parents don't have the spare bucks for the kids to grab junk on the way home and 20 somethings can't get a job, so they're at home eating the Peeps leftovers whilst trying to figure out how to make student loan paymets with a $0.00/month cash in flow....
Have it your way...bitchez.
I was recently in Brazil where a BigMac combo meal is $18R ($9 US). That economy is HOT. Close up shop in the US and sell Bigmacs in Brazil.
McDogmeat
I never cared for their hamburgers, but I used to like the fish sandwiches until they shrunk out of sight. And the price ballooned.
Maybe the general populace is eating better, less or looking at Innout Burger instead(privately held)
Does competition get any credit for this?
McSNAPpy burger coming to your town soon...
I hate McDonald's food. You couldn't pay me to eat it.
Well....
Is it even beef! it's worse than pink slime.
Right - I don't even know.
But actually, for 20 bucks, I would eat a Big Mac and then use the money to go somewhere I liked the next day.
Very pragmatic...
With practice you could get good at palming it.....
$1 ????....what are you talking about !!!.......the menu is now almost all up to $1.19
I think what a lot of people are missing is that we are currently undergoing a shift in thinking. More and more people are becoming hip to the fact that McDonalds (and all fast food and sugar and HFCS and prescription pills and vaccines etc...) are COMPLETELY awful for them. It is not a gigantic portion of the population but it is definitely enough (and growing everyday) to put a pretty good dent in some sales. Soon enough it won't matter if they are giving the shit away for free, people who are educated on the subject will not buy/use it. These companies are in trouble, long term, and there is nothing they can do about it...
Crockett,
Shall we continue here?
Here is somthing for you to twiddle with, it can access all the temperature data (some sets going back to 1750)
http://www.skepticalscience.com/trend.php
Do you want to play with trends?
I want to know the answer to the question which I've asked you about repeatedly but which you've refused to answer. Do you agree with James Lovelock (whom you have suggested is a white wizard of the modern age) when he says that everyone on Earth will die by 2100 with the exception of a few people living at the poles? If you don't find his statements to be over the top hysteria then don't worry -- there's still time for you to apply for a position as one of Santa's elves.
If it will truly make you happy...
If the global temperature rises by 6 C by the end of the 21st century, his prediction will very likely be well on its way to being bourne out...
You can find someone else to quibble over the details with....
-----------------------------
Now about your claims on trends:
Note that August 1997 was shamelessly cherry-picked by David Rose in the Daily Mail because it gives the lowest warming trend to the present of any point before 2000....
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2012/11/short-term-trends-another-proxy-fight/
Lovelock is quite sure of his prediction. He says that we must begin powering down society although billions will die regardless of such efforts. By using the qualifier "if" in your post are you suggesting that you find Lovelock's claims to be less than credible? Has he lost the status of being your white wizard? And don't you think that people will want something more certain than "If the global temperature rises," before they are willing to power down society?
That is not how the game works, Wormtongue. it now my turn....
Do you still stand by your statment that warming stopped as per
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2217286/Global-warming-stopped-16-years-ago-reveals-Met-Office-report-quietly-released--chart-prove-it.html
Will you admit that the above article is flawed, intellectually dishonest and deliberately designed to mislead people?
I just learned that your white wizard has come clean, Flak. Suddenly I've found a modicum of respect for the man. How about you?
That not nice Wormtongue... Now be a good boy and answer the two part question..
You only make yourself look like a filibustering Senator, Strom Thurmond defending segregation comes to mind...
Here it is again:
Do you still stand by your statment that warming stopped as per
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2217286/Global-warming-stopped-16-years-ago-reveals-Met-Office-report-quietly-released--chart-prove-it.html
Will you admit that the above article is flawed, intellectually dishonest and deliberately designed to mislead people?
The science shows that your models and hysterical predictions are wrong as I've stated over and over again. Perhaps the chilly weather (sans global warming) has brought on an ear infection. Better have that looked at.
I'll take that as a No to the former and a Yes to the latter...
Did I get that right?
Worm?
Worm, are you there?
Now I see the problem. You hear the opposite of what people say to you. What an odd malady.
Ah, Worm, ah there you are...
You should look up Gish Gallop and then look in the mirror.....
You are a little out of date. A few months ago Lovelock announced that he was wrong, the latest data did not support his predictions and he wished to retract the doomsday stories he put out from 5 to 20 years ago. When asked why he was the only global warming alarmist to do this, he pointed out that he was 92 years old and retired and had nothing to lose career wise.
Thank's Diogenes, that's great news! The global alarmists are being forced to admit their mistakes due to the fact that multiple sources now confirm that so called global warming leveled off fifteen ago. It's good to see the AGW crowd looking at the actual science rather than the broken models and the social agenda which they had hoped to achieve through their fabrications. Looks like Al Gore won't be adding additional taxes on your lamp oil after all, Diogenes.
And here's the link:
So how do you feel about your white wizard now, Flak?
Grima, no one will play with you unless you play by the rules...
Now quit with the strawmen and answer the question I posed (with the Daily Mail link) above....
So you're determined to be the last rat on that sinking ship? It would be sad if I gave a damn about drowned rats.
You are loosing more face with every post that you avoid the question...
I believe that what Dr. Judith Curry stated in that article is correct. I've now answered that question for perhaps the fourth time.
No, that was not the question that was put to you...
You can slither away now Wormtongue, my point has been made...
So you asked me about a daily mail article in which Dr. Judith Curry said that the AGW models were flawed and whether I agreed with that. I said that I did. And now you're going to pretend that you were talking about something else entirely?
By the way, this is getting seriously dull.
Worm can also play a weasel very well... Today is the first time you mentioned Judith...
So you still stand by the intellectual honesty of that chart?
And another swing and a miss from Flakmeister. You and I discussed her only four days ago. Guess you're not real good with historical data and stuff.
Maybe you should change your handle to TakingFlakmeister.
Well, quoting pretty much a whole article does allow a snake some leeway..
I am calling you out and Curry out but since Curry is not here, you have to defend her...
The article is being put forward under false pretenses and the central claim has been shown to be wrong by:
1) The trend data
2) The Nucitelli paper which shows Curry to playing fast and loose with the truth...
So if you think cherry picking one particular month to define a trend is robust science, then you are a fool...
So, Wormtongue, is it liar or fool?