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Guess The Mystery Chart
This chart shows the year over year change in a very important data series. Guess what it is.
* * *
If you said the underlying data is comparable store sales for McDonalds in the United States, which just dipped by 1.4% - the most since the Lehman crash - then you were 100% accurate. That's right: in Q4 the American consumer, obviously "because of the weather" just said no to the biggest US diet staple.
In other words, the chart above shows close to the exact moment when Americans could no longer even afford to eat at the golden arches.
And now, as the economists say, "assume a recovery..."
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that's great!
That will turn around soon, it's the time of the year for McRibs, Shamrock Shakes and $1 fish sandiwches.
I don't know about y'all but I'm Luvin' it.
Maybe they could bring in the JCP ad people and then go Ghetto Fagulous.
pods
That is the scariest chart I have seen in a LONG time. When people can no longer afford the dollar menu, the consumer is truly tapped. Game over man, game over.
EBT cards don’t work at McDonalds’ but they work fine getting frozen French toast sticks at the supermercardo.
I am 100% commited to never going to such a shitty food place ever again. Kind of sad because I bet McDonalds in the 60s wasn't too bad.
Today? Talk about just another company itching to fuck over its customers by any means necessary. Ever heard of 365 Black? http://www.mcdonalds.com/365black/en/home.html A whole website devoted to propagandizing apparently one of their largest consumers. Their videos they released doing urban "rappin'" about how mcdonalds is good food is nausiating.
They went Ghetto a couple of years ago. Guess the clown didn't sell enough burgers?
pods
Bout the time They began calling themselves "Micky D's"
The "McEscolar Sandwich" will be rolled out soon.
The 'smooth feel of this tasty fish sandwich sliding siding down your gullet...mmmmmm!'
i thought that was a global freedom chart. carry on.
Meanwhile, those burger places that use real ingredients are booming (Whataburger for example). Can you imagine what would happen if your state passed GMO labeling laws (gasp)?
I'm imagining it now: everything will be labelled as GMO free - just like that meat in europe wasn't horse meat, until it was.
In Los Angeles, the ghetto is where you'll find FatBurger. Those are real burgers - you'll have to wait at least ten minutes from the time you order before you'll be served.
http://www.donks.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/McDonalds.jpg
Nice clownpimpwagon, but if you recall from the rollout of McDonaldland in the early 1970s (Mayor McCheese, Hamburglar, etc), Grimace was originally called Evil Grimace, and for good reason:
http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/118/37e0b37a1faa4c77b3b41d39...
Back in the '60s the big mac patties were 100% real beef and bigger than they are today, the sandwich cost 90 cents and a combo meal $1.25.
But back then America was an entirely different country except the elites had the same contempt for the core population.
Actually, I remember McDonalds having a big advertising campaign in the early 70's that touted getting an entire meal (i.e., Big Mac, Fries, and a Soda) for less than a dollar.
And, as you say, back then, the burgers were actually high-quality.
[I miss those beef-tallow french fries...]
$1.25 in 1960 quarters is about $18.25 by melt value today.
Even $ 1.25 in pre-'82 Lincoln cents is worth ~ $ 2.75.
I think McDonalds and our government have a lot in common
They're based on a Kroc
Their heyday was decades ago
They've supersized everything
They produced more than one Grimace
They focus on fat people
Their kids meals are all toys and no nutrition
Their spokesmodel is a clown
and their local leaders are nothing but cheese
McDonalds was a treat back in the mid to late 70's because 1) the food was actually good, and 2) I had to drive 50 miles round trip to get to one.
I remember the first time I went to a McDonalds. My folks took us to drive-ins so rarely that each visit sticks fondly in my memory. It was a big deal. When my dad pulled into McDonalds for a special treat on that day in the '60s when McDonalds had just opened its first drive-in in St. Paul you could get a hamburger, an order of fries and a shake for $1. That may seem quite reasonable, but chicken was about 29 cents a pound back then and my mother protested the visit as she kept an iron grip on the family finances, and she could have made us a similar meal at home for much less, though the shake would not have shown up on her dinner table.
come on....no one had that kind of money to blow in the 60s...we wuz raised in a hole in the road, forced to eat crushed glass and our father would come home at night and cut off our heads with a butcher knife....but if you try to tell that to the kids today they just won't belive you...
Oh, you were there.
Classic Python
I 'member from my childhood in the 60s we went through the Jack in the Box drive through and heard a voice coming out of Jack. I got my own little bag of fries and it was deelish. It was a treat back then.
Back in the 6's MC fries were the best hands down.
Under the arches was a running tally 1 billion burgers sold...2...3...4...5...6 up to as I remember 15 billion.
The joke was 1 billion served using 1 lb of meet.
Today I dare anyone to eat a burger patty by it's self and not to gag on the gummy greasy slop.
Best burger I ever had was at a small little building just large enough two have a grill under roof, at the corner of Santa Monica bl and Virgil street, LA.
Owner said it's all in the meat and anyone who puts anything on the burger is just trying to mask the poor quality. He was right.
Owner is now dead, a Mexican took over and now it's out of business.
I found another in Hillsboron Or. Called Helvetia tavern, Country road winding thru farm land standing all by it's self
http://www.urbanspoon.com/rph/24/1346103/174904/portland-helvetia-tavern...
Haven't had a Char Grill in decades, but that was the best fast food burger I've ever eaten.
Spent some time in the Research Triangle, fell upon a Char Grill, and probably ate a hundred of them thereafter.
Last time I checked the web they were alive and kicking and would send you a care package, but it was only the uncooked meat or something like that. Whatever it was I said "pass".
Haven't been back to that region since then :(
Back on topic - didn't an expose on McNuggets show that they contained ~ 5% calcium carbonate (aka 'chalk' or TUMS if you want to paint the shiniest face on it) and 2% cardboard?
Depends on what state they actually do take EBT (I think there may be more states now. I didn't down vote you btw just pointing this out).
Fast Food Chains Getting Into the Food Stamp ActIt's because the dollar menu is now a buck 69
...and the " burger patty " is now about 3 inches diameter of yuk !
Maybe the drop in sales is down to this: people who tend to eat there, tend to die younger too?
Just think how healthy the folks who can't afford cheap food and start starving will be.
But the FedRes has 9 seconds to insert another quarter.
"My wife got the house and car, but I got the arsenal and guillotine."
But, but, but you barbaric relic people don’t seem to understand McDonalds’ is an inferior good. The peasants were simply switching away from McDonalds to Victoria and Albert’s (WDW-Orlando) with their wealth effect DJIA money. /sarc
So, what's the balance between heating your home or heating your gut?
That sucking sound isn't liposuction. It's increased fuel costs for propane, heating oil and natural gas.
Another shoe dropping on an already fragile economy.
The tragically but eponemously named Ghetto Die-t super sized itself and imploded....
The golden arches just sagged...
ori
Holy Cow ! ORI, holy cow.
bbbbbbbuuuut whhhat aaaaboutttt the moat?.....
Ever drive from Austin, TX to San Antonio, TX? There are a phenomenal number of M's on the way. People are hooked on oil and Mcanything's even if numbers are down.
cattle prices up 30% since November
McCrap
When you say "assume a recovery" you're not implying that we should all bend over and take it in the Hot Carl shorts, are you?
I'm a Cleveland Steamer Man, myself....
I heard the Tony Danza was a real hoot!
"When you are giving it to a chick from behind, you yell out "Who's the boss?" She'll get confused, turn her head around, at this moment, you donkey punch her in the face and then scream TONY DANZA!!!"
That big "M"?
Means 'Mediocre.'
The absolute height of mediocrity in American fast food.
When you're selling salt, fat, and grease you have to wrap it in fancy styrofoam to make it look purdy.
I don't understand.. if you add sugar, you have all four major food groups.
Less fat asses in 'merica?
Oh there is one helluva diet coming to these fat fucks...folks better learn how to grow potatoes.
More rice for everyone!
I'm lovin' it...Is this an indication of loss of consumer purchasing power or a wiser consumer?
I'm thinking Arby's....
A wiser consumer? Seriously?
I want you to come up with a suitable punishment for yourself.
I guess my punishment will be eating McDonalds today for lunch. : (
No, that is not good enough. You must run to the nearest Taco Bell and accept your punishment.
And no short cuts of just blending it up and tossing it against the back of the toilet. You must do this the old fashioned way.
pods
I guess we don't want that Super Sized then?
Cause everyone is drinking Herbalife for breakfast/lunch and eating at Per Se for dinner. Recovery is full on.
if this is what you call a recovery maybe we should be wishing for a depression.
Too easy but...McCovery, anyone?
Let me be first to say, well played, good sir.
I think people are just trying to get healthy...I bet soybeans are up big...tofu you know..I read there was a shortage of ORGANIC food....that high priced shiney apple crap you know...
Now close to $10 for a burger and bottle of water. I avoid when possible (which is most of the time).
10 bucks for the burger
10.000 bucks for the hart surgun
I can hear the earnings call now......
"Sales continued to expand at a moderate pace of -1.4% last quarter, helped by the 1.4 million people on extended unemployment benefits, who consistently ate McDonalds while watching Netflix"
It has been cold in the US since last Spring, and it is well known by analysts everywhere that nobody goes to McDonalds when it is colder than normal. That YOY sales haven't dropped 100% is bullish!
I do not eat when it is cold....I just sit back and cry softly.
wait by deer crossing. Let hunters chase deer into road. Car bashes deer. Grab fresh roadkill haul ass.
Or just pick up armadillos in the am. Carpe Diem!
Or, at the very least, follow the buzzards around and scrap with em over the road kill.
I know you're joking, but: "Humans can acquire a leprosy infection from armadillos by handling them or consuming armadillo meat"
You joke,(or maybe not) but when I was young, ( and living in Michigan) I-69 was a veritable frozen deer meat market in winter. I had a pick-up, State troopers thought I was being civic minded, friends and family loved it when my truck pulled up.
The 70's were a great time to be a young american. Pretty sure I would be arrested today.
Do we call that progress?
If Americans stop eating crappy fat hamburgers YOU JUST KNOW THINGS ARE GETTING BAD!!
SHORT ANY STOCK THAT IS VASCO CARDULAIR RELATED!!!
Chicken, pasta and broccoli - feeds a family of 4 for $10. You just have to get off your a$$
Don't worry. Now we have 1.4 million moar Americans who have dropped off the unemployment numbers, so we have that going for us.
Doc Another 6 months and McD will be asking for a burger bailout from CONgress. Similar to banker bailouts but they will also get workers paid by the state on special works programs sort of like after the depression. Maybe that is where the jobs for the youth of Amerika will come from in the future. (works programs to benefit corporate Amerika)
If you actually read the Obamacare bill there is a bailout for fast food joints if they lose customers from insurance premiums going up. (Not really but hell.....would you be at all shocked if there were?)
Brinker (EAT) is doing well, so perhaps there's some trade up taking place. Also, Chipotle and similar concepts continue to take business away from MCD.
Does this mean more people can now aford to go to a real restaurant?
Like Olive Garden ???
/immense sarcasity...
McShit
You should have bought your hamburgers 14 years ago when they were just $0.49. They look the same today as the day they were made:
14-Year-Old McDonald's Burger Looks the Same As On the Day It Was Madehttp://gawker.com/14-year-old-mcdonalds-burger-looks-the-same-as-on-the-...
He should have taken the two grand.
Now, instead, he has a 14 year old burger and 15 minutes of infamy as a sucker for posterity.
Investing $10 in McDonalds hamburgers and storing them for years seems to be a far better investment than McDonalds' stock.
Toxicity has its advantages.
Maybe in a new Mad Max World we will be trading MacDonald's Hamburgers as currency ? non-perishable, easily divisible and you can eat them too!
BitBurgers anyone?
Super-Size Me
Super Charge Me
Watch. Both.
This just CONFIRMS THE RECOVERY: The income of the sheeple is improving, and they eat less at McDonalds and more at good restaurants. The trend is confirmed by the increasing temporary jobs at restaurants.
It's scary that that is exactly how they will spin it.
The homeless choose to live with Mother Nature and return to our ancient mode of habitat.
Very eco-conscious and helps reduce our carbon footprint.
Slowing global climate change one person at a time!
The McMule is still very well affordable.
Tastes like Ass.
What about 5 guys? Burger King? Wendys? Sonic? DQ? I wonder if across the board, or if it's a behavioral/attitude change. I mean c'mon its not like the majority of people are below the poverty line or the middle class is DOA. /s
Besides Pho Noodles, those little cheese burgers are my only cure for a hangover!
+1 for Pho
Damn! I thought it was the number of Sasquatch sightings and It was actually the Micky D's turd taper. Everyone's dooin it.
I learned a long time ago what 'assume' means from Benny Hill. For the few that may not know that basically says it makes an ass out you and me.
McDump
It is an illusion-----------those that just cannot see this are still wandering the desert with one a soda because it taste so good.
Look for this propoganda to bring forth the auto burger maker.
Lets go back in time---------- http://www.nydailynews.com/news/money/fed-reveals-banks-companies-trilli...
Wait till Microsoft reports after the bell. Everyone loves Windows 8, right?
Windows will be dead by ver. 10, everybody is switching to Mac/Linux now
Apple Sucks
The shit show is picking up steam. Inhale!!!!!!
Splurged and took my family of 5 to Wendys over the holidays for some combo meals. $42.21. At least I did not have to tip.
hotrod You prove the point many posters are making, Wendy's and McD are overpriced in the terms of todays family budget. Also, there are just too many people who now know it's bad for your health and Obamacare won't be there to save you with that by-pass surgery like the old days.
Been to McDonald's once over the last five years just for an order of fries.
They were not as good as I remembered, either.
On rare occasions I will eat at McDonalds. Last week was one of them. Do you realize how expensive it is? A quarter pounder, medium fries and two apple pies was $8. I can and do make a fantastic meal at home (and MUCH healthier) for half that. No wonder their sales are declining. Almost any fast food place any more is way too expensive.
Their breakfasts are even worse. My math says you are paying three times what it would cost you to make the same meal at home
U4 Let me recommend the handy little machine, "Hamiton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker". Five star reviews from all that purchase and me too. It will turn out a replica of the Egg Mcmuffin type sandwich in 4-5 minutes. Tastes better and you control the ingredients. Use it almost everyday.
I will NEVER eat there or any other FF shit hole. How long does it take to fry a free range egg slap it on a piece of sprouted bread with 2 pieces of free range bacon? nope stupid lazy americans would rather idle in their car in queue and over pay.
And being that I work in a restaurant, i can tell you that for an actual $10 meal of burger and fries only contains $2.50 worth of ingredients, but then it costs $3-4 to pay for the wages of the crew that helped to cook, assemble, and serve it to you.
Umm, just wondering....why wasn't the March 2013 y/y drop of 1.2% NOT the EXACT moment when Americans could no longer afford to eat shitty dollar meals at McDs??
Just wondering, because watching this slo-mo train wreck of an economy is more boring than watching a molasses flow in January.
I am sure that fast food industry lobbyists will "convince" our legislators of the wisdom and social value of allowing EBT cards to be used at nation wide fast food franchises and all will be well. Of course Michelle Obunghole will immediately star in a tax payer funded campaign to promote the health benefits of eating the government subsidized crap served by government subsidized debt slaves. Bullish!!!
this is coinciding with ending unemployment bene's to 1.7 million members of the FSA as well as cut-backs on said FSA members EBT funny money cards. Coincidence???
Sounds like it's time for an FSA riot pronto, Ukrainian style.
WE WILL NOT BE DENIED OUR CIVIL RIGHT TO FREE, SHITTY GMO FOOD!!!
SOILENT GREEN IS PEEEEOOOOOOPLLLLLLE!!!
When they noticed people throwing away the burger and eating the cardboard container it should have been a clue.
had a relative in Weimar Germany. he was carrying a wheelbarrow full of money to buy some food, and he was robbed. the thieves took the wheelbarrow and left the money.
Fucking graphs and shit. Why do you hate America?
An American institution probably responsible for damaging more people than tobacco...not to mention cows
Last time I checked, Americans still had free choice.
If you think fast food is markedly worse for you than the alternatives then choose something else.
Ronald Mc Donald does not have a gun to your head.
Seeing them put all that money into renovating their stores, I knew that those costs would lead to higher prices and I knew those higher prices would lead to this. Growing up, people never went to McD's for the decor, it was for the prices. If you don't have the best value *junk* (yes, that is what it is) food, then there is no point in your operation. You can't put lipstick on a GMO pig. The food is not worth the upscale price. Either improve the food or get rid of the decor (and the price that goes along with it). Stop putting lipstick on the pig
yes but they are doing a lot better overseas where they dont' have the same menu
The curry burger in the UK McD's is pretty good.
Not sure if its poodle or alsation.
MCD knows how to play the game. $1 large coffees locally. That will pump revs.
maybe they could bring back the
"Burger, fries and a soda and CHANGE BACK FROM YOUR DOLLLAR!" ad campaign .....
or if not that, there's the equally successful
"You deserve a brick today!" .... through the plate glass window ....
"Where's the beef!"
Well, that was Wendy's but still fits perfect today. How about, "Where's the NON-GMO beef???!!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug75diEyiA0
You can still get a 2fer of pesticides and food at the 99 cent store. Albertsons is closing down and (if there is anything left) items are on sale for a buck.
McDs is where the welfare mamas take their kids to play, get them a happy meal and let them shit all over the playland slide. Usually on a Tuesday or Friday night when Happy Meals are $1.99.
The rest of the week they are chowing down on EBT bought Tyson fried chicken and Coke. When McDonalds does take EBT sales will go through the roof. Every worthless EBT sap would take going to McDonalds over using a microwave all day long. The scariest thought a welfare mama has is lifting a finger to do work, including changing diapers.
Well, reading 'a package' and 'figuring' how to use the microwave and cleaning the subsequent mess....that's a lot of hard work and time. Time that can be used to eat more shit or watch TMZ.
Are you talking about Big MIC or an abstraction of TBTF. Please elaborate on your elaborate narrative.
Think of all the baby robots that are going to grow up without a job.
Pray for them bitchez.
OFF: Wouldn't it be a good idea if there would be a weekly summary of the most important articles on ZH? It's so hard to keep up this way...
Moat filled with job applications.
Short super-size.
McD's shields are down for repair.
Wait time 10 minutes.
In this economy only the rich can afford to eat out regularly at such a hoity toity establishment.
Say what you will, there be a time long ago when first wife, the perfect two kids, and I celebrated many a Friday evening with a night out at McDonald's. Saving grace, having lived to tell this tale, I blame Big Macs for my divorce.
It's a double entendre.
Saturation fats bustin' out bellies.
Saturated store supplies.
Add to this the incessant desire to keep prices low via reduced food quality and you've got REASON to not eat at Mickey's.
Only a statistical retard would buy into the same conclusion. This is a YOY chart, meaning that 1.4% fewer people are eating McDonalds hamburgers this Dec compared to last Dec. Big woop! The conclusion should be that there are still millions eating that crap ... not that suddenly all of America stop being able to afford a McHeartattack.
Just taking the First Lady's admonition to heart. Her anti-obesity campaign at work. Not to worry, the Big MacSalad with Quinoa on the side is on its way along with the new Quarter Pounder, a Gluten Free GrassBurger abn French Fried Recycled Newspaper Chips.
Americans finally eating healthy
Americans finally too poor to eat
no.... its a DEPRESSION being called a RECOVERY..... when i snap my fingers you will wake up and eat a burger .... every day for the rest of your life..... OBAMA'S MAGIC PEN AND PHONE COMBO GONNA MAKE IT ALL ok
http://dhnnews.com/the-us-doesnt-want-cheaper-mcdonalds-it-just-wants-le...
I like their CEO Don Thompson, he's not one to try and bs his way out of probelms. I wonder what this means (other than the "weather" being a problem) for actual consumer sentiment
One arch 11 and Van Dyke. Detroit.