IMO, it might be a good idea to compare those prices against relative purchasing power of a dollar. I don’t know how those prices stack up to the overall rate of inflation or CPI, or even the cost of the specific ingredients. I would have less of an issue with price increases if a) McDonald’s profit margin–as a percentage of cost–remained steady, and b) the cost held steady against the relative value of the dollar overall. If it’s just arbitrarily raising prices because they can, then that’s bullshit.
McDonald’s profit margin–as a percentage of cost–remained steady
It’s cute you think a publicly traded company would allow for that, especially for a leader in a market as fully saturated as fast-food. When you’ve reached every person, there’s not much left to do but increase profit margins by cutting costs and raising prices.
If that line stops going up, executives can be voted out by the shareholders and lose their generous pay packages and bonuses! Last year’s billions in profit just isn’t good enough when there’s quarterly earnings reports to be made and shareholder wealth to be maximized!
That’s one of the major issues that I have with corporations; there’s very little interest in sustainable profitability, and a laser-like focus on growth for the sake of growth. And sometimes the product that a company makes isn’t even “sustainable” per se. That is, if you make certain durable goods, eventually you should be reaching a point where demand will slow to a trickle as the market becomes saturated, and that’s okay.
IMO, it might be a good idea to compare those prices against relative purchasing power of a dollar. I don’t know how those prices stack up to the overall rate of inflation or CPI, or even the cost of the specific ingredients. I would have less of an issue with price increases if a) McDonald’s profit margin–as a percentage of cost–remained steady, and b) the cost held steady against the relative value of the dollar overall. If it’s just arbitrarily raising prices because they can, then that’s bullshit.
It’s cute you think a publicly traded company would allow for that, especially for a leader in a market as fully saturated as fast-food. When you’ve reached every person, there’s not much left to do but increase profit margins by cutting costs and raising prices.
If that line stops going up, executives can be voted out by the shareholders and lose their generous pay packages and bonuses! Last year’s billions in profit just isn’t good enough when there’s quarterly earnings reports to be made and shareholder wealth to be maximized!
That’s one of the major issues that I have with corporations; there’s very little interest in sustainable profitability, and a laser-like focus on growth for the sake of growth. And sometimes the product that a company makes isn’t even “sustainable” per se. That is, if you make certain durable goods, eventually you should be reaching a point where demand will slow to a trickle as the market becomes saturated, and that’s okay.
From a quick googlebthe dollar inflation is up 33% since 2014. The lowest increase is 67%.