OFFICIAL Inflated Fast Food Prices (McDonalds) Unappreciation Post

[the high school graduate]

ok so i went to an engineering conference in Massachusetts this past weekend and we had a 10 minute pit stop at a McDonalds that was directly off of thehighway. I haven't had McDonalds since the summertime and I hadn't eaten all day so i was pretty hyped about getting some food. We go in and planpick what we're gonna get.......until we slowly realized that the prices were at least 2x what they normally should be

. the Big mac meal was 8.74

.....chick nuggets meal was 7.67

. So then i was like %+%% it ima order from the dollar menu. THE TWO APPLE PIESFOR A $1 DEAL WAS *$***!@ $2.35

. After seeing that, i went back and sat on the bus until we left. Do you guys think that that McDonalds was ODing or does the price of this stuff notreally matter?

 

[illmaticsoulchild]

Damn, those are damn near airport prices. Haven't gone to the McDonalds in my area in a while, but I doubt it was that bad.

 

[mplsdunk]

good it will steer the people who eat it daily away.

 

[mangudai954]

Did they go organic or something..

 

[kiddin like jason]

I was at my boy's school a few weekends back and we went to a McDonalds around the way; double cheeseburger cost $2.

 

[kinglouisxiv]

I support a sin tax on fast food. You should have to pay as much for a Big Mac as a pack of smokes.

 

[dirtylicious]

tha'ts b/c you went to a McD's that was off the highway....so they can get away with it.

Franchises can set their own prices I believe.

 

[mplsdunk]

Originally Posted by KingLouisXIV

I support a sin tax on fast food. You should have to pay as much for a Big Mac as a pack of smokes.

that would make the big macs cheaper here.

 

[dirtylicious]

Originally Posted by KingLouisXIV

I support a sin tax on fast food. You should have to pay as much for a Big Mac as a pack of smokes.

yay.....tax the lower incomed even more!

 

[cjgenius368]

^

those prices are insane though. I've never seen that high of a markup outside of an airport or an amusement park... or Times Square.

 

[kinglouisxiv]

yay.....tax the lower incomed even more!
'

You've just struck on a very important issue.




Is it not an injustice that the predominant 'food' economically viable to those with low incomes is laden with outrageous levels of carbohydrates,saturated fat, sodium and cholersterol? Is it not an injustice that the number of fast food restaurants and liquor stores is at a disporportionately highernumber in areas of concentrated urban plight, fueling both the nation's obesity epidemic and alcoholism?




These issues are tied into eachother. How is it beneficial to a society to make the only affordable food to the poorest sector McDonalds? Coming from the BayArea I have seen this injustice and support organizations such as the People's Grocery based in Oakland, California.




http://www.peoplesgrocery.org/mission.htmlhttp://www.peoplesgrocery.org/mission.html

People's Grocery is a community-based organization in West Oakland that develops creative solutions to the health, environmental and economic challenges our community faces every day.

We want to change the way the food system works. Our mission is to develop a self-reliant, socially just and sustainable food system in West Oakland through community-based, youth-focused and innovative social enterprises, urban agricultural projects, educational programs and public policy initiatives that foster healthy, equitable and ecological community development.

We believe everyone deserves healthy food, regardless of income. In our view, it's about "food justice" - the human right to Healthy Food for Everyone.





The number one cause of death in West Oakland is not violence, but heart disease - accounting for 29% of all deaths from 1996-1998.
Source: Alameda County Public Health Department of Vital Statistics'




If rich people have the excess income to afford obestity, then they should be entitled to. However, obesity should not be the default for those who can'tafford anything better. Tax for fast food, tax breaks for community gardens.
Instead of putting your faith into a broken system, why not think OUTSIDE the box?

 

[kingtre]

the closest one to me is a 24-hr superjoint

nugget meal cost like $8 ...i remember when Mikey Ds was the cheap food -

 

[braxton hartnabrig]

Originally Posted by tHe HiGh ScHoOl GrAdUaTe

ok so i went to an engineering conference in Massachusetts this past weekend and we had a 10 minute pit stop at a McDonalds that was directly off of the highway. I haven't had McDonalds since the summertime and I hadn't eaten all day so i was pretty hyped about getting some food. We go in and plan pick what we're gonna get.......until we slowly realized that the prices were at least 2x what they normally should be

. the Big mac meal was 8.74

.....chick nuggets meal was 7.67

. So then i was like %+%% it ima order from the dollar menu. THE TWO APPLE PIES FOR A $1 DEAL WAS *$***!@ $2.35

. After seeing that, i went back and sat on the bus until we left. Do you guys think that that McDonalds was ODing or does the price of this stuff not really matter?

value meals at the mcdonalds near me are only like 4 or 5dollars

 

[oidreez]

damn that sucks. i wouldnt have bought any either

 

[buttons mcboomboom]

Sounds like the prices at the McD's inside of Great Adventure, where everything is double what it should be and more.

 

[eprimpk4l]

damn that is a rip off for fast food, you could get a decent meal way better than that normally

 

[gettin it crackin]

Outrageous. The prices at my closest McDonald's is barely half of that.

 

[dirtylicious]

it's not just about the food:

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Anything made by McDonald's tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.
In comparing identical McDonald's foods in name-brand and plain wrappers, the unmarked foods always lost.

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.

The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald's foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test.

"You see a McDonald's label and kids start salivating," said Diane Levin, a childhood development specialist who campaigns against advertising to kids. She had no role in the research.

Levin said it was "the first study I know of that has shown so simply and clearly what's going on with (marketing to) young children."

Study author Dr. Tom Robinson said the kids' perception of taste was "physically altered by the branding." The Stanford University researcher said it was remarkable how children so young were already so influenced by advertising.

The study involved 63 low-income children ages 3 to 5 from Head Start centers in San Mateo County, Calif. Robinson believes the results would be similar for children from wealthier families.

The research, appearing in August's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was funded by Stanford and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The study is likely to stir more debate over the movement to restrict ads to kids. It comes less than a month after 11 major food and drink companies, including McDonald's, announced new curbs on marketing to children under 12.

McDonald's says the only Happy Meals it will promote to young children will contain fruit and have fewer calories and less fat.

"This is an important subject and McDonald's has been actively addressing it for quite some time," said company spokesman Walt Riker. "We've always wanted to be part of the solution and we are providing solutions."

But Dr. Victor Strasburger, an author of an American Academy of Pediatrics policy urging limits on marketing to children, said the study shows too little is being done.

"It's an amazing study and it's very sad," Strasburger said.

"Advertisers have tried to do exactly what this study is talking about -- to brand younger and younger children, to instill in them an almost obsessional desire for a particular brand-name product," he said.

Just two of the 63 children studied said they'd never eaten at McDonald's, and about one-third ate there at least weekly. Most recognized the McDonald's logo but it was mentioned to those who didn't.

The study included three McDonald's menu items -- hamburgers, chicken nuggets and french fries -- and store-bought milk or juice and carrots. Children got two identical samples of each food on a tray, one in McDonald's wrappers or cups and the other in plain, unmarked packaging. The kids were asked whether they tasted the same or whether one was better. (Some children didn't taste all the foods.)

McDonald's-labeled samples were the clear favorites. French fries were the biggest winner; almost 77 percent said the labeled fries tasted best while only 13 percent preferred the others.

Fifty-four percent preferred McDonald's-wrapped carrots versus 23 percent who liked the plain-wrapped sample.

The only results not statistically clear-cut involved the hamburgers, with 29 kids choosing McDonald's-wrapped burgers and 22 choosing the unmarked ones.

Fewer than one-fourth of the children said both samples of all foods tasted the same.

Pradeep Chintagunta, a University of Chicago marketing professor, said a fairer comparison might have gauged kids' preferences for the McDonald's label versus another familiar brand, such as Mickey Mouse.

"I don't think you can necessarily hold this against" McDonald's, he said, since the goal of marketing is to build familiarity and sell products.

He noted that parents play a strong role in controlling food choices for children so young.
But Robinson argued that because young children are unaware of the persuasive intent of marketing, "it is an unfair playing field

 

[skip2mylou23]

I think the fast food joints on highway stops are usually a lot more expensive.

 

[kinglouisxiv]

Of couse advertising affects who purchases fast food. Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation can point that out quite aptly.




However, you are ignoring my main point that low income urban areas are disporportiantely affected by the availability and predominance of fast food. Aninjustice on many accounts - my main gripe is with the lack of healthful food being provided to the poorest sector of society and its consequent role in theglobal (*but centered in the U.S.) obesity epidemic.

 

[saint lt]

i was just having a conversation about how much meals & stuff cost else where. people have to pay crazy prices!

im still mad where i moved to doesnt have hot n spicys

 

[dirtylicious]

However, you are ignoring my main point that low income urban areas are disporportiantely affected by the availability and predominance of fast food. An injustice on many accounts - my main gripe is with the lack of healthful food being provided to the poorest sector of society and its consequent role in the global (*but centered in the U.S.) obesity epidemic.
MY point being..
you can lead a horse to water...but you can't make him drink.

you could have healthy alternatives galore in lower income neighborhoods...but WILL those types of businesses survive?..

a McDonalds isn't immune to market pressures...if people don't buy...they franchise will flounder

 

[the high school graduate]

I support a sin tax on fast food. You should have to pay as much for a Big Mac as a pack of smokes.
if this were ever to occur....im sure it wont stop some people from buying anyway

.....i would rather spend my money on something that would last longer than just16hrs

 

[reeceman10]

Some places are more expensive then others though..

 

[loveofthegame916]

the Big mac meal was 8.74

yall@+#!#$* betta start making sammitches and call it a day