Jesus how cheap could they be? Fountain drinks are far and away their highest profit margin item on the menu.
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The thing that pisses me off, is while I don't eat McDonald's so it doesn't directly affect me, I just know that other restaurants will see that it's making them more money and will follow suit.
Let's hope it forces then to fail faster. I like frappes when I'm on the road but I always fill up on soda before I leave. If they stop soda I'll just go to another place that offers me a drink for my extended trips. They are already in decline to burger King and dominos apparently.
How does removing drink fountains make anything more consistent? I'd be shocked if they got rid of them in the back and switched to cans or bottles. Seems like a blatant grab to get more money from consumers for something that is by far the cheapest cost thing on the menu.
How does removing drink fountains make anything more consistent?
Consistent between company owned stores and franchise stores, so that neither will have self serve drinks. In other words, they're lowering all stores to equally bad experience.
Guess if you don't eat in-store anyway it doesn't matter. Wonder what the ratio is of eat-in vs take-out is.
Hmm. I'd think that that'd make sense if people were just lingering and sipping sodas and they were trying to decongest the restaurant, but the article says that the opposite is true:
Still, the company announced earlier this year that foot traffic to its restaurants had slowed as inflation increased.
EDIT: Hmm. This recent article says that apparently Burger King is running off with their value customers:
As it loses customers to rivals, McDonald's shifts its focus to value
The fast-food giant appears to be losing the battle for customers looking for lower prices to Burger King and Domino’s. McDonald’s wants a national value offer to change that.
By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 30, 2024
McDonald’s appears to be losing some customers to rivals like Burger King and Domino’s as inflation-weary consumers cut back on their dining and focus more on value offers.
That has the Chicago-based fast-food giant working to develop a national value offer that will resonate more with customers than its current batch of local and digital deals.
“It’s a street fight,” CFO Ian Borden told analysts on Tuesday. “Everybody is fighting for fewer consumers. We have to make sure we have that street fighting capability.”
The company is working to develop a national value platform that will be “net neutral” to franchisee profitability.
But executives also said that store profits have returned to pre-pandemic levels, which should give the company the ability to offer that kind of value.
“We’re in a strong position,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said. “Franchisee cash flow is at the second highest levels ever.”
McDonald’s has been signaling a more concerted value focus for months, particularly since February when Kempczinski suggested the brand was losing lower-income customers to grocery stores.
Maybe they're trying to figure out what they can do to cut prices to bring back customers, and they're looking at shaving off perks or services that presently exist to see what they can do to get their prices down.
Still, the company announced earlier this year that foot traffic to its restaurants had slowed as inflation increased.
It's not just foot traffic I'm sure. That's what happens when a business sees a temporary 9% inflation bump as a good time to increase all prices 30%+ across the board. McDonald's is nearly as expensive as Five Guys in my area now. They forgot what market niche they were filling when they got greedy. What used to be a $3 meal off the dollar menu is now $8 for the same items, and the "deals" all suck unless you want those specific 3 options or a discount equivalent to the sales tax.
LOL that's a sure way to increase foot traffic /s
I see the franchise wars are starting a bit earlier than planned.
Fun fact: In later editions of the movie, Demolition Man, references to Taco Bell were replaced with ~~KFC~~ Pizza Hut. Thanks @[email protected] for the correction.
Are you sure it wasn’t Pizza Hut? That was the international cut(outside the US). Never heard about a cut using KFC.
I think you're right. I got those fast food brands confused.
On top of all this, they’re trying really damn hard to close the dine-in and force customers to order either online or via their kiosks. I’ve been to multiple locations that have removed their dining rooms, removed their drink fountains or have disabled their cash registers.
All that and their prices are through the roof.
F ‘em. I’m done with McDonalds. Let ‘em go the way of Red Lobster.
Some westerners may be surprised that here in Eastern Europe this is the standard. I've only seen free refills in IKEA.
Burger King opened and started offering free refills. It was awesome. And then they stopped doing it and started charging for every drink. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It used to be the standard in the U.S. too. When I was a kid, it was not self-serve at McDonald's and there were not free refills.