McDonald’s has been using artificial intelligence to dynamically price menu items in the US and some global markets, according to a report by Reuters. This involves finding the “optimal price” to match what a particular store’s patrons would be willing to pay.
This fluctuates according to location, and even stores in the same city can have different cost amounts for the same exact items, according to information reviewed by Reuters. This is basically surge pricing, like with ride-share platforms, but for hockey puck burgers that have been sitting under a hot lamp.
Reuters got a look at the interface that franchisees use to access this technology and it’s pretty creepy. Messages show stuff like “your restaurant is showing MEDIUM SENSITIVITY to price” based on “customer willingness to pay in your area.” Cost differences at nearby locations can be stark. Researchers found that a Bic Mac at a Fresno, California store cost $5.69, but the same burger cost $6.89 at another branch two miles down the road. That’s a 21 percent difference.
Yet another reason to avoid McDonald’s, as if the lousy food wasn’t enough.
Millions given to trump plus the ridiculous free pr bullshit they gave him should be enough to turn anyone with two brain cells to rub together away.
Food like product
I’m gonna start logging onto the app, filling in a cart and then not checking out.
Might stop into the kiosks and do that too when I’m passing one.
Drive down the costs for the people who need it.
Or maybe just uninstall it and incentive others to eat elsewhere.
I use it for ill. And occasionally it saves me money on long ass road trips where I don’t have time for anything else.
I also use Waze to report non-existent cops on my street that gets used as a quarter mile drag strip shortcut all today long.
Dynamic pricing nudges the price to the maximum a customer can afford which temporarily maximises profits but creates in the mind of the customer a feeling of being relentlessly over charged and eventually and long-term they won’t come back.
You’ll profit early though. Usually people don’t leave when they see high prices. They just pay it once and are much more reluctant to ever return.
that’s where the app deals for free french fries every 3rd tuesday in February comes in. now you really got em!
Those app deals are customised per customer as well. Basically a gacha but for McDonald’s.
I don’t like vendors who think they can take advantage of me for a few extra bucks because of what they see (isn’t that a form of prejudice?)
Same with haggles at flea markets or garage sales. If you don’t label your prices I’m immediately not interested. I’m a demographic that looks “put together” and thus “wealthy” when in reality I’m basically broke and would file for bankruptcy if it’d clear my debt.
So when I come across a haggler (usually an old guy or a foreigner from a country that has a culture of haggling) I tend to avoid them because I don’t enjoy that process. Thats why America came up with price tags and fixed pricing for stuff. Way less hassle. Only idiots really savor the process of haggling. It sucks.
Only idiots really savor the process
Strong “I don’t like a thing, therefore nobody should” vibes there buddy…
Cool. Glad I’m on an opinion forum and not a member of a legislative body that makes laws that apply to everyone.
Opinion and insulting other people are not the same thing.
Nah dude, haggling rules. I get and respect your attitude that you don’t like it, because you’re coming from a place of fairness and transparency. But haggling isn’t about ripping people off—quite the opposite, it’s about finding a deal that both parties are happy with. It’s also more important in some cultures than others, e.g. to some people not haggling is actually rude.
The secret is that you can still haggle when there are price tags and fixed prices. You can ask for discounts, etc. I’ve successfully haggled my rent down! There are no rules! It’s basically a socially acceptable form of social hacking.
If haggling is idiotic, then I’m saving too much money to not be idiotic.
There are no rules!
That isn’t great when it cuts both ways. I’ll stick with fixed pricing and enforceable tenant protection laws. Rules are there for a reason.
I mean yeah, I basically got sick of landlords arbitrarily raising rents, and so I eventually started negotiating back with them, and it worked way better than I expected.
I would dramatically prefer a system of transparent rent control, but sadly there are no rules like that where I live.
That and the food.
The bargain with fast food was that it was shitty for you, but it was quick, cheap, and tasted good. Now it’s even WORSE for you, costs as much as an actual meal, and increasingly tastes like garbage. What exactly are people trading off now?
It isn’t quick anymore either.
there was ONE McDonald’s that I used to still go to on road trips.
then the US threatened to take over my country, so ofc I stopped going to McDonald’s. I tried to make an exception for it last year because I had to pee and I figured it would be the one place actually open at 1am for me to pee and get a coffee, but nope, closed. guess they want people to piss in the drive thru
McDonald’s doesn’t even offer washrooms anymore, they have literally nothing to offer me
A burger-fries-drink is the same cost as the most amazing local shawarma and drink or the freshest ban-mi from the local Vietnamese resto.
More reasons to not eat McDonalds. It sure seems like they are trying to shift from being a hamburger chain into full real estate company and are trying to sabotage their weaker franchises so they can cash out the properities PE style.
Every franchise is, and has been, a real estate company first.
No, corporate owns most of the stores property then leases that to franchise owners. If one wanted to liquidate some of the property they owned and downsize operations they’d have to kick out the franchise owners first.
McDonald’s corporate is the franchise owner/franchisor. The franchisees lease and operate the stores.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they had some super addictive drug in there
For the price of one decently sized McDonald’s meal here in Australia (about $16) I can comfortably feed myself for a week of healthy, filling dinners, and maybe lunches too, using staple foods and in-season veg.
So if I have no income, dynamic pricing will set the price to free, right?
Never! Corporations only use technology for evil.
The dynamics is unidirectional.
Congratulations! Based on your phone data you’ll become a Happy Meal for free!
A special offer for our broke customers from Germany.
The German translation for “I get” is “ich bekomme”.
I’m so glad I quit going. And if I quit going, pretty much everyone has
I had one of those less than stellar childhoods, but I had a fantastic grandparent that would take me to McDonald’s sometimes, and that was A HUGE BRIGHT SPOT for me, back when they had aquariums and play places in them? Like, until pretty recently, I was a die-hard fan. I WANTED to like them. What they actually tasted like almost didn’t matter, the SIGHT of the yellow arches made me start to think about what being loved by a trusted adult feels like.
They had to WORK TO LOSE ME as a customer rather than the other way around. And they still managed.
i think you underestimate how little most people care about politics, current events, AI, etc.
It’s sad but true… drive through still full in my area. I often find McDonald’s trash polluting the parks and sidewalks. What’s the point of the “paper” cups when they’re lined with plastic or something that causes them to never decompose?
They put pfas on the paper cups, also all the wrappers your food is in.
Why do you think that? I didn’t say anything about current events or politics and this new AI story only confirms a decision I already made and am guessing most other people already made
most people have definitely not stopped going to mcdonalds. that’s what i’m talking about.
That’s a fine counterclaim, and we could dig into that more if you want to, but where did politics and current events come into it? AI maybe if you misunderstood my first comment but IDK about the other two at all
We quit too and we used to go all the time. After threats to Canada we boycotted whatever we could from US.
I miss Canadians but honestly good, the boycotts give me a lot of hope, I love seeing people stick to their principals
My house is literally a 3 minute walk from a McDonalds and I don’t eat there at any price. Use AI to model that, fuckers.
Every time my brain tries to drift to McDonalds, I’m like “I could go get a Digorno which would be 1/3-1/5 the price” and then just sit at my house eating canned soup or something because I am fairly lazy.
Yum Brands, which owns KFC and Taco Bell… [is] developing AI platforms for just about everything, including a dynamic drive-thru menu that changes based on the car approaching the window.
Bet you didn’t algorithm this portly fuck in a tricked out ‘93 Del Sol wanting 55 enchritos until tonight.
Stop using their “Rewards app” It’s tracking your purchases, which’ll inform their surveillance and skew the boards.
Correct, but a few additions.
They already have your credit card on record for repeat purchases (if you pay digitally, they know who you are), thats not the data those apps are after. They are just as bad as tiktoc and reddit when it comes to tracking phone activity and asking for every permission that isnt nailed down. Your phone activity data is worth more to data brokers than a free sandwich every tuesday.
The average persons data is. I wonder what mine is worth. Surely it just says “yeah they are never going to willingly buy your product, target friends who will apply social pressure instead … Oh, they are just happy sitting there without ordering anything”
It USED to have pretty good deals frequently, and then they keep offer less and less of them, so I just don’t even order from them anymore
All rewards apps. That’s their whole purpose.
Here’s how they’re fucking with their items: https://youtu.be/JlpuVHdZyqI?is=Ea_H2b5qleAaq2Vo
When I’m bored, I get price quotes from Lyft and Uber to the airport. I’ll click around and look at the different tiers of service. Then I choose not to actually request a fare, and close the app.
I fly enough to where both apps probably have me as a regular airport customer, but that I’m price sensitive enough where I just won’t use their service sometimes.
I do the same with Doordash and other food apps, where I just put together potential orders to get a sense of how much something would cost if I ordered it, and then just never order it, letting that cart expire. I’m hoping this poisons their data or adds something to the price sensitivity metrics.
I also look at airfares, hotel prices, etc., a lot. It’s not for the purpose of manipulating their algorithms, as I just like to get a sense for how prices move over time. But if there’s a side effect that these variable pricing algorithms take into account people who window shop and walk away, maybe I’m helping push prices down.
If they’re gonna create a panopticon, we should fuck with their data.
Yeah, my first thought was that such a system was likely gameable.
But then my second thought was that idgaf what any of the McDonald burgers cost. The price they’d need to set to get me to “buy” them wouldn’t be economically viable for the company because I have no clue how a “pay customers to take our burgers” scheme could work out favorably for them.
At least where I live, what they cost is ‘way too much’. You can get a meal from a decent restaurant for the same price, and their burgers have shrunk considerably.
I remember even when I still thought I liked them, I’d never feel satisfied after finishing a meal. For a while I mistook that for meaning I liked the food. Like “oh I just had one but want another already, must be good”. But no, I think now that it was just a sign of my body being well aware that it didn’t have enough nutritional value to meet its needs.
I’ve had other occasions where I’ll finish a combo and wish I had more with other fastfood places, but it’s not a constant experience like it was with McDonald’s.
Hell, that time they did that 2 big macs for $2 (just the burgers) deal, I bought 4 of them. I was full by the end of the 3rd and gave the 4th away but still wasn’t satisfied, I just couldn’t physically fit any more in my stomach.
Anyways, all that to say that any price is “too much” for those empty calories. But yeah, it used to be ok for “something quick and cheap to put in your stomach on a long drive” but even that is no longer the case.
The problem is this sounds like a job to do it regularly just to throw off their algorithm.
Yeah, you’re probably right. Still, if big tech’s ad behavior (ads for stuff you’ve already bought, ads for things you’d never buy but might have looked up information about for non-consumer reasons) is any indication, I’m not actually sure they’re using really sophisticated techniques here that can’t be thrown off by one-off bored sessions.
Got a point there. If it’s equally sophisticated it may be tricked easily.
Anyone with any sense and other options stopped eating there a long time ago. I feel bad for those who literally live where there’s no other viable option, mostly because it will rapidly make the last possible option non-viable.
I have zero sympathy for those with good alternatives that don’t walk away. The company ran its course. Let it burn.
no other viable option
Are there people who can’t prepare the most basic foods themselves? I’d always prefer to prepare or cook something myself over getting fast food. Even a slice of bread with some cheese or meat plus some carrots or such is better than fast food in my eyes (and much cheaper anyways).
Are there people who can’t prepare the most basic foods themselves?
Sadly yes, either because they were never taught or never learned the basic skills, or live in food deserts that basically prevent them from access to groceries they can purchase and cook.
This guy gets it. There’s legitimately people who couldn’t get the food, don’t have the facilities to prepare it in their shoebox apartment, don’t have the skills to prepare it, have next to nothing for food storage capacity, and/or are on too much of a time crunch to actually prep their own food.
Does that describe everyone? No. Do they exist? Absolutely, and sadly more common than people realize. I’m extremely blessed to have a comfortable suburban house and all the access in the world to the resources I need, but I came up in less favourable circumstances and have old acquaintances who are still there. A grocery store was hard enough to get to it may as well have been on the moon for all the time and transportation I had to get there, my access to tools and appliances to cook were effectively non-existent and the fridge and freezer I had access to couldn’t hold a full week of food to begin with. Living on convenience store taquitos and fast food wasn’t a choice, it was that or starve, and you ate what was open when you had time.
You can go to the grocery store and buy frozen French fries and frozen patties and heat them in a toaster oven and it will be cheaper and better than McDonald’s.
Granted for that you need a freezer and a toaster oven and a grocery store, and many people don’t have those.
I know people in their 30s who don’t know how to cook beyond microwave meals and actively don’t want to learn. Some of them have enough money they basically always go out to eat and drive throughs are convenient
some get so addicted to eating out, eating home cooked food is not tasteful to them anymore.
Sad miserable losers
It’s actually a problem that people usually doesn’t prepare food tried to, and have to spend an hour on everything to make mediocre food, to the point that there’s thousands of video teaching how to preo food quickly. Internet Shaquille’s video are basically made to combat that.
For where I live, the last time I looked into this (in 2024), if you wanted to make a burger with the same amount of meat and toppings as a basic mcdouble, you’re looking at spending almost $50 upfront for ingredients (meat, bun, cheese, onion, and ketchup) and even by weight you’re barely breaking even.
Normally my knee jerk reaction would be against this. But if it helps to drive McDonalds to lose customers in the long run, well…🤔
I don’t know who is going there any more. I know there are people, I have one a few blocks away and the drive through is always full but you can go to local places and get good food for so much cheaper.
Kids who want happy meals drag their parents there. However once they hit 5th grade the allure of the happy meal fades and they usually don’t come back.
Kids who want happy meals drag their parents there.
Not my kids. It’s called parenting.
On the plus side, surveillance pricing legislation has already been introduced in (IIRC) four states just this year, and if I had to guess, we could eventually see state-level bans in at least half of the states.
This, like the electronic tags at Walmart, or Uber charging more when your phone battery is low, or Target mining your loyalty club data to surge price you, is something that they’re speedrunning to try and normalize before the law catches up.
The issue is that these are black boxes. No one but the authors of the system know what’s happening. Law prevents Uber from increasing the price on a nearly flat mobile-computer? They didn’t. That’s just the normal price. Who has all the data? Only Uber. No one else. How then can you enforce such laws?
This is the one aspect of “Tech” that is turning me from an enthusiast into an honest Luddite. Our systems of regulation are so weak and ineffective at catching up to these sorts of exploitative practices and by design that I don’t see much being done to help people get ahead of this
How then can you enforce such laws?
The same way everything is enforced in billionaire-owned America: fines that, at the end of the day, are likely a minute fraction of a corporation’s profits, though some states will be heavier-handed than others. The Federal Government does not lead on any issue that is of crucial importance to the consumer anymore, so the states are where the power of regulation lies. It’s not ideal but something is better than nothing in this case.
Ultimately, how you fare in this ecosystem depends on your own digital hygiene. The best thing you can do for yourself is simply not consume these products in the first place, but that’s not really an option for many who may live in food deserts or have no options for shopping but Walmart or Target, which is why some measure of regulation is inevitable in most of the states, I think.
My recommendation is to avoid pieces of software that mine your data, like Windows, apps, and certain Internet browsers, use a VPN on any device you use to access the Internet, and 100% avoid loyalty clubs. Old-school methods are best, like making a reservation over the phone for example.
I mean this is the obvious use case for AI, you know they have those digital price tags in supermarkets it’s perfect for this to combine with AI so depending who is looking at this price tag it changes, but in a way so you don’t see it changing. I’m not saying it’s already implemented but it’s the obvious thing to do.
Online it’s already much easier to do because you’re logged in to Amazon with your purchase history, etc. and you are the only one looking at the price tag, so no real need for AI there, but in a physical shop it will also be introduced, just like McDonald is ‘pioneering’ here.
They should never released Black Mirror, too many dystopian ideas there.
Online, search in an incognito window using a VPN. Firefox has a builtin VPN toggle these days. Then, only once you found what you’re looking for, login and buy it. And bail if they change the price.
And just don’t buy from Amazon.
How do I manipulate it to lowball
WTF is even Grimace? The turd after a supersize meal?
Start stealing burgers so they know you’re not willing to pay the current price
They will just close up shop or lock things down.
Don’t steal their products. Reject them entirely. Invite friends over and cook at home instead.
This reminds me of a video I saw where someone committed to this. New phone, use free offers, put stuff in cart but don’t buy, GPS in low income or low spend areas. They got someone from Craigslist to do much of this work.
It worked. I don’t remember channel or where they compared afterwards, though.
Seems like here it’s store based not individual customer based. Maybe you can get others to join you. Buy only the cheapest items, and the other items will get cheaper.
Not go there
Glad I haven’t eaten their trash microplastic food in like 5 years since I found out it was our pedophile and Chief’s favorite restaurant
I suspect the president is just lying about that being his favorite to seem normal and not the silver spoon trust fund baby he is that eats fancy food cooked by personal chefs.
I suspect that “you are what you eat,” and McDonalds is trash wrapped in marketing.
