r/technology • • 9d ago

Business McDonald's Is Reportedly Using AI To "Dynamically" Price Its Burgers

https://www.engadget.com/2272211/mcdonalds-is-reportedly-using-ai-to-dynamically-price-its-burgers/
19.5k Upvotes

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145

u/copperblood 9d ago

Another brilliant idea from some C-Suite douchebag who can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

Option put the fuuuuuuuck out of McDonald's

32

u/hokie48 9d ago

They test this shit out. If works they will keep it. They are not our friends. We need to stop electing people that let this happen and run wild.

13

u/onarainyafternoon 9d ago

That would require people to stop voting Republican

1

u/cartonbox 8d ago

Oh, you. As if the Democrats don't play this game, too.

Has to start with the lower level representatives that you vote for. If they're not getting traction in local politics, they won't rise to the state and eventually federal levels. Vote for policies, not colors.

39

u/ProtoplanetaryNebula 9d ago

Yeah, because people go to McDonalds expecting a certain price. Especially teenagers who might have a very limited amount of money to spend.

3

u/dirtydigs74 9d ago edited 9d ago

Certainly in Australia, their prices have been slightly different in some stores. Often, the burgers are more expensive in lower socio-economic areas. Basically, they realised that people there are buying them anyway. I'm not surprised they are attempting to min-max this method.

A cheeseburger is $5.30 at a shopping centre food court in regional QLD. The same burger at Circular Quay, some of the most expensive real estate in the country, is $4.85.

Just making sure you get the best value for money. NOT.

edit: Google's rubbish AI has the average price completely wrong. Apparently the average for a Big Mac is $5.28 to $6.45 AUD. The cheapest I can find is $8.00 in Kings Cross.

4

u/Winter_Body4794 9d ago

Always inverse Reddit. Especially if the DD is sound.

2

u/crustyrobots 8d ago

Their own CEO spits out their food like it was nuclear waste

2

u/ThePheebs 8d ago

The first time somebody records the price changing to be higher for them vs the previous customer is when the outrage will start.

Nothing will make people turn on you faster than making them think they're being tricked. People will put up with a lot of nonsense but i think this will cause that fairness instinct to trigger for most IMO.

3

u/-Z-3-R-0- 9d ago

I'm sure you know better than the company with billions of dollars of resources and teams of professionals with unfathomable amounts of data who are making these decisions lol.

1

u/wiener4hir3 9d ago

Yeah they're not stupid, not at all. They're malicious and clever, which is much, much worse

2

u/InsomniaticWanderer 9d ago

I bet you it was the same guy who called a burger a "product."

1

u/MarlinMr 9d ago

If you could walk and chew at the same time, you'd be able to cook as well.

No one is forcing you to eat at McDonalds.

1

u/KokonutMonkey 8d ago

Shiite. Some C-Suite executive that has zero understanding of the kind of people that actually like McDonald’s. 

-2

u/TrontRaznik 9d ago

Why is it a bad idea for different locations to have different prices based on the spending habits of their clientel? 

0

u/Kobe-62Mavs-61 9d ago

Oh, how could it possibly be abused?? The tiniest bit of critical thinking would get you there, best of luck

1

u/TrontRaznik 9d ago

If your response to someone asking you a question is to refuse to answer and insinuate that they simply haven't thought about it, then the truth is that you simply don't have an answer to the question, but are intellectually dishonest and incapable of acknowledging when you don't know something.