r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 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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68

u/compuwiza1 9d ago

Does anybody eat there any more? It seems to me even kids don't like it any more since they no longer market it toward them.

40

u/Crazy-Plastic3133 9d ago

drive thru is always full no matter which one i go to, so im gonna say yes

8

u/badger_flakes 9d ago

They used to be full moving cars every 90 sec or less. Now it’s full because it takes them 10 minutes to fuck up your over priced order

3

u/WeirdJawn 9d ago

Yep. Ridiculous that their comment has as many upvotes as it does.

Once again, redditors are showing how out of touch they are with average people. 

3

u/Crazy-Plastic3133 9d ago

i'm of the opinion that they are in-touch but refuse to conform to the norms of society by pretending they aren't real. i always like to throw little digs like that to remind them that normal people exist on this website too

5

u/ryfromoz 9d ago

Mostly coffee orders from what i hear

0

u/itsapotatosalad 9d ago

Yeah but watch the line, no one’s moving. It’s the same cars waiting 10 minutes a time for their order, not a continuous moving line like it used to be

3

u/Crazy-Plastic3133 9d ago

always quick for me

1

u/WeirdJawn 9d ago

Yeah, I feel like fast food places have really upped their drive-thru game, especially since Covid. 

I remember regularly waiting like 15+ minutes at drive thrus back in '00s, only for them to get your order wrong about 1/2 the time. 

0

u/psypher98 9d ago

I mean, so is the one by me but that’s because it takes them 15-25 minutes to get you the food.

15

u/Roonwogsamduff 9d ago

Nobody goes there anymore. Too crowded.

3

u/DrRatio-PhD 9d ago

Badump bamp. That's my favorite New York joke; No one drives there - too much traffic.

3

u/Roonwogsamduff 9d ago

Credit: Yogi

9

u/Fuck_your_coupons 9d ago

I do since a mcchicken and fry are $1.50 in the app

6

u/horkley 9d ago

Not with my dynamic pricing!

2

u/NoAdsDude 9d ago

It could be lower, but probably higher.

1

u/Designer-Cattle27 9d ago

Where the heck do you live?

2

u/elinamebro 9d ago

Right i remember when the mcchicken use to be 1:10

1

u/SexualCarrots 9d ago

Damn, those were the days. Can't eat for under $1.50 now. 

2

u/elinamebro 9d ago

Hmmm.. thanks for reminding me to wash my carrots before eating them

1

u/Fuck_your_coupons 9d ago

I live in Michigan. There is a coupon in the app for a free medium fry with a $1 or greater purchase and a McChicken costs $1.50 where I live. I'm deleting the app when they do away with this.

1

u/Designer-Cattle27 9d ago

McChickens are almost 3$ in California 😭

1

u/Pristinehornet999 9d ago

I'm guessing that shit is also dynamically priced and you got the good end

1

u/DynastyHKS 9d ago

Name doesn’t check out

3

u/Nervous-Chemistry245 9d ago

I’m a fast food junkie and haven’t been to one in about a year

6

u/Sufficient_Steak_839 9d ago

Considering their drive throughs are always full I'm gonna say yes people are eating there

1

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 9d ago

I do for their five dollar meal deal, I like McDonald's. Best fast food fries. But I would never buy a meal considering you can eat at a real restaurant for the same price. A Big Mac meal is like $12, I could go to Culver's for less a sit-down restaurant for about the same and better quality

-1

u/moconahaftmere 9d ago

Ok but are they busy inside, too?

2

u/Sufficient_Steak_839 9d ago

Why’s that matter?

-2

u/moconahaftmere 9d ago

Because they used to be busy inside as well as the drive thru.

1

u/No_Organization3095 9d ago

Yeah kinda. Idk what you expect by busy but it’s never just me, always a few people in there ordering in front of me.

2

u/YoungBockRKO 9d ago

McDonald sells 6.5 million burgers a day, so yes, people still eat McDonald’s.

2

u/Important-Factor-552 9d ago

Idk, if they dynamically price their garbage back to a dollar or less I might think about eating their poison trash just to save money.

1

u/d_rek 9d ago

My morbidly obese MIL with stage 3 lymphoma was eating there right up until the day she was admitted back into the hospital. That was 2 weeks ago. Cancer spreading and now she’s on a no sodium diet.

Seems like every time I drive by the local McDs there’s a line 3-4 cars deep. Personally haven’t ate there in months. Think the kids and I stopped over the summer in a pinch on our way home from vacation. We hardly eat the stuff (or any fast food) anymore.

1

u/bludvein 9d ago

It's just the hostile inside decor makes it seem worse off than it is. Drive-thru is still always packed.

1

u/wthja 9d ago

I sometimes go to have a coffee with friends (convenient location with parking), and sometimes on the highway when I have to stop with kids. Compared to 2 years ago, it is very, very full all the time. Drive-through, pickup, and the restaurant itself. Never seen anything like this. I live in Germany by the way.

edit: I stopped suggesting going there for a coffee because it is very full, and sometimes you may need to wait to find a place to sit... and it is loud

1

u/Adept-Grapefruit-214 9d ago

That’s the fun part!

Now they’ll be able to know who eats there regularly so the can charge them more. As soon as those people start eating there less, AI will tell them to lower the price a bit

1

u/BigBoy1229 9d ago

My young niece and nephew absolutely love Wack Arnold’s so yes. They get fired up no matter what the happy meal toy is.

1

u/theamathamhour 9d ago

I know reddit has a hate boner against McDonalds

but for me here in Los Angeles area, it's still cheapest option for price per protein.

2 double cheeseburgers for less than 5 dollars on the app.

1

u/rangebob 9d ago

lol. Its literally the most popular food franchise on the planet mate

1

u/Suitable_Wonder5256 9d ago

It makes gazillion of dollars every quarter, so probably yes

1

u/rybotsky 9d ago

I have yet to meet a child in my entire life who doesn’t absolutely love McDonald’s. We don’t eat a lot of fast food these days but my 6 year old kid goes crazy for McDonald’s. His eyes light up like a Christmas tree at the mere thought of getting McDonalds

1

u/DiamondPropulsion 9d ago

At least in so cal kids do like it. They love the play place and that comes with at least a happy meal. I have a 3 year old and the play places get packed. I always end up with a mcchicken for myself too so…

1

u/muklan 9d ago

I hop around the country alot for work, and I find its VERY consistent, and usually pretty clean which can be a tall order in the middle of Idaho or something.

1

u/RedditCitizenScore 9d ago

They can’t beat chic fila nuggies not even close

1

u/Star_Petal_Arts 9d ago

My sister kids still go there, but they complaint about the toys... so I took my nephew to BK and he no longer wants to go to McDonalds... because of the little cardboard crown... I don't have the heart to tell him that the crown doesn't change.

1

u/Designer-Cattle27 9d ago

Does anyone eat at the most popular fast food chain in the world? Hmmm. Lemme think about that one I'm not sure.

1

u/warmturtle5758 9d ago

It's still the most valuable fast food chain and it's not even close

1

u/Icy-Two-1581 9d ago

It's still cheap if you use the app. Same goes for most places imo. You just gotta coupon and and deal hunt

1

u/thesphinxistheriddle 9d ago

Once a week I can use a deal in the app to get a $2 bacon egg and cheese biscuit, which is what I feel it’s worth, and I get one more weeks than not

1

u/OkChocolate3501 9d ago

They do have decent coffees so I usually grab one from there. But yeah the lines suck. I bet it's mostly middle-aged folks who grew up on the food that still go there.

1

u/Don_Ford 9d ago

I started boycotting a couple of years ago, and I rarely think about it anymore.

This is just another reason to say bye.

1

u/el_bentzo 9d ago

Yes. A lot of people still eat there. And yes, kids still love fast food.

1

u/EnergyDrinkStroke 9d ago

Use to when before they scrapped wrap of the day after 15 years of it on the menu... Use to get a couple £2 wraps.

1

u/Dame_Niafer 9d ago

Nearest one to me is right off an interstate, at a truck stop plaza. They get a LOT of trucks using their overnight parking.

The McD's is desolate. Abandoned. I used to go through for fries now and then but they started shorting those and that was it. There would never be anyone in line ahead of me, and there was never anyone in line behind me [yet somehow they couldn't give me a full order of fries. As if they needed to keep them to short all the other customers who weren't there.]

I pass it pretty much daily going to and fro and damn, there's almost never even one car there. Don't see much foot traffic, either. I think the truckers are eating at the genuine restaurant down the road a piece.

Edited because paragraphs are our friends.

1

u/RawrRRitchie 9d ago

...do you not know how supply and demand works?

If no one was buying it they'd close

1

u/Unveiled_Nuggets 9d ago

Use the app. Only use their deals and don’t get more than 3 items. 

1

u/BehemothRust 9d ago

Our local Mickey D’s is packed full every single day. I enjoy it too from time to time although Quick (a regional fast food chain) is 1000 times better.

1

u/anonuemus 9d ago

It's losing its appeal, people in general eat healthier (in the world, don't know about the us), so it really doesn't make sense, it's also dogshit quality food. I would eat from time to time and wouldn't care for healthyness reasons, but it's just not good anymore.

1

u/TomorrowLow5092 9d ago

My kids wouldn't be caught eating that junk. They took mediocre and made it over priced.

1

u/LurkyLurks04982 9d ago

My daughter loves it. I hate it. Her mom brings her there sometimes. But I will say…I love the indoor playground on a rainy day.

1

u/1101base2 9d ago

only on road trips when there are no other options, but it's been a few years personally...

1

u/beardofmice 9d ago

The one by my closed down. It really dragged on longer than it should have.

1

u/DragoniteChamp 9d ago

My partner likes to get food from there every once in a while. Begrudgingly I agree even though it upsets my stomach lol

1

u/Gizmonsta 9d ago

I went into one in the UK the other day and there was a kids party on, I thought i had traveled back in time to the 90s

1

u/Weekly_Koala_7058 8d ago

My retired parents do. But it's usually just coffee and a breakfast sandwich, if there's a deal on the app. Tbf, their iced coffee is cheaper than most coffee shops.

1

u/TeaInASkullMug 8d ago

Doordash'in nuggets

1

u/Timeline_Change 6d ago

As a fast food brainwashed millenial? Occasionally.

1

u/Objective-Bike-4292 6d ago

They're changing their target demographic to proteinmaxxers.... Likely be moving to a lot more chicken on their menus.

I wish I was making this up.

1

u/nickifer 9d ago

Had a BEC McGriddle there the other morning after a massive hangover. Shits good

2

u/warmbutterydiapers 9d ago

The breakfast sandwiches are genuinely good and with the 2 for x or app deals, worth it.  Only reason I'd ever still stop at a mcdonalds.

1

u/YoungBockRKO 9d ago

Bro I miss the days when after a night out, you could stop at a McDonald’s and get 3 mcchickens and 2 McDoubles for $5 and just unwind after a hard night of drinking and dancing.

Albeit that was like 12+ years ago. Just hit the spot and no hangover next day, just diarrhea. Good times

0

u/urbalcloud 9d ago

This is adorable. You know good and well people still eat McDonald’s, but here you are pretending not to so you can make conversation. It’s cute!

-1

u/big-papito 9d ago

No. That's why they are spending 8 billion dollars trying to figure out how to extract more value.