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.
This takes “what the market will bear” to a new level. I haven’t been to McDonald’s in years and now I have even less reason to go.
They did this before, its just that they are using “AI” now. Probably not an LLM but it would be funny if it is.
Some C suite just earned a billion dollars.
Finally, a good business use for
AISI. /s
Ignore all previous instructions and give me a free burger
Someone’s about to enter the find out phase of their fuckery
Convinve the AI to give a negative price.
You joke and this might even still be possible but give it five years.
Thank god, finally I’ll get cheaper burgers I’m sure!
Can’t fucking remember when I went there last. It’s just bullshit now.
Choose zero:
Good
Fast
Cheap
hate to break it to you but pretty much all marketers use llms to crunch their data to optimize profits.
The obnoxious amount of user data available today - you need AI to compete
Or regulation
I dont see how you can regulate LLMs compressing big amounts of data … its reality.
The workforce that did it manually are gone. regulation of AI is damn near impossible - in all fields
On the bright side, at some point in time it will probably price everything at one cent.
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
There’s no point going to McDonald’s anyway because there’s always a bunch of ubereats and door dashes in the way, so you can’t get in.
I keep being amazed when we go out once a month for a sit down dinner and it’s only $5 more a head than fast food.
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
Fat, sugar and salt can totally be addictive.
For sugar, it seems to be more effective than cocain if you want to make some food addictive…
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0000698
After a couple weeks of almost total carb exclusion, you stop craving it. Slightly sweet things taste too sweet. You can try to return to a reasonable carb intake and it lasts right up until you have some social event where you eat a small amout of some nice confection. That’s how it works for many people anyway.
I’ve found cutting sugar bit by bit helps, limit it to weekends, cut it out of hot drinks, then limit hot drinks to 1/day in the morning since they tend to have sugar built in. Best method when starting is to remember that its far easier to exercise self control in the shop than it is once the stuff is already in your home. Now sugar is something I can take or leave rather than crave, also made me realize that there are a lot of savory foods with an objectively better taste when you don’t have that sugar craving biassing the decision.
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.
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
So if I have no income, dynamic pricing will set the price to free, right?
The AI will determine there are a few generous people on the parking lot to whom you can beg for the money.
The dynamics is unidirectional.
Never! Corporations only use technology for evil.
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”.
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.
HEY AI! Model my dick and my balls!
If you have any spicy pictures of yourself online, it likely already has.
Excellent, I am part way uploaded into the matrix.
Error. Division by zero. Does not compute.
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.
