6 ms·

“Sure you can get a hamburger for $1 ... but then you’d have to eat it.” - favorite ad

JAlexoid 6y ago
Unfortunately for high priced premium products, the increase in quality of basic products forces premium products to be better or fail. Related to your example - $1 burgers are increasingly better, than you would expect. The difference between McDonald's midrange line and, say, a burger at a restaurant for $18 is negligible in flavor. I can no longer justify going to a restaurant and pay $18+tip for a burger.
- ryguytilidie 6y ago
  >The difference between McDonald's midrange line and, say, a burger at a restaurant for $18 is negligible in flavor. Oh come on. I get that you're trying to make a point but this is ridiculous.
  - jerkstate 6y ago
    Both provide expected caloric and nutritional value, let’s say that. *Even at a flavor baseline
    - thetinguy 6y ago
      Spoken like a true bean counter.
    - ctdonath 6y ago
      If that’s my goal, I’ll have a Soylent drink or GreenBelly bar. https://Soylent.com https://Soylent.com https://GreenBelly.co https://GreenBelly.co I’ll eat a $18 hamburger because it tastes really good - yes, about 18x better than a $1 burger.
      - JAlexoid 6y ago
        Fun fact - I never compared the quality of $1 and $18 burger.
- chefandy 6y ago
  Sure, to you. There's a whole lot of not you out there for whom the distinction is worth the price differential. That's true in both hamburgers and hardware. Needs, goals, and use cases differ significantly among people. I'd argue that the functional difference between a Honda Fit and a Tesla is less than the difference between the best McDonald's hamburger and an $18 hamburger. That's why I drive a Honda Fit. In the face of Tesla's increasing sales it would be pretty strange to assert that my taste was somehow universal.
  - kbenson 6y ago
    I would argue a many, perhaps most, people that won't eat a McDonald's hamburger because of some perceived lack of quality probably haven't had one in many years and are instead working off public perceptions and status indicators about what they think it represents and must be like. And then we've come full circle to Apple products.
    - fnord123 6y ago
      I haven't had a McDonald's hamburger for many years. You are partly correct that it is because of my perception that it is trash. But when I walk by a McDonald's it doesn't smell like food to me anymore and smells more akin to garbage on a warm day.
    - karlshea 6y ago
      > working off public perceptions and status indicators about what they think it represents and must be like. I eat at McDonald's all the time, and I also get pricey burgers ($13-18) from a local place that makes the best I've ever had. You can't be serious. If you are, I've gotta say if anyone has a perception issue about their respective quality it's you.
      - kbenson 6y ago
        I think you're reading more into my comment than what I actually said, possible because of someone else's prior comment in this thread. I was making a point less about McDonald's being equivalent to a restaurant burger and more about people's perceptions of McDonald's and how bad it is. That is, there's probably a lot less difference in the taste of those burgers than a lot of people want to admit. The other aspect to consider is consistency. I had a $14 burger at a restaurant on Saturday that I would have been happy to swap in any single burger I've ordered from McDonald's in the last 12 months. You may not consider it high quality at McDonald's, but you have a pretty good idea what you're going to get. All I'm really doing is making a point that there's a bit of fetishism about luxury items going on these days. Are Apple devices generally higher quality than many competitors? Yes. Is the difference in quality in line with most people's perception of the difference in quality? I don't think so.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  > The difference between McDonald's midrange line and, say, a burger at a restaurant for $18 is negligible in flavor. This may be the single worst analogy I've ever seen. There is no amount of money you can pay at McDonalds to get a good quality burger. I don't spend $18 for burgers, since there are a million places where you can pay $5-8 dollars and get a damned good piece of beef. But not at McDonalds.
  - withinboredom 6y ago
    If the employees are doing it right, it’s not “that bad” of a burger. So, just pay the employees enough to actually care about the burger and it comes out decent. I’ve eaten at McDonald’s around the world, it really depends but they do have good burgers when they’re cooked right.
    - ogre_codes 6y ago
      It's not an employee thing, the source material is junk. The best employee in the world can't turn mediocre frozen patties into a good burger.
    - gowld 6y ago
      It's not the employees. In different countries the entire recipe and production system is different. In many non-US countries, McDonald's is a more upscale "foreign" restaurant and far more expensive than in the US.
  - JAlexoid 6y ago
    You haven't been to McDonald's in a while it seems. $5-8? At a food truck? The ones that make burgers of an extremely varied quality?

Unfortunately for high priced premium products, the increase in quality of basic products forces premium products to be better or fail. Related to your example - $1 burgers are increasingly better, than you would expect. The difference between McDonald's midrange line and, say, a burger at a restaurant for $18 is negligible in flavor. I can no longer justify going to a restaurant and pay $18+tip for a burger.

ryguytilidie 6y ago
>The difference between McDonald's midrange line and, say, a burger at a restaurant for $18 is negligible in flavor. Oh come on. I get that you're trying to make a point but this is ridiculous.
- jerkstate 6y ago
  Both provide expected caloric and nutritional value, let’s say that. *Even at a flavor baseline
  - thetinguy 6y ago
    Spoken like a true bean counter.
  - ctdonath 6y ago
    If that’s my goal, I’ll have a Soylent drink or GreenBelly bar. https://Soylent.com https://Soylent.com https://GreenBelly.co https://GreenBelly.co I’ll eat a $18 hamburger because it tastes really good - yes, about 18x better than a $1 burger.
    - JAlexoid 6y ago
      Fun fact - I never compared the quality of $1 and $18 burger.
chefandy 6y ago
Sure, to you. There's a whole lot of not you out there for whom the distinction is worth the price differential. That's true in both hamburgers and hardware. Needs, goals, and use cases differ significantly among people. I'd argue that the functional difference between a Honda Fit and a Tesla is less than the difference between the best McDonald's hamburger and an $18 hamburger. That's why I drive a Honda Fit. In the face of Tesla's increasing sales it would be pretty strange to assert that my taste was somehow universal.
- kbenson 6y ago
  I would argue a many, perhaps most, people that won't eat a McDonald's hamburger because of some perceived lack of quality probably haven't had one in many years and are instead working off public perceptions and status indicators about what they think it represents and must be like. And then we've come full circle to Apple products.
  - fnord123 6y ago
    I haven't had a McDonald's hamburger for many years. You are partly correct that it is because of my perception that it is trash. But when I walk by a McDonald's it doesn't smell like food to me anymore and smells more akin to garbage on a warm day.
  - karlshea 6y ago
    > working off public perceptions and status indicators about what they think it represents and must be like. I eat at McDonald's all the time, and I also get pricey burgers ($13-18) from a local place that makes the best I've ever had. You can't be serious. If you are, I've gotta say if anyone has a perception issue about their respective quality it's you.
    - kbenson 6y ago
      I think you're reading more into my comment than what I actually said, possible because of someone else's prior comment in this thread. I was making a point less about McDonald's being equivalent to a restaurant burger and more about people's perceptions of McDonald's and how bad it is. That is, there's probably a lot less difference in the taste of those burgers than a lot of people want to admit. The other aspect to consider is consistency. I had a $14 burger at a restaurant on Saturday that I would have been happy to swap in any single burger I've ordered from McDonald's in the last 12 months. You may not consider it high quality at McDonald's, but you have a pretty good idea what you're going to get. All I'm really doing is making a point that there's a bit of fetishism about luxury items going on these days. Are Apple devices generally higher quality than many competitors? Yes. Is the difference in quality in line with most people's perception of the difference in quality? I don't think so.
ogre_codes 6y ago
> The difference between McDonald's midrange line and, say, a burger at a restaurant for $18 is negligible in flavor. This may be the single worst analogy I've ever seen. There is no amount of money you can pay at McDonalds to get a good quality burger. I don't spend $18 for burgers, since there are a million places where you can pay $5-8 dollars and get a damned good piece of beef. But not at McDonalds.
- withinboredom 6y ago
  If the employees are doing it right, it’s not “that bad” of a burger. So, just pay the employees enough to actually care about the burger and it comes out decent. I’ve eaten at McDonald’s around the world, it really depends but they do have good burgers when they’re cooked right.
  - ogre_codes 6y ago
    It's not an employee thing, the source material is junk. The best employee in the world can't turn mediocre frozen patties into a good burger.
  - gowld 6y ago
    It's not the employees. In different countries the entire recipe and production system is different. In many non-US countries, McDonald's is a more upscale "foreign" restaurant and far more expensive than in the US.
- JAlexoid 6y ago
  You haven't been to McDonald's in a while it seems. $5-8? At a food truck? The ones that make burgers of an extremely varied quality?