It's worth mentioning that the "Big Mac index" only works as a comparison tool in some countries.
In my country, before the Euro was adopted in 2015, a Big Mac was the same price as the rest of Europe, which for the purchasing power here was a lot of money. McDonalds was seen as a luxury, only for tourists and the middle class who wanted to show off their wealth.
For the same price or often less, you could go out to pretty much any other restaurant in the city and get lunch. Even now there are still a one or two places I know where you can lunch for less than a Big Mac meal (maybe without drinks), but we've had a lot of inflation since the Euro was adopted, so nowadays the McDonalds meal is usually cheaper, and no longer considered a luxury.
Ive always thought those fast food meals were silly and overly expensive.
Like, the hamburger is 4$ alone BUT add on some terrible cheap pre frozen fries and soda that costs like 5 pennies and there's your 'meal' for 10$. Completely crazy!
And fast food fries really are terrible. I don't know what they do wrong but I used to work at a restaurant that served pre frozen fries that were quite good, so it's not even that.
You still have to cut the fries. It is only reasonable to freeze them if you fry small amounts at a time. I don't see much extra labor in cutting them on demand. Sure, you get to make slightly more if there is a lot of demand. Should we sacrifice quality for that?
