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.
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.
that’s where the app deals for free french fries every 3rd tuesday in February comes in. now you really got em!
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.
Glad I haven’t eaten their trash microplastic food in like 5 years since I found out it was our pedophile and Chief’s favorite restaurant
You get to eat slop and have it priced by slop. What a time to be alive!
So glad Washington state was the first state to ban AI “Surveillance Pricing” at Grocery Stores. Hopefully it expands to dynamic pricing and for all business soon.
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.
“How much can you afford? Do you want a payment plan?”
I mean it’s peoples fault really. They let them get through with this. Shit food, shit prices, smaller portions etc and people still queue to get a burger.
Unfortunately things will get shittier because people are just too careless about these things so we can’t have nice things.
Absolutely. If people accept it they’ll keep doing it.
However, if they’re departing from a straightforward price tag where prices are consistent and pre-agreed, it sounds like we’re going back to the time of bartering. Anywhere that implements this, customers should be prepared to say no at the till. They might backtrack on this when customers with a huge trolley pull up at the checkout and then refuse to pay because they disagree with the amount.
So. Say what you want about Russian racketeer government’s practices, the former local franchise called “Vkusno i tochka” doesn’t do this.
Does feel bland other than their fish burger though.
I’ve read Burger King is considered bad in the USA, in Russia it’s kinda fine.
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.
I cannot get over the fact that McDonalds charged me $7.50 for a sausage egg biscuit with cheese the other day.
Just priced out a pack of biscuits, breakfast sausages, carton of eggs, and cheese at my local store… $9.97
Damn.
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.
Anyone with any sense and other options stopped eating there a long time ago. I feel bad for those who literally live where there’s no other viable option, mostly because it will rapidly make the last possible option non-viable.
I have zero sympathy for those with good alternatives that don’t walk away. The company ran its course. Let it burn.
no other viable option
Are there people who can’t prepare the most basic foods themselves? I’d always prefer to prepare or cook something myself over getting fast food. Even a slice of bread with some cheese or meat plus some carrots or such is better than fast food in my eyes (and much cheaper anyways).
You can go to the grocery store and buy frozen French fries and frozen patties and heat them in a toaster oven and it will be cheaper and better than McDonald’s.
Granted for that you need a freezer and a toaster oven and a grocery store, and many people don’t have those.
Are there people who can’t prepare the most basic foods themselves?
Sadly yes, either because they were never taught or never learned the basic skills, or live in food deserts that basically prevent them from access to groceries they can purchase and cook.
I know people in their 30s who don’t know how to cook beyond microwave meals and actively don’t want to learn. Some of them have enough money they basically always go out to eat and drive throughs are convenient
some get so addicted to eating out, eating home cooked food is not tasteful to them anymore.
Sad miserable losers
It’s actually a problem that people usually doesn’t prepare food tried to, and have to spend an hour on everything to make mediocre food, to the point that there’s thousands of video teaching how to preo food quickly. Internet Shaquille’s video are basically made to combat that.
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
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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.
