A TikToker is going viral for calling out McDonald’s for its “insane” pricing after noticing that some sides cost nearly as much as the sandwiches.
The video starts off with a stitch from creator @groupchatnews, recounting the news of McDonald’s CEO publicly stating the fast food chain is getting pushback from customers because of pricing.
In his response video, Stephen (@hugesnlfan) agreed that the pricing was out of hand. He pulled up a screenshot of the breakfast pricing from what is likely his local McDonald’s.
“$3.19 for one [expletive] hashbrown? One [expletive] hashbrown?” he says with a look of disbelief.
“It gets worse,” the Los Angeles-based actor continues.
Stephen then pulls up a photo of a Filet-O-Fish, which is priced at what Stephen deems to be a reasonable $4.99. “That’s not the bad part; this is the bad part,” he said before showing that ordering a side of medium fries will run a person in his area $4.59—a 40-cent price difference.
“You want $4.59 for a medium french fry? And there’s nothing in these [expletive] french fries. This is insane,” Stephen proclaims.
Stephen’s observations seem to be in line with the statistics the McDonald’s CEO shared in a recent CNBC interview. The CEO shared that while people are still buying classics like Big Macs and chicken nuggets, diners are less likely to add extras like the fries and hashbrowns Stephen was griping about.
Stephen’s TikTok has more than a million views and nearly 7,000 comments.
@hugesnlfan #stitch with @groupchatnews mcdonalds needs to get thier franchisees under control. #mcdonalds ##greenscreensticker ♬ original sound – Stephen LeFranc
Many commenters shared similar frustrations about the burger giant’s pricing.
“Yep, they’re jacking up prices like every day it’s insane,” one person said.
“Those are five guys prices, but not five guys quality,” another wrote.
“People ate there cause it was cheap, not cause the food is amazing. Now it’s expensive AND mediocre food? BYE.,” a commenter said.
Others said that they’ve stopped frequenting the fast food spot because of the increased prices.
“I just don’t go anymore. ain’t paying $13 for a big mac meal,” a person shared.
Several others brought up that the chain should also be increasing worker pay. One commenter in particular said they’d be okay with the bump in prices if it meant they were employing people full-time, paying for health insurance, and paying more than $20 an hour.
The Daily Dot reached out to Stephen for comment via Instagram DM and to McDonald’s via email.
Update 2:58pm CT May 15: In an email to the Daily Dot, Stephen said that McDonald’s used to be the “cheap way of getting a meal.”
“But now, at least here in LA, you’re just like $6 away for going to a restaurant and getting a burger there. Like it was good for the price point, but now it’s not,” he added.