McDonald's reported that they expected higher earnings than previously announced. McDonald's announced 3rd quarter earnings of 61 cents a share, higher than the 49 cents earlier predicted by analyst. McDonalds announced that these eanings were despite the hurricanes and other bad weather that effected the southeast and Atlantic states over the last few months.
This earnings report would suggest that the demand for fast food is inelastic. During hrricanes people are still demanding Big Mac's. After last years release of the documentary "Super Size Me," one might even suspect that the demand for Big Mac's is the same as that of illicit drugs. "Super Size Me" portrayed a vegetarian man who by experiment decided to eat nothing but McDonald's for a month. The man exhibited classic signs of withdrawal due to chemical dependance when he hadn't eaten anything for a while. The man's health deteriorated to near dangerous levels. This didn't even make a serious dent in the fast food Goliath. Instead of cocaine, America is crying for a Big Mac and fries.
www.msnbc.com
9 comments:
People like to bag on fast food, but it does serve a purpose. As a full-time student, often times I will have no other alternative than to get fast food. I wouldn't go so far as to compare Big Macs with cocaine. Is fast food all that healthy? Well, it depends on what you order. Many fast food joints do offer delicious salads.
People still want to eat fast food, but at what cost. America is by far the fattest nation in the world, and that trend is increasing. Conveinence is not a valid arguement, it would take less time to leave a couple of minutes later than to wait in line at a drive thru. The fact of the matter is people know that fast food is completely void of any nutritional value, and is in fact worse than fasting a meal, so why do people (especially overweight or obese people) use it a main source of sustainence.
I really believe that for many, fast food has a real addictive effect that should be addressed.
Pramahaphil really seems to actually believe that fast food is addicting. It is not. What it is, is convenient, fast, and reliable. I will agree that it is not all that healthy, but we live in a society that is based on having choices. The majority of people that are obese in this country are so by choose. We need to teach children to have better nutritional habits, and I believe that McDonalds has done some major moves to combat this issue.
I'll agree definatly that the cocaine comparison is a fairly large over-dramatization. No I don't believe that fast food is as addictive as cocaine. I do think that all of you will admit that fast food is certainly addictive to some types of people, maybe as pornography is addicttive to some people. The fact is that America is by far reaching epidemic proportions with respect to obesity.
I lived is southeast Asia for two years and they have fast food as well, and even more available. On every corner there are food stands selling nothing but wholesome meals that actually come from the four food groups. In that country I can honestly say I never met a obese native, except for Bangkok, where American fats food is readily available. In that city obesity is a growing problem. The point is that if you actually looked at the numbers you would see that the percentage of obese people in society is not only corralated, but directly related to how much that society partakes of fast foods or junk food.
I guess that pertaining to this issue, stevpadilla2 carries around loaves of bread and other means in which to make sandwich's in his car. Yea everyone knows that there are other alternatives out there besides getting fast-food, but sometimes picking up something on the run is faster. Thanks for the insight though man, you are brilliant.
Bread isn't that expensive John, in fact it is cheaper than a value meal at most fast food places.
Isn't an addiction the same thing
-1 for no link to the article in Pramahaphil's post.
This was a good active set of arguments. Maybe the best one of the semester.
There actually is some new economic research linking the increase in obesity with the fact that food has gotten so cheap in this country.
But, I don't think the demand for fast food is inelastic. I'm not even sure there is a reasonable way to claim that fast food outlets might exploit that - they don't tend to price to take advantage of elasticity.
Having said that, I don't know why McDonalds' earnings were above expectations.
I think it would be a bit fascist to go so far as to "addressing the addictive factor." Fast food's bad for you but we have given people a lot of the information, they know it's unhealthy, that it can cause many diseases, and they choose to eat it regardless. That's they're decision that we can't deprive them the right of.
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