[lelandfe]

> McDonald’s consumers remain pressured, particularly low-income diners and families. The restaurant is hoping that a better tech-enabled experience will help it deliver on its goal of growing its loyalty patrons from 175 million to 250 million by 2027

> [..]

> AI will be able to help McDonald’s tailor its promotions and offers by using customer data such as prior purchasing history, and even linking it with weather data, Rice said. “A customer who we know loves our sweet treats could get an offer through the app for a McFlurry on a hot summer day,” he said.

So the pitch is that McDonald's franchises will use AI-driven deals to entice families who can no longer afford the 40% higher prices.

[autoexec]

This isn't really about giving anyone a deal

Once it detects who you are, it'll check to see how much money you have and jack up all their prices if they think you can afford it. Get a new job that comes with a 10% raise? Your prices at McD's will all go up by 10%.

It'll algorithmically determine how much money you're willing/able to spend to ensure that you're always forced to hand over the most money they can possibly get from you.

[euroderf]

So, they are copying Oracle ?

[m463]

Come on, they won't raise prices if you have more money.

(they will just have high prices, and lower them until less wealthy can buy)

[autoexec]

They absolutely will. The problem with just setting a high price is that they'd be leaving money on the table whenever anyone who could afford even higher prices comes through. That's what they want to eliminate.

Even if you aren't earning more money the algorithm will constantly be testing you by jacking up prices to see what you'll endure under which circumstances. Screaming kids in the car with you? You'll probably put up with an extra 38.33 cents for those happy meals. Looking tired? A recent death in your family? Do your resent social media posts indicate that under more stress? Enjoy higher and higher prices to stress-eat your comfort foods peasant.

I don't see any of the backlash Wendy's got for this kind of bullshit either.

[Spivak]

Look, I'm all excited over the incoming cyberpunk dystopia but no they won't be able to do this. They still have posted menu prices and folks will be pissed if prices ever go up from what they're expecting to pay.

[autoexec]

Digital signs and apps are what they're pushing on us now. There are already restaurants that don't have any kind of printed/posted menu at all and you're expected to use your phone to scan a QR code. There's no telling if the prices shown to you on your device are the same as what the person behind you in line will see.

There are also already restaurants that have different prices when you use their app which helps condition you to accept that prices will differ from person to person or even day to day.

You're right that people don't care for discriminatory pricing though. People's objection to the practice is the only thing that's been keeping it from being more widely used already (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41272-019-00224-3)

They stand to make money hand over fist from it though so we're going to see company after company testing it, pushing the boundaries of what we'll accept and normalizing the practice. Without regulations making discriminatory pricing illegal in certain settings, it's basically inevitable that we'll see it more often.

[xpl]

They would probably be able to do it if the listed prices were fixed, but they provided a personalized discount that would vary depending on who you are.

[Spivak]

This is already how the app works and indeed pretty much every form of price discrimination runs this way. It's just that that the "who you are" part often isn't as obvious because you'll just encounter a coupon code and not realize that by virtue of you seeing it you're part of a specific demographic they're targeting.

But the reverse of raising prices beyond menu price depending on who you are will get pitchforks.

[parliament32]

Well of course, except the menu prices are the "max" and everyone gets varying discounts depending on their profile. Just like at your local auto parts store, basically nobody pays "list price", yet it's there for the odd walk-in cash sale who doesn't know how these things work.

[somerandomqaguy]

Maybe? Supposedly there's a McDonalds out in Denver's that's removed it's inside digital menu boards. Kiosks only.

https://kioskindustry.org/mcdonalds-kiosk-counterless/

Not sure how much of a trend this is though.

[m463]

with the upsell, why not both?

[acdha]

I’m also trying to figure out how AI is revolutionizing the business by selling cold treats on a hot day when people did that in the analog era. That seems like it would be a lot more compelling if it found some non-obvious connections.

[mc32]

As if... they can even keep the softserve icecream machines running reliably!

[hiddencost]

I mean we've been doing large scale business data analytics and micro targeting for a very long time. But this is just ... Boring.

[acdha]

Exactly - the exact same pitch would have been used with “big data” in the 2010s, and probably something about OLAP a decade before that. It was weird seeing that example without even attempting to explain what makes it AI other than, presumably, giving Gartner a lot more money.

[eesmith]

"Diapers and beer" was the go-to story for data mining of purchasing data in the 1990s. https://tdwi.org/articles/2016/11/15/beer-and-diapers-imposs...

That link shows both how widespread the idea was, and how shaky the evidence was.

[larvaetron]

> the exact same pitch would have been used with “big data” in the 2010s

I'm surprised I don't see this mentioned more often. The tech industry feels like a "more obvious than usual" case of déjà vu these past few years.

[acdha]

I think some of that is age and experience helping recognize the cycle (and the big consulting companies always pushing new things hoping their clients won’t notice their previous claims were off) but there also seems to be an angle around how much money is controlled by a handful of people seeking huge returns. The industry tends to focus on what VCs want and there just isn’t much diversity in that community – the guys who got lucky don't reliably keep having new ideas and having more money than you know what to do with tends to stifle creativity: they’re not forced to deal with criticism, nobody is stressing about their success, and their working experience is increasingly outdated because they’re hearing only from other rich guys who also not only don’t have to do the hard parts themselves but probably have entire teams “green-shifting” things so nobody has to tell their boss that their business isn’t as simple as some Gartner analyst assumed.

[TZubiri]

Presumably it would give an offer only when you wouldn't have otherwise ordered.

So maybe a daily coffee at off peak hours if it's within your commute idk

[01HNNWZ0MV43FF]

Also they're just lying, ice cream would cost more on hot days due to demand

[mindwok]

AI is supposed to free us of menial labour and give us the future of our dreams and instead I’m getting targeted ads for McFlurries. God damnit.

[ozmodiar]

So far the only jobs AI seems to be trying to take are the 'good' ones. Creativity, analysis, programming. Sure there's the dream that people in all 3 groups will just leverage it to do more and better, but most of the impact so far has been management openly extatic at all the people they can fire/pressure/not hire. Not the revolution I was looking for so far. And that's before taking the new horizons for disinformation and harassment into account.

[xhkkffbf]

There are some who dream of McFlurries. So maybe it is giving us the stuff of their dreams?

[soupfordummies]

Then you wake up and find out the ice cream machine "is down."

Let me know when AI fixes THAT problem...

[7speter]

Well the article talks about this. Ai monitors the machinery in the restaurant and warns when something is about to fail.

The first thing I thought of was the ai minimizing mcflurry machine downtime.

[lotsoweiners]

Good one.

[crazygringo]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Grocery stores have operated like that since the 1950's. They have higher prices in-store, but if you can't afford those then you clip coupons to save, yes, often 40% or more.

And CVS and other stores already print coupons attached to my receipt that are customized just for me.

Why wouldn't McDonald's do the same thing with coupons/offers in their app?

It's just: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination

[beezlewax]

That is nowhere near the same thing.

[crazygringo]

You don't want to give any reason as to why?

[rchaud]

The pitch is always "here's how we're going to squeeze more blood from the stone". Public comments like these are targeted at investors, not customers.

[Yeul]

In my country even a big mac is 5 euro. I think if you're struggling cooking pasta would be a more efficient meal.

[orphea]

Or rice. You can do wonders with rice.

[qingcharles]

Weirdly, when I was broke and jobless, living off the deals from McDonald's was pretty decent. I could normally get a free fries or sandwich practically every day on the app.

[mateo411]

The app gives pretty good discounts. It's pretty easy to save about 20% using the app for an order. I think the rewards is also about 10-15%. If you are going to go to a Quick Stop Restaurant, it's generally a good idea to use the app.