[muixoozie]

Would be truly living in a dystopian sci-fi universe if this shit gets normalized to being ubiquitous. And that seems to be the direction we're heading. Gamification. Tiered access. Implicit Data harvesting. Loyalty rewards or getting "ripped off" for opting out. Mundane corporate control and manipulation embedded in everyday consumerism. Next up: Daily deal lottery. Unlock new flavor packets.. Predicted craving "flash deals"

[fma]

Yeah...unlike before where you clip coupons from your mailer or newspaper for tiered access, monopoly pieces for gamification/deal lottery.

[dymk]

Gets normalized? This has been the norm for a very long time. Almost all the fast food chains have something like this.

[b112]

Indeed.

Which is why these coupons and deals aren't "McDonalds is actually still cheap!". Their non-coupon pricing has risen to absurd levels, and part of what made them tenable was their speed. They used to be basically instant, I'd drive through, or go in and have food in 2 minutes. (20 years ago)

And thus their coupon pricing is just as high, comparatively.

One should also bear in mind that a soda costs them under a penny, the straw costs more. And a bunch of cut up potatoes are barely pennies.

And now it can take 15 minutes to get food at some McDonalds, which is pure dumb. For their prices, I can get food in a real restaurant, and with their speed, a real burger just as fast now.

They are literally insanely expensive compared to 10/20 years ago, with much slower service, and less customer service.