Skeptic Project

My Response NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2011/01/mcdonalds-4q-profit-up-on-strong-global-sales.html</p>

McDonald’s likely to hike prices as costs rise
By Emily Bryson York
Posted Monday at 12:05 p.m.

McDonald’s Corp. will raise prices in the U.S. this year to combat rising commodity costs, the company said in its fourth-quarter earnings call Monday morning.

The Oak Brook-based burger chain estimates that ingredient costs will rise 2 percent to 2.5 percent, with some of those costs passed on to consumers.

“As commodity and other cost pressures become more pronounced as we move throughout the year, we will likely increase prices to offset some, but not necessarily all, of these cost increases,” McDonald’s chief financial officer Pete Bensen said on the call.

He added that “growing traffic and market share has been a key to our success” in recent years, so the company will seek to balance a need for “strong traffic momentum with any strategic pricing moves.”

The company estimates the level of increases its customers can bear by looking at pricing at restaurants and grocery stores, as well as other factors, including inflation. Using this formula, chief operating officer Don Thompson said the company did not raise prices in the U.S. in 2010 because grocery prices increased an average of 0.2 percent, which McDonald’s read as a sign that customers would revolt against higher prices at its restaurants.
So, Bensen said, the company grew same-store sales and operating margins by increasing traffic. Average check amounts declined, however, as the popularity of items such as smoothies and frappes increased the number of single-item sales. This year, McDonald’s plans to build its business through price and traffic increases.

Talk of price hikes came as the company reported its fourth-quarter profit grew 2 percent, to $1.24 billion, as global same-store sales increased 5 percent, including a 4.4 percent increase in the United States. Earnings per share also increased, 5 percent, to $1.16.

“During 2010, we continued our efforts toward becoming our customers’ favorite place and way to eat and drink … and customers rewarded us by visiting our restaurants more often,” McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner said in a statement. “As a result, we generated strong sales and delivered profitable market share growth.”

For the year, the chain, which serves 62 million customers each day, said same-store sales grew 5 percent, with growth in every segment during each quarter. Net income grew 6 percent, to $22.08 billion.

Full-year results were in line with expectations.

For the company’s performance in the U.S., which continues to outpace that of the restaurant industry, McDonald’s cited chicken nuggets, the McRib sandwich and efforts to build brand loyalty, through the Monopoly promotion, and the caramel mocha, now part of the chain’s McCafe line of beverages.

France and Russia were cited as key growth drivers in Europe, and Japan, Australia and China led the company’s Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region.

The company added that McDonald’s is off to a strong start in 2011, with global same store sales growth expected between 4 percent and 5 percent.

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Don't care, it will still be cheap.

Vegans always have to lie in order to push their ideology.

Veggies are good for yah, but they aren't the end all, be all.

Will too much of McDonald's hurt? Sure, just as much as too much of everything else as well.

What DragonStar said. It's no secret that McDonald's isn't good for you. That ad sounds like it's really stretching the truth. Of course too much will eventually kill you, but we know it's bad! This is one of the big problems I had with Super Size Me. That guy definitely had balls to do what he did, but he was really basically proving something that's common knowledge.

"Bacon is good for me!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T_obaO46Bo

his kid doesn't like a strange woman taking away his bacon!
Viewers should also pause at 00:32

This is from an episode of the show "Wife Swap" on ABC (season 5, episode 18)

Here's what he says between 0:57 - 1:05 :

"I had a very calm day till this. A little bump in the road comes and she wants to be ("she bes") sarcastic!"
(thanks Patemjo, ditzyxbeans and
asschilee)

Join the facebook-group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126037219823

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4088

There is nothing honest about Super Size Me.

Nothing. Spurlock is a lying piece of shit. There's no shortage of information available online that shows exactly what kind of person he is.

Well, Matt, I can't find anything credible to support my claim. You can.

Therefore, I am wrong, and now I know to really look at any source before I link it. I should have before, but oh well.

Cool, glad to hear it.

The anti-McDonalds rhetoric that everyone hears is really anti-corporate rhetoric. It has nothing whatsoever to do with nutrition. Certain people have an ideological axe to grind and they will do so at the expense of factual accuracy. Spurlock is one of them.

FAST FOOD IS BAD is just an easy position to get behind, I wouldn't sweat it too much.

It's practically "common sense"

It's also common sense that I'll gain weight if I eat 5000 calories' worth of vegetables and healthily cooked meat and not exercise at all.

(sigh) Guess I got to add Super Size Me to "Things I used to like, but now fucking hate and feel odd when someone else says they do."

I'LL STEAM AS MANY CRABS AS I WANT TO EAT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Any thoughts on the recent bullshit with Taco Bell? Oh no ground beef and oatmeal, i might as well be eating meatloaf!

The taste in McDonalds has lowered in quality because anti-corporate groups badgered them relentlessly until McDonalds agreed to use a leaner cut of beef. Now those same anti-corporate groups badger McDonalds relentlessly because the quality of taste in their burgers has gone down.

That's why there's a difference in taste.