Item the first: McDonalds french fry supplier, Lamb Weston, is closing their plant in Washington due to financial losses. People are apparently eating fewer fries, substituting smaller sizes to save money.
Item B: McDonald’s is suing Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef Packing Company, accusing them of colluding to inflate beef prices.
I have no comment. I may have lunch at a McDonalds once a month or so.
Let nobody threaten the sanctity of the American hamburger.
How do you know that’s the reason?
That’s what the article says, or speculates. Fast food prices are too high, so people order smaller fries. They don’t make them at home enough to matter to Lamb Weston’s bottom line. McDonalds represents 13% of their business.
In terms of quantity or profit?
If quantity that’s a metric tonnage of fries going elsewhere.
Who would that volume be going to?
Sales.
And, in the news article to which you linked in your last post:
I still eat at McDonald’s every so often.
Back when I returned from a year overseas in Korea my first meal was at McDonald’s. Big Mac, order of fries, and a chocolate shake. I’d gotten gift cards for Christmas and returned in late March with them burning a hole in my pocket. Korea at the time didn’t have many Western fast food outlets as at that time they weren’t signatory to some of the international copyright laws. The only one I saw was a KFC in Seoul.
I think fries are a high margin item for places like McDonalds. By far my favorite fast-food fry and they know it. I buy potatoes at home and know they are dirt cheap and McDonalds are getting them a lot cheaper than I am. If we go somewhere like 5-Guys their fries are STUPID expensive!
I think they are finding consumer limits. It’s just too expensive now for what it is. Especially since wages have not kept pace. When I go to McDonalds and a Big Mac and fries costs me $12 that’s too much. I can get much better food for about the same price or only a little more at other places/
A large fry costs $4 at McDonald’s these days, for maybe 25 cents worth of potatoes, oil, and salt. Is it any wonder people are ordering smaller sizes?
(Order on the app, though, and they’ve got a coupon you can use once every day for a FREE large fry with the purchase of a small soda for $1. Someone with an economics degree please explain this to me.)
There was no article posted when I asked that question. It could be people ordering smaller portions or people not getting fries at all because tastes are changing.
We have a local burger chain in the Little Rock area that offers endless fries with their meals. Come to think of it, when I order fries at most sit down restaurants I get an over abundance of them. These days I rarely eat all the fries on my plate, so I can’t help but think you’re right about them being a high profit margin product just like soda pop. I’ve cut back on eating out at fast food places because of the prices. Even Taco Bell, the gold standard for cheap fast food, is pricey these days.
“We’ll make it up with the volume!”
They’re just trying to get people used to using the APP to order. As you said, it cost them .30 cents for the fries and maybe .15 cents for the drink? They’re still making a profit and getting you used to using the APP and buying from them.
And, I imagine that very few customers are only going to order the small drink and the free fries; they’re going to also order a sandwich or nuggets or something, and that’ll be at full price (because it’s unbundled from one of their usual combo meals).
And it gets you in EVERY day. 
So you’re still paying, what $2-3 for the soda with the $1 fries, lots of small profit, minimal employee effort and time with no sandwich, and lots of turnover. Not to mention @kenobi_65’s point about you wander in for your “deal” but are hungry for more and order something else which adds up.
Lastly, they get all your ordering habits, and tailor their offers to you, as well as endless advertising from the app for those “little” add-ons you could have.
I recently read (like a day ago) that it is much better to order a double cheeseburger at McDonalds than a Big Mac. You can ask for the Big Mac preparation (no extra cost) for the cheeseburger and the only difference is one less slice of cheese. Apparently that is a fair bit less expensive.
I have not tried it though so, YMMV.
As a data point, I don’t think I’ve ordered their fries or meal in at least ten years. For the kids, I’ll get it in the happy meal. But that’s it. It’s just not worth it.
Whenever I see those types of promos, I’ve assumed the idea is to get you to download the app, set up an account and save a payment method. That way, next time you want food, you’ve already got their app, on your phone, ready to go. You don’t even have to dig your credit card out of your pocket.
The Big Mac also has an extra middle piece of bread. It’s like a club sandwich. When I worked at McD’s the three pieces of bread were called (from top to bottom) the crown, the club and the heel. The crown in the Big Mac is bigger and has sesame seeds. It’s the Big Mac that has one slice of cheese, the double cheese burger has two. (It seems like we are disagreeing a lot today for some reason)
Here in Santa Barbara. one of the few places that I can get food on the way home from seeing live music and it’s late is a McD’s and I almost always order the same thing and I always use the app. I don’t even pay attention to the specials but apparently I have 33k of their points. I should see what I can get with those.