McDonald’s is fighting back against viral tweets and media reports that it says have exaggerated its price increases.

In a post on the company’s website Wednesday, McDonald’s U.S. President Joe Erlinger said reports suggesting the price of the average Big Mac has doubled since 2019 were false. McDonald’s said the average U.S. Big Mac was $4.39 in 2019 and now costs $5.29, a 20.5% increase.

Erlinger acknowledged that he and many franchisees were frustrated by a post on X last summer about a Big Mac meal in Connecticut that cost $18, calling the price “an exception.

McDonald’s saw a marked slowdown in store traffic in the first three months of this year as inflation-weary customers in the U.S. and other big markets ate out less often.

“It’s clear that we — together with our franchisees — must remain laser-focused on value and affordability, Erlinger said.

  • EchEnglish
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    A situation specifically engineered to get people downloading their app and forking over tracking data.

    • EndlessApolloEnglish
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      And waiving their rights to join a class action lawsuit against McDonald’s, don’t forget that :D

    • Railcar8095
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      Shelter or Island if you use Android. Let’s you install the apps in a separate profile, and have them effectively disabled when not in use.

      • EchEnglish
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        Ooh, that’s good to know about. I’ve been meaning to look into ways to do just that for a while now. Thanks!

    • ki77erb
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      Exactly. I guess at this point, I’m ok with some certain datapoints being collected. Mostly what they’ll get from me is that I occasionally like a Sausage Egg McMuffin on my way to work. lol

        • ki77erb
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          You can limit when an app is allowed to access your location in Android. But I’m guessing it’s used for finding the nearest restaurant to do mobile orders.

        • ki77erb
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          Location, Camera/photos, ( I assume for something like QR scanning), notification, audio.