PEOPLE – Before the Happy Meal, before the McChicken and before Grimace was ever introduced, Barbara Cramer has been making customers smile as an employee at McDonald’s.
Earlier this week, and 53 years after she first joined the fast food establishment in 1970, the longtime McDonald’s worker was celebrated by her peers at the Fort Pierce, Florida, location where she works.
When asked what the moment meant to her, Cramer, 75, told WPTV News: “Everything,”
“I just love it here,” she added to the outlet.
The longtime employee and “McLegend,” as she’s been referred to by those who know her, told WPTV News that the restaurant first offered her a position in 1970.
“I just applied for the school board, and then the next day I applied here at this store, and they called me first. So I came here, and I winded up working my way up.”
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Since then, she’s spent much of her tenure at a U.S. Highway 1 location, as well as others in Florida, the outlet reported …
Fast food isn’t cheap anymore; McDonald’s prices have jumped 10% each year since 2022.
Nancy Luna Nov 27, 2023
Insider Today – Inflation may be slowing, but when it comes to skyrocketing fast-food prices, the damage is done — and there’s no turning back.
“Inflation has broken the levy wall of low prices at QSRs,” said the restaurant consultant Tim Powell, referencing the industry term for “quick-service restaurants.”
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Over the past two years, chains such as McDonald’s, Chipotle, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks have raised menu prices to combat high commodity costs and wages. Fast food, long known as one of the cheapest ways to eat, no longer feels affordable to many diners.
New federal data released earlier this month shows inflation is slowing, with consumer prices leveling. Retailers expect to offer deep discounts for the holidays, but restaurant prices remain on the uptick, especially at fast-food chains. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that fast-food prices in October jumped 6.2% over the past 12 months.
Expect the sticker shock at your local fast-food joint to continue.
Once chains boost menu prices, they “never lower prices,” Mark Kalinowski, a veteran restaurant analyst, told Business Insider … READ MORE.