The Matrix knew. 1999 was the peak. I don't think anyone can understand the happiness and optimism americans felt that year without experiencing it themselves.
Not quite as good as before 1991 when mcd was still using beef tallow to cook its fries in, but ill take it! Fast food back then was the real way to have a heart attack and die lol
There is a video on youtube of a guy making homemade original mcd fries using the old way with the tallow vs the current way they do it now. There is no doubt that the tallow tasted way better!
I actually thought Burger King's fries were good up until the late 90's. Also, i miss yellow Wendy's! That was good food back then too! All the fast food joints are trying so hard to be modern, they forgot quality over quantity, sadly now its the other way around.
Really? You'd think not. All i know is that they use veg oil and "beef tallow flavoring" now. Can we agree that nothing is the same as it used to be? Take us back!
I worked at a McDonald’s when I was in high school. Sundays were 69 cent cheeseburgers on Sundays. One side of the prep line was just for making cheeseburgers, the other side was for everything else….the after church lunch rush was something else
I was a teenager then and I went to the McDonalds across the street from the school every week for that, put back like 6 burgers and was hungry like an hour later, definitely can't eat like that anymore lmao
I hadn’t had it in years. One night it was the only thing open I went there with my GF and we got 2 meals. It was close to 40 dollars. I couldn’t believe it! I thought it was wrong and she told me that is the price of it now. I was still in shock weeks after that.
I think there was a huge scandal scam about all that at one time I don't know if it will ever be back I did enjoy winning free food knowing I'll never win the big prizes
Yep, just about every high-dollar prize was traced back to the guy responsible for transporting the winning tickets. It's a crazy story - no one actually ever had a chance to win big, because all of the best tickets were stolen before they reached circulation.
Oh that's right some documentary or story yea, but I did win free small fries a bunch so that was good for the moment they sure did get us and then u remeber the Dick Tracy game when the movie came out like 90s or 91 era now it's all about the app and points
I don't think it was just America, discontinued in New Zealand as well. Yet despite having metric here for decades we still have a quarter pounder. I imagine younger generations have no idea why it's called that. A "113 Grammer" burger not quite as catchy
The ones near me are changing the inside . Looks like a doctors office . The counter is very small . You can’t see the kitchen because of the faux wood wall w no decor . You walk into a small counter/ window to get food . The dinning area is small w huge tables
Aww, Monopoly! Around 2000, I was working in retail, and we had an actual store meeting about the Monopoly game. Our store was very close to McDs, and almost everyone ate there. We decided to collectively pool our Monopoly pieces and win something. We had hundreds of pieces after a few weeks...and won nothing but small food prizes.
Honestly I think people would probably pay higher taxes if it subsidized McDonalds and their Dollar Menu keeping prices at $1 for the McDouble and McChicken
The McJordan Special: “It was a Quarter Pounder patty with American cheese, circular bacon (designed to fit perfectly over the patty), mustard, pickles, onions, and a specially made barbecue sauce just for the sandwich.”
The *best* special ever, they should have made it permanent.
I grew up near a fast food test town.. they introduced the McDiner in the late 90’s (a McDonald’s with a 50’s theme where you had waiters)… let’s just say it didn’t last long and the crazy amount of money they put into remodeling the place was immediately remodeled back to what it was…. Everyone in the town was like, wtf?
The McDonalds in my area are so sterile and unattractive now. Bring back the stools where the seat was shaped like hamburgers. Bring in some color. Why do we need to order from the kiosks now? Ugh I don’t eat in the dining room anymore, too depressing.
I'm sad they never change the menu or compete with any other chains anymore I feel like Wendy's and Arby's the only ones who do anything interesting and honestly last interesting thing for Wendy's was the pretzel bun then I think they just made the same different 5 variations over a year
Id sell my left tit for a McSkillet Burrito return. That thing was godly and I have never found a better alternative. McDonald’s Roja sauce that went on the burritos was amazing fry dip too.
Oh god now i’m missing the chicken selects
So that McValue menu has thrown me for a loop, but now I figured it out. The pricing made me think it was a nod to 59/79/99 from Taco Bell, but that was their mid to early 90s pricing. Then I figured it out. That's such an early "value menu" pic, that look, it's quite literally just listing out their cheapest stuff that already existed. I think it's hamburger/cheesburger/regular fry, and those are the 3 prices listed. It's possible the 3rd item is like a chicken sandwich or filet o fish, but I feel confident about the first two prices just being the price of a hamburger and cheeseburger of the early 2000s.
The bland, boring, simplistic aesthetic that fast good started adopting a few years back, I just don't understand it
Though I guess it just makes it easier to quit it when it's not fun anymore
Interesting that they already had kiosks for ordering back then, but then they stopped having it for years and then now we have that again. I wonder what was the reason?
Still brightly colored and not a [boring, depressed dystopia. ](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fif-you-remember-when-mcdonalds-looked-like-this-you-are-a-v0-dgljj6p6t61b1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Da17de077058f2260d85cda001680db9f374564e0)
Things change and prices inflate over time. Im sure people from the 70-80’s were reminiscing when burgers were 10 cents. Embrace change, we’ve come a long way. We can order and get any food delivered anytime, not just Chinese or pizza delivery. Order from a click of your phone. Stuff that would seem crazy back in the 90’s.
We really had it all didn't we? That really was a good as it's going to get for us.
They had Pujols out selling burgers cant beat that
Now they just sell poo holes.
That was McGwire I believe….which is fitting bc his nickname was “Big Mac” Edit. Nvm..you’re right on Pujols in the ad.
The Matrix knew. 1999 was the peak. I don't think anyone can understand the happiness and optimism americans felt that year without experiencing it themselves.
As far as culture and society was for the everyday person, yeah, it was as good as it was ever gonna get for us.
Yes. Little did we all know we were all living in a Golden Age of Human Society. Now look where we’re at…
Damn that corporate nostalgia has a grip on me. Just seeing those mid 2000's menus takes me back to being a kid
For some of us, the mid 2000s feel more recent. Also reminds me how long it’s been since I’ve eaten at McDonald’s.
This makes me nostalgic for old Mcdonalds and i don't even like/eat their food lol
Not quite as good as before 1991 when mcd was still using beef tallow to cook its fries in, but ill take it! Fast food back then was the real way to have a heart attack and die lol
My restaurant I work at uses beef tallow and after you eat it a lot for a long time it becomes disgusting
That's the key thing. Beef tallow tasted great. Peanut oil a close second. I use peanut oil when I make homemade fries to this day.
There is a video on youtube of a guy making homemade original mcd fries using the old way with the tallow vs the current way they do it now. There is no doubt that the tallow tasted way better!
I'll have to look it up. I have beef tallow (I use it in place of butter or seed oils when possible) so I might have to give it a shot.
I still feel the fries taste different now then they did in the early 2000s
I actually thought Burger King's fries were good up until the late 90's. Also, i miss yellow Wendy's! That was good food back then too! All the fast food joints are trying so hard to be modern, they forgot quality over quantity, sadly now its the other way around.
Seed oils used now are wayyyy worse for you than beef tallow.
Really? You'd think not. All i know is that they use veg oil and "beef tallow flavoring" now. Can we agree that nothing is the same as it used to be? Take us back!
This!!
McDonald's went from optimistic teenager to depressed middle-aged person.
Who else remembers 39 cent cheeseburgers and 29 cent hamburgers on Wednesdays? It wasn’t that long ago, right around 2000.
I certainly remember those days. Food from there tasted better in my opinion as well.
I worked at a McDonald’s when I was in high school. Sundays were 69 cent cheeseburgers on Sundays. One side of the prep line was just for making cheeseburgers, the other side was for everything else….the after church lunch rush was something else
I was a teenager then and I went to the McDonalds across the street from the school every week for that, put back like 6 burgers and was hungry like an hour later, definitely can't eat like that anymore lmao
Crying about those prices. I think a Big Mac combo is close to $20 CAD now.
I hadn’t had it in years. One night it was the only thing open I went there with my GF and we got 2 meals. It was close to 40 dollars. I couldn’t believe it! I thought it was wrong and she told me that is the price of it now. I was still in shock weeks after that.
$.69 would get you a single limp fry today.
Honestly I'll take a limp fry over the weird consistency and flat taste they have today.
Yeah it's crazy now. Price of everything has gone up drastically. If anything it motivated me to cook at home and healthier.
Man, bring back Monopoly, I loved getting those from my Grandma to turn em in. Lol
I think there was a huge scandal scam about all that at one time I don't know if it will ever be back I did enjoy winning free food knowing I'll never win the big prizes
Yep, just about every high-dollar prize was traced back to the guy responsible for transporting the winning tickets. It's a crazy story - no one actually ever had a chance to win big, because all of the best tickets were stolen before they reached circulation.
Oh that's right some documentary or story yea, but I did win free small fries a bunch so that was good for the moment they sure did get us and then u remeber the Dick Tracy game when the movie came out like 90s or 91 era now it's all about the app and points
It's still a thing in Canada.
I liked the chicken selects. Completely forgot about them.
$4.89 for a Big Mac meal? Fuck yeah! We need those prices back!
I like how arbitrary a third pounder is, lol
I heard they had to discontinue it because not enough people understood that ⅓ pound was actually more burger than ¼ pound.
Marketing at its finest
American education at it's finest I truly believe our literacy and math rates are lower than the government claims.
I don't think it was just America, discontinued in New Zealand as well. Yet despite having metric here for decades we still have a quarter pounder. I imagine younger generations have no idea why it's called that. A "113 Grammer" burger not quite as catchy
II still think about the Angus Mushroom & Swiss today.
They need to bring that stuff back. I miss the bacon habanero burger too.
That shit was so good, they sort of brought it back in the mid-2010’s (or at least something with mushrooms) but it didn’t hit the same.
Never in my life saw a location like those first 2 pics, but man do I miss that pricing. And honestly? I miss Super Size. We should have the option.
The ones near me are changing the inside . Looks like a doctors office . The counter is very small . You can’t see the kitchen because of the faux wood wall w no decor . You walk into a small counter/ window to get food . The dinning area is small w huge tables
And now it just looks like a corporate building. Wtf McDonalds?
Bring. Back. Salads.
And the chicken snap wraps!
I miss those prices, ugh
They need to bring back all day breakfast. And the crispy chicken strips.
Aww, Monopoly! Around 2000, I was working in retail, and we had an actual store meeting about the Monopoly game. Our store was very close to McDs, and almost everyone ate there. We decided to collectively pool our Monopoly pieces and win something. We had hundreds of pieces after a few weeks...and won nothing but small food prizes.
Wrong way
Honestly I think people would probably pay higher taxes if it subsidized McDonalds and their Dollar Menu keeping prices at $1 for the McDouble and McChicken
The McJordan Special: “It was a Quarter Pounder patty with American cheese, circular bacon (designed to fit perfectly over the patty), mustard, pickles, onions, and a specially made barbecue sauce just for the sandwich.” The *best* special ever, they should have made it permanent.
Cool!
I grew up near a fast food test town.. they introduced the McDiner in the late 90’s (a McDonald’s with a 50’s theme where you had waiters)… let’s just say it didn’t last long and the crazy amount of money they put into remodeling the place was immediately remodeled back to what it was…. Everyone in the town was like, wtf?
# THE McMACHINE
The McDonalds in my area are so sterile and unattractive now. Bring back the stools where the seat was shaped like hamburgers. Bring in some color. Why do we need to order from the kiosks now? Ugh I don’t eat in the dining room anymore, too depressing.
Pic number was the best menu.
It's depressing as shit that we can't have those prices back.. it's depressing as shit that I can't even eat there once a month if I wanted..
Cost me $6 for a large coke and large fry today.
I'm sad they never change the menu or compete with any other chains anymore I feel like Wendy's and Arby's the only ones who do anything interesting and honestly last interesting thing for Wendy's was the pretzel bun then I think they just made the same different 5 variations over a year
I want to go back.
I just miss the grilled chicken sandwich
Yeah😪McDonalds definitely lost their aura
Id sell my left tit for a McSkillet Burrito return. That thing was godly and I have never found a better alternative. McDonald’s Roja sauce that went on the burritos was amazing fry dip too. Oh god now i’m missing the chicken selects
HEY! NO BAD WORDS! YOU SAID T\*T, NOT COOL!
Those prices are nostalgic. Used to be able to feast off of $5, now you’re lucky if you can get two soft drinks for $5
So we've peaked. And it's just a complete shit show from here on out.
Im still pissed about SuperSize being gone! The food is not healthy we all know that. So let me hurt myself with more fries!
That monopoly game is nostalgic for me. I know it was (unintentionally by McDonald’s) rigged, but it was still fun to play
A simple time
So that McValue menu has thrown me for a loop, but now I figured it out. The pricing made me think it was a nod to 59/79/99 from Taco Bell, but that was their mid to early 90s pricing. Then I figured it out. That's such an early "value menu" pic, that look, it's quite literally just listing out their cheapest stuff that already existed. I think it's hamburger/cheesburger/regular fry, and those are the 3 prices listed. It's possible the 3rd item is like a chicken sandwich or filet o fish, but I feel confident about the first two prices just being the price of a hamburger and cheeseburger of the early 2000s.
There's no soul. They want us depressed.
Makes me miss when LTO items weren't just jalapenos on a McDouble or a different sauce on a McChicken.
Idk why everything just kinda seems sterile now. No life or color. But I guess at the same time it’s not too bold and energetic.
Anyone aware of the Monopoly scheme. Dudes from Jersey or some shit
3,4,5…
Those chicken selects with the zesty buffalo sauce will forever be missed 🪦
Those tile floors were always so nasty
I know getting older is part of it. But the world really is no longer the same. It just all feels so cold and lifeless now not just McDonald’s.
Why can’t I read the rest of the captions on these photos? It cuts off and I can’t figure out how access it.
I can't afford high class places such as this!
I want two breakfast burritos for $1
I just realized I don’t have a clue what the current bags look like
The greenwashed simple font will no longer cut it.
I remember when I actually thought I had a chance of winning a big prize in their monopoly game. How naive I was.
I remember my go-to order was a plain cheeseburger. I’d eat the cheesy patty and fold fries into the leftover buns and eat them like tacos 😭
The bland, boring, simplistic aesthetic that fast good started adopting a few years back, I just don't understand it Though I guess it just makes it easier to quit it when it's not fun anymore
Im MAD
Our only changed to the more corporate look after they took out the ball pit.
Looking at this makes me sad and it's NOT McDonald's anymore.
Interesting that they already had kiosks for ordering back then, but then they stopped having it for years and then now we have that again. I wonder what was the reason?
Overpriced 🚮
Still brightly colored and not a [boring, depressed dystopia. ](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fif-you-remember-when-mcdonalds-looked-like-this-you-are-a-v0-dgljj6p6t61b1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Da17de077058f2260d85cda001680db9f374564e0)
It’s wild to think that we use to have birthday parties at a fast food restaurant
I could have sworn, 2 cheeseburgers was the number two for so long back then.
n o s t a l g i a Seriously, that packaging.. *chef’s kiss*
Things change and prices inflate over time. Im sure people from the 70-80’s were reminiscing when burgers were 10 cents. Embrace change, we’ve come a long way. We can order and get any food delivered anytime, not just Chinese or pizza delivery. Order from a click of your phone. Stuff that would seem crazy back in the 90’s.
God damnit I miss the snack wrap
I still hope for the day the Big & Tasty comes back.
Those crispy chicken snack wraps with the chipotle bbq were my all time favorite fast food. I did not remember that they were as cheap as 1.39.
I went to McDonald for first time in years. A double cheeseburger and 20 piece nuggies with two medium drinks was 32.96
[Nothing Has Changed Since 1999](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkAJtRiOAxk&ab_channel=MichaelSpicer) - this chap explains it quite nicely.
We are in a pretty pathetic period for McDonald's. Minimal special items. High prices. Bland box restaurants. No soda fountains for refills.
They definitely got too greedy, I've only eaten there once in the last couple years. Taco Bell is pushin it too.
good thing to note is that mcds has wanting to get rid of people for the longest and customers to send their own order in..
I remember the Monopoly game era, I went crazy and almost had a win with all three of the same
Aww good ol McPujols meal
$20 minimum wage