Chickenjoy Is Getting Smaller and Your Receipt Is Getting Longer
Jollibee and McDonald's have been quietly raising prices while portions shrink. The combo meal that fed you through college now eats up a real chunk of a day's wage.
By Carlo Cruz
The one-piece Chickenjoy with rice and drink used to be the meal you ordered without checking the price. Now you check. And then you check again, because it went up since the last time you were there.
Jollibee, McDonald's, KFC, and Mang Inasal have all been nudging menu prices upward over the last few years. No announcements. No explainer posts. Just a new number on the menu board that you only notice if you remember the old one.
The math nobody writes down
A Chickenjoy solo with rice costs noticeably more than it did before the pandemic. Same with a Chicken McDo meal. Same with a McSpicy. Ask anyone who used to buy these things on a student budget and they will tell you the same thing: the number on the receipt has moved, and it keeps moving.
Minimum wage in NCR has crawled upward in the same period, but not at the same pace as the combo meal. A fast food value meal that used to be a snack-level transaction is now a decision. You think about whether to add the drink. You think about whether you even need the rice.
The chicken itself is visibly smaller. Go look at old photos on your camera roll. The drumstick that used to hang off the plate now fits neatly on it. Long-time customers have been posting side-by-side comparisons for months. The chains don't confirm it, and you don't have a receipt from 2019 to argue with.
Shrinkflation has a Filipino accent
This is happening everywhere in the world. What makes it sting here is that fast food in the Philippines was never just fast food. Jollibee is where you ate after your graduation. It's the merienda your tito buys after fetching you from school. It's the thing OFW parents bring their kids to on the first day of vacation. Pricing it out of reach hits differently.
The chains will point to input costs. Chicken feed is expensive. Cooking oil is expensive. Wages went up. Power is expensive. All of this is true. It is also true that the largest chains have continued aggressive store expansion in and outside the country, which is not what a company in distress usually does. The margins are being defended.
What you're actually paying for
The value meal is a product. The brand is a product. The nostalgia is a product. Every so often, the chains test how much more they can charge before you stop coming. So far, you keep coming. You just come less often, or you share a meal, or you downgrade to the burger steak, or you skip the drink.
The loyalty apps are part of the pricing strategy. The coupons, the birthday treats, the app-only deals, the 1-peso add-ons. They exist so you feel like you got a deal on a meal that used to cost much less without any deal at all.
The Chickenjoy is smaller. The rice cup is smaller. The price is bigger. Your paycheck did not move. The combo that fed you through college now takes a real bite out of a day's wage, and next quarter it will take a little more.
