8mo ago

Americans are choking on surging fast-food prices. "I can't justify the expense," one customer says

www.cbsnews.com Americans are choking on surging fast-food prices. "I can't justify the expense," one customer says

The price of a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal has more than doubled since 2014, data show.

Kevin Roberts remembers when he could get a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a drink from Five Guys for $10. But that was years ago. When the Virginia high school teacher recently visited the fast-food chain, the food alone without a beverage cost double that amount.

Roberts, 38, now only gets fast food "as a rare treat," he told CBS MoneyWatch. "Nothing has made me cook at home more than fast-food prices."

Roberts is hardly alone. Many consumers are expressing frustration at the surge in fast-food prices, which are starting to scare off budget-conscious customers.

A January poll by consulting firm Revenue Management Solutions found that about 25% of people who make under $50,000 were cutting back on fast food, pointing to cost as a concern.

416 comments

If you can eat at a nicer place for the same amount of money, why would you eat at McDonald’s?
- I would rather spend that money on a local burger joint. Give me a single named joint with a generic paper bag with grease stains on the outside.
  
  Unfortunately, so many local burger joints have a "flagship" burger featuring a Sysco patty, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onion for $17, sides extra.
- Convenience and familiarity, mostly. If you go to a McDonalds you know exactly what you'll get and you'll be able to get it pretty quick.
  
  Name one burger joint that doesn't have exactly what mcds has and more...this comment is laughable.
  People eat at McDonald's because of marketing.
  
  If you go to a McDonalds you know exactly what you’ll get
  A poorly put together "meal" that very likely has been sitting under a heater for a length of time unless you went there when it was busy. And if it was busy, the chance for mistake is high and it's going to be sloppily put together. What so you can save a few minutes? Most places do take-away... so you call them, place an order, pick it up. No sitting 10-20 minutes in drive-thru. And you got more food, better food, for the exact same price and you probably got it faster on take-out. And dining in... you wait a few minutes... how do you not have a few minutes?
  And who actually cares about familiarity? That's either saying, you go to that one place way to much and your food choices are predictable and boring. Or you're highly susceptible to advertising. And really, those two things aren't mutually exclusive.
- Obvious food quality and health issues aside, I know some are still boycotting McDonald’s for providing free meals to the IDF. They also exploit forced prison labor to drive profits.
  https://truthout.org/articles/major-brands-like-mcdonalds-kroger-and-coca-cola-linked-to-forced-prison-labor/
- Seriously. For the same price as McD's I can go to In-n-Out. That's just comparing fast food places. For the price they're charging for a Quarter Pounder I may as well go to a sit-down restaurant.
- Speed, for one. If I'm traveling across the country and I just want to eat and get back on the road, or even if I just need some breakfast before work, it's a lot faster.
  
  My go to for this stuff now is truck stops. They'll usually have a fast food restaurant in them but also healthier options for snacks and meals
- That nicer place is probably at home. Not that there's anything wrong with it. But I think all fast food chains raised prices? At least here in Europe it's not like McDonald's is somehow standing out as more expensive. Worse, yes. But that was always the case
  
  You're failing to realize that the issue here is that it went from basically the cheapest food you could buy to more expensive than cooking at home is the issue here.
  Millions of people grew up eating this crap cuz it was cheap. Now that it's as expensive as other better options people are starting to realize it isn't cheap anymore.
- Yeah I can get a better burger/fry combo from a local restaurant that uses high quality ingredients and cares about having my business. There’s no reason to pay the same for low quality junk from a fast food chain.
- Addicted to the absurdly high amount of sugars and preservatives most likely.
- If you're in a hurry mostly.
- Yeah I can get a better burger & fry lunch from a local place that uses better ingredients and actually values my business. There’s no reason for me to pay the same price for low quality junk and worse service from shitty fast food chains.

Not only have the prices become absurd, the quality control has gone to crap.
For years we've taken regular road trips and use to stop at fast food places every single time. In the past 3 years we've repeatedly been served triple salted food, awful sub sandwiches, "cheese" burgers missing the cheese and condiments, and cold burger patties so old and dry they couldn't be choked down. When you factor in the amount of waste due to the lousy food, the actual prices are way higher than what's shown on the menu.
The ridiculous prices and regular bad experiences pushed us to a tipping point and we now find a grocery store along the way for deli sandwiches. It usually only adds about 5 minutes to the trip. Not only are the prices about 30% less but the food is consistently edible which makes the real price probably 1/2 of fast food places.
This is something we wouldn't have taken he time to do a few years ago, so for us there's been a big upside to the absurd prices and lousy food. We're permanently changed our habits and cut fast food out of our diet completely. We are now spending less and getting consistently better quality, healthier food.
Maybe we should send "thank you" notes to the various fast food corporate headquarters.
- You can't pay your employees poverty wages and expect them to care about quality.
  It has to hurt for the people who spend their hard earned money on a night off from cooking by ordering out at McDonald's, but it's a lesson we all learn the hard way.
  
  it's very hard to give a shit when you're making a meal that costs $15 in 30 seconds when you make maybe $9/hr. the math is so plainly unfair and it's right in front of you all day
  
  If you're selling a product that you can't produce by paying employees a lousy wage, you have to pay what's needed to produce a salable product. This is the way business works everywhere and is true for both skilled and unskilled labor.
  These companies have radically increased their prices while allowing the products produced to go to shit, and their customers are doing what customers always do when faced with crappy products and high prices. We're going elsewhere.
- I usually go to the salad bar of my grocery store and pickup a salad with no protein or dressing, then go to the dressing isle and buy a bottle of the dressing of my choice, finally go to the deli and pickup a cooked chicken. At home I shred the chicken and store it in a container and every day after I just stop buy the salad bar and pickup a hefty salad for $5, add a bit of my shredded chicken and dressing with gusto.
  Best lunch ever.
- After trying a few grocery store deli sandwiches, I will avoid fast food sandwich shops unless there's simply nothing else available. The deli is there to get you in the store to spend money. They don't have as much of a financial incentive to skimp on the ingredients. It wasn't uncommon for me to get a sandwich so stuffed I couldn't close it
- This is a really good idea!

Death of fast food is a treat we can all look forward to. Keep raising those prices geniuses!
- I'm seeing more local places popping up. I'm happy with that. $15 for a big Mac meal or $15 for the Chicken tikka masala? I'll take the big Mac, said no one.
  
  Full dinner for my family of 4 at McD's us $65.
  Full dinner at my locally owned restaurant that offers takeout plus lunch the next day from leftovers - $70.
  
  Same here, but the reason this doesn't work is because a bic Mac meal doesn't cost $15. It's more like $10 or even lower with deals. If you are on a budget and have no time to cook, I can see how the cheaper option can still sway the decision. For me, it's lower than that and will settle for Wendy's 4 for 5. At $5 bucks, it's absolutely worth it every now and then when I just want something cheap and quick.
- It's not just fast food unfortunately. Sit down restaurants, even mom and pop ones are through the roof in pricing as well. Even groceries to cook at home are crazy these days with the pricing

Used to be that people went to fast food because it was good, fast, and cheap.
These guys running the show have managed to reverse all three of those points. Now fast food is shit, slow, and expensive. It's honestly amazing that people put up with it as long as they did.
- The size of the patties are ridiculous.
  They're smaller than the pickles now.
  https://www.tiktok.com/@mookey54_/video/7367775183572143402
- good
  highly debatable...

That's pure greed at this point...Jimmy John's is still well in an affordable range. As a rule, I tend to avoid buying food from places with surge pricing as fast food is supposed to be affordable! It's not fine dining and as a result should be priced appropriately; they've forgotten their role in the food space and thus their business will live or die based on future choices.
- Jimmy John’s
  Yeah, but their owner is a big trump fan, and for some inexplicable reason he's paying Rudy Giuliani 's legal bills...
  Their subs are decent tho and probably cheaper than subway at this point.
  Man, subway actually used to be decent too. $5 for a foot long is pretty much what it was worth. And if you knew what you were doing it could have been relatively healthy.
  I haven't been in probably a decade now. But sometimes I still get JJ's. Just wanted to mention that like a lot of big chains, we really shouldn't be giving them a lot of money.
  
  Sucks to hear that but thank you the info.
  
  If you order online, Subway always has a coupon to get footlongs for ~$7, which is about $5 from 2010 adjusted for inflation. They have a lot of perpetual coupons that they rotate the codes on about once per month, but there's always an up-to-date list on the subway subreddit.
- if base food prices really make the old fast food economics nonviable, I expect the space to die off and be replaced by fast causal. otherwise I expect a lot of them to die on their own greed and the rest to get with it. it seems the fast food space is going all in on drive-thrus so maybe that's their future niche?
  
  That’s just it, we can see the finances of McDonald’s, and they could definitely make their burgers quite a bit cheaper if they wanted to. But they keep wages low and prices high because it allows them to make massive profits.
  Which is stupid to do in the long run, because a nice restaurant is the same price or slightly higher. But all the stockholders are concerned about is quarterly profits, not long term ones. Capitalism is remarkably short sighted.
  
  Fast food has been all in on drive thrus since the inception of drive thrus. Most places make about half of their money that way and for some it's far more.
- We got JJ's a couple weeks ago. 3 sandwiches and 3 cookies was over $50. That was not worth anywhere near that much.
  
  Yikes! On average (as a single dude) it’s around 19 and some change for delivery. In store I end up paying around 13 dollars! For more than one person, it’s better to eat at a proper sit down restaurant.
- Surprised to hear this. Where im at Jimmy John's is the most expensive. I wonder if it's supply chain related.
  
  I wonder about that, it could be they simply feel that’s a price people will pay there! Honestly, if I get a sandwich, chips, and a cookie for delivery it’s around 19 and some change. If I buy in store it’s around 13 dollars.
  In addition to my original comment, I totally forgot about Culver’s which would actually be the cheapest; Their value combo is less than 10 dollars and mighty tasty! I visit both places as they are lighter on my bank account.
- Fast food was affordable because they paid sweat shop wages. That’s not the case anymore. In any event.. I would argue with the “supposed to be” affordable comment. Just because it was doesn’t mean it’s supposed to be. As far as I’m concerned this can only be good for the health of the public- when fast food prices are at least comparable in price to healthy options.
  Edit: lol at all the people comparing the US to Nordic countries. Apparently they think US franchise owners are the same as those in countries where making a profit is akin to a sin. Hahaha. They thought by raising wages, owners would cut into their own bottom lines. “Bruh, in countries where mcmansions don’t happen, this isn’t a problem.” Net profits have not gone up at all compared with the rest of the economy.
  And apparently people really like their cheap big macs. Eat something else? And I’m sure many of them were arguing for livable wages over the past five years (I was). This outrage is hilarious.
  Edit 2: Apparently people don’t know what “gross” means. If my costs go up, then my prices go up.. and my gross returns go up to cover both the costs (expenses) and net proceeds. I’m at a complete loss at the nature of these arguments.
  McDonald’s NET growth from end of 2009 to 2023 was 4.56 B to 8.47B. A 186% increase. This is roughly a 5% annualized increase. I intentionally sought pre/post COVID numbers for a reason.
  In this same time the US GDP grew from 14.47B to 27.35B. Almost the exact same rate of growth at a 189% increase.
  Net profits are what you’re concerned with in your arguments when accounting for greed.. not gross. If anything, I’ve shown McDonalds is making less money today. But you know, feels are more important than facts.
  
  My guy, it's cheaper to get a big mac in Norway than in the US and their lowest wages are more than double ours in the US.
  
  I won't believe paying fast workers a liveable wage necessitates the rise in cost unless there's hard data behind that. Sure, it's likely a necessity to continue profit growth quarter after quarter, but I'd wager they're able to continue making massive profits even with having to pay their staff like they're humans.
  I agree with you about fast food though. We'll be better off without them. Fuck em.
  Hey, I can edit too: You never said gross prior to your edit, you were talking about consumer costs. I'm still not yet a believer, but I Iove you :)
  
  Bruh, McDonald's exists in other countries...
  A big Mac in the Nordic countries costs like a dollar more than America, and their workers get the equivalent of like $20 some an hour, paid vacation time, and the company actually has to pay taxes.
  It ain't the labor that's expensive.
  It's not the ingredients either.
  It's the profit rate to keep shareholders happy
  If that arrow always has to go up, it's the one thing that's literally impossible to ever go down.
  
  McDonald’s in Europe charges similar prices to America but pays living wages to their employees.
  
  Fast food was affordable because they paid sweat shop wages. That’s not the case anymore.
  McDonalds gross profits are $14.68B over the last 12 months with over 9% year-over-year growth.
  They aren't struggling and other than covid (which just held steady for a few years at $10B), the trend has been going up, not down, not stagnant for many years.
  Remember that's gross profits. If wages were hitting them hard, then we'd see the trend decrease but that isn't what happened or is happening.
  
  They thought by raising wages, owners would cut into their own bottom lines.
  I don't think anyone actually thought that.
  They're simply making the point that the problem is not the wages paid to the employees, as you imply, but the obscene salaries paid to executives and franchisees.
  That the American execurives and franchisees are not going to take the necessary steps to correct that problem pretty much goes without saying, but that doesn't in any way change the fact that that is the problem
  
  2023, McDonald's net income $8.5B on $25B revenue, or 34% net profit margin.
  2009 net income $4.5B on $23B revenue. 20% profit margin.
  Over the time period that you picked, their profits - the money that they don't pay to either workers or farmers - nearly doubled as revenues barely changed.
  
  Fast food absolutely still pays well below a living wage in most of the US

Hey McDonald's.
This isn't reddit so you probably won't see this.
Hashbrowns cost $1. Figure it out. Not here to haggle.
Also can someone sue these MFS giving deals through apps? Like "sorry homeless guy pan-handling out front, medium fry is only free if you have a $200 phone! Sucks to suck." How is that ok?
- Jack in the Box still has 2 tacos for $0.99... if you order through the app. If you don't use the app, they're over $2. Those tacos aren't worth it.
- I have vague memories of there being a law that you're supposed to just be able to ask the cashier to apply any discounts you know about at the cash register?
  
  This is absolutely not real. I mean just think about it for a second.
- Hashbrowns from McD is $2.19 here lol. I stopped buying them long time ago.
- Hash browns used to be $.90 ea or 2 for $1.
- The apps are fucking awesome though.
  I literally get free burgers with no purchase required regularly at the moment thanks to a fast food app.
  
  I'm surprised to see all the replies about the McDonalds app and how its actually a great deal.
  Most companies are doing this now, and giving free food regularly as an incentive to keep using it.
  Why would these companies spend money to keep us using the app, and keep it installed?
  The truth is, they make far more off selling your data then they spend giving away food periodically. Look at the permissions the app needs under the guise of "making it easy to tell when you are near a McDonalds so we can start cooking your food!".
  Lemmy is supposed to be better about privacy and such than this.
- All big companies are keeping tabs on socials, incl. Lemmy. You think you're special for using Lemmy? 🤪
  
  There's not enough of us for any movement here to make their stock price move.
  They don't care. It would be a bad use of their resources.
  They will eventually, but they don't.

I was running between work and meeting friends for drinks last week. Lost track of time and it got past 10pm. On the way home, saw a Burger King drive-in. Haven't had fast food in years (we eat at home a lot). What the hell.
Two discoveries:
A small Whopper meal was over $15!
My stomach didn't appreciate it all night and most of the next day.
For that kind of money, you can do much better. Lesson learned.
- I've got a couple of sealed packs of peanuts in the glove box.
  
  Almonds also work really well for an emergency snack.
  I also keep a few packs of Poptarts in case my kids lose their minds.

Overdramatic headlines to try to make this more exotic and mysterious than the reality - YOU GREEDY FUCKS HAVE INTENTIONALLY TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF EVERYONE SINCE THE PANDEMIC STARTED. It was never acceptable and you finally pushed fast enough to even upset the wealthy and those who spend outside their means.
You are all broken humans. You chase endless growth without purpose, you are a disease.
- News headlines gonna be like "millenials are bankrupting an American institution, the fast food industry"
  
  They need to make up their mind whether they want us on this or the avocado toast
- In 2024, pointing out that costs have been down for a couple years now and increased pricing is just greed makes you a dirty communist, even to liberals.
  They can fly their little pride flag but it turns out there's only one class they'll REALLY go to bat for and its the owner class.

tHe MaRkEt WiLl ReGuLaTe ItSelF! Okay sure, for the most profit without regard for the consumer. Corporations need a heavy hand.

All of the megacorps are raising prices because they know consumers cannot do anything about it.
Meanwhile, wages can't keep pace with inflation because, "tHaT wOuLd MaKe ThE pRoBlEm WoRsE" Yes it would, but only allowing huge corporations to do that shit makes the class disparity worse and not allowing individuals to match is boiling a frog in water.
- The thing about boiling the frog in water is that eventually the frog jumps or dies.
  Eventually the minor quantitive shifts will result in a sudden and drastic qualitative change.
- The only good thing about this is now farm fresh food is about the same as grocery store prices. So now i can better justify shopping local :)
- We’d all do better to let this help us kick the fast food habit
- Sounds like Kevin Roberts did something about it.
- Yup, and all the politicians playing make-believe and making a big show of scratching their heads like they just don't understand what's causing inflation has just emboldened them. We're still living with the price gouging from the pandemic.
  I'm surprised they're not still trying to claim it's from the stimulus checks lol.

The ridiculous part of this is that fast food is already subsidized by cheap corn, soy and dairy so their customers are getting screwed at both ends. I'm guessing we'll see record fast food profits soon if we haven't already.
- Don't forget the beef subsidies, too!
  Per a 2015 Berkeley study, witjouy the beef and dairy subsidies, a Big Mac would cost $13 and a pound of beef would cost $30. Obviously both would be more now since inflation has raised prices by about 1/3 across the board and food prices have definitely grown faster than the average.
  
  Right, and beef is in turn subsidized by corn and soy subsidies as cheap feed - plus whatever industrial surplus feed they can find, like Skittles, which are subsided again via corn.
- I wish we'd end corn subsidies.. They put it in everything. Just move those subsidies to hemp so people can have real sugar. Hemp would be there much better crop to subsidize since it does everything.
  
  Ah, but you see - the proles might find a way to get high using hemp and that would hurt productivity. Better to drown them in corn syrup and obese corn fed factory farmed animals, then we can sell them diabetes medications and end of life care too.
  
  Not only does it do everything, it captures carbon better than any other plant. It's so effective at it, that one harvest of one acre of hemp removes almost 10 times the carbon that one acre of trees would capture. Thing is that hemp does that in 3 months allowing 4 harvests per year, while trees take 150 years on average to grow. It also stores 85% of that carbon in the roots of the plant, the "waste" part as far as we are concerned, so we could produce biofuel, paper, clothing, food, and housing from the stuff without harming the effectiveness of the carbon capture. All we would need to do is collect the roots, compress them into a density that will not float, and dump them into the Marianas Trench. That way that carbon will be trapped down there for a few hundred million years.
  
  We won't end corn subsidies because Iowa gets first pick in presidential elections.
  
  The corn subsidies are here for a purpose. To ensure that we maintain a surplus so that we can avoid mass food shortages if a natural disaster such as the dust bowl of the 1930s wipes out several years of harvests. Hemp can’t be used as a food source.

good. Maybe people will stop eating shit
- You're kidding yourself if you believe this. When costs are high and incomes are low people tend to eat more processed crap, they just buy it from supermarkets instead of fast food chains.
  
  Source? Look at how well Aldi is doing right now in the US. People are being more conservative with their finances. It should be more expensive to buy processed fast food.
  
  Fast food is more expensive

This food is gross to begin with. I’m always shocked by how many people eat McDonald’s. Have some self-respect folks. Don’t eat that shit. You’re worth more than that.
- It was fine when it was an occasional treat that parents would take their kids to. It was terrible when people began to rely on it for daily consumption.
- But it's not even cheap, that's the whole point of the article.
  
  Honestly!
  And then some have clearly never lived in a food desert without a car.
  This other person being like “cook at home” would be hard pressed to find anything at the shitty corner store/bodega/gas station/dollar store that many people rely on for groceries that’s healthier than canned tuna.
  
  wendys $4 meal still exists and tastes better imo
  
  If you're that broke you'd cook your own food. I think the term you're looking for is lazy
- gross
  depends on the country. mcd in japan is like gourmet big kahuna burger compared to usa
- its actually way better than it was a decade or more ago. they actually imporved the food at one point. not that it makes is much better in any way except in comparison to itself. that being said there is a lot of fast food places and they were quick and consistant. I have cut down myself due to prices.

Explaining a dystopia to an american: imagine no burgers
- 🎵 Imagine there's no burgers It's easy if you try Imagine paying $8 For the apple pie 🎶
- I'd rather be dead.

And itll be spun into blaming the cost on pay increases of the workers
- Literally in the article...
  
  Yeah they dont waste time
- I've been seeing a metric fuck ton of articles pop up about California's recent wage hike and blaming the price hikes on that.

about 25% of people who make under $50,000 were cutting back on fast food
Only 25%? Who hasn't cut back, even if it's subconsciously?
I know it's just an anecdote, but my wife and I make a lot more than that and we've had to cut how often we get fast food because it's become way too expensive.
Shit, half the time we just get sit-down service because the cost isn't that much higher. Why would we get low quality fast food for $30 when we can go to a local sit-down restaurant and get higher quality food for $40, tip included?
- to me restaurants are now for special occasions, I can cook well enough that restaurants just feel disappointing.
- Without context of that poll, that doesn't mean much. Someone who eat fast food or have it often might not have to cut back on eating it.
- a lot of people are addicts when it comes to fast food, take out, and delivery.
  it's the convenience they are addicted to.
- I may not be proud of it, but I haven't cut back.
  My lunch ritual is go through a drive thru and eat in my car while playing on my phone. Between apps and coupons, I can usually eat for $5-7, sometimes I order something at full price because it sounds particularly good that day.
  I know there are so many other better options, but my neurodivergency doesn't like it when I change up a ritual that's been going on for so many years.

I was flabbergasted yesterday when I got 2 happy meals for the kids, a mcrispy and a filet of fish, and the teller said $30. My wife and I just stared. Wtf happened. We went there for a quick easy cheap meal while road tripping. Next time we're packing sandwiches.
- are you still staring? did you end the road trip? you really just left the story hanging there.
  
  We stared as long as socially acceptable before accepting and paying.
- I don't know your family composition, but even here in Europe, 30€ for a quick meal for 4 is fucking cheap. Like, under the poverty-line cheap.
  
  In Europe there is actually about 20% (it varies from country to country) VAT in such meals and in the countries were the price of those MacDonald's products would be that high, the minimum salary (which is what most of people working for McD get paid) is actually high enough for people to be able to afford it.
  Were I am - Portugal - a Happy Meal is about €5, but then again the local minimum wage is €820 (per month, for 40h/week, so about $5.5 per hour)
  
  It wasn't even full meals. No drinks no sides for the adults. Just 2 sandwiches. And the kids got small happy meal portions. This is fast food. This is junk food.
  
  At this point any restaurant meal we can get under 100 is good value lol

I can get a full, wellmade calzone and drink for 8.15 at a nearby pizza place. I got two small cheeseburges and a small fry for 10.00 at McDonald's. Ridiculous
- A cheese pizza and a soda at Panucci's is $10.77
  
  Do not tip the delivery boy 🤌🤌
- I don't eat fast food often but on occasion I'll get a craving. It's been a few years but I had an urge to get McDonald's. I got a mcchicken, double cheese burger, and medium fries. $13! W. T. F.
- Damn now I want a calzone
- I can get a full size large frozen pizza at Aldi for about that price too. I can also even get a large 5 topping pizza from dominos using coupons on their app for about 10 which isn’t bad, but grocery store is still cheaper.
  
  Comparing takeaway to a supermarket is comparing apples to oranges.
  You have to factor in convenience and why people are going there anyway.
  Dominoes example is aight.
  
  Dominos is the last stronghold of affordable fast food imo. I constantly get emails from them for free pizza. Easily only $15 plus delivery tip for a meal for two. Granted I only get it once a month at best.
- I can hit up a Little Ceasers for a whole ass pizza for less than what McDonalds wants for a Big Mac and Fries.
  Hell I can feed two people off that little ceasers pizza, and have left overs for lunch the next day.
  
  ass pizza
  Delectible!
- Bread is cheaper than beef.
  IDK how much beef is in a McDonalds burger these days, but still.
  
  In 2020 I always waited for the $1.99 ground beef specials because I wasn't willing to pay $2.99/lb. Now everywhere is $6/lb. Hell even ground turkey, which used to be cheap, is the same price. Make it make sense.

I probably am gonna get a lot of hate for this. Isn't that a good thing? Afterall processed food is the leading cause of most diseases today, most notably cancer. It's about time organic food is promoted heavily and incorporated in the policy making.
- It would be a good thing, but there are a few problems.
  Fast food has always been of soggy cardboard quality so when prices increase it kind of feels unjustified. Fast food workers are also being paid dick compared to how difficult their job is. And then it’s the fact that not only a fast food prices getting more expensive, it’s all foods. There is no cheap alternative anymore only expensive food you have to cook yourself or expensive food being delivered to you. Bottom line, I guess, It’s good we’re getting people off of fast food, but this isn’t the way to do it.
- The reason for the hate is... You offer no alternative.
  I'm coeliac, I don't get to eat outside at fast food places. But people got to eat and they might need something quick on the go... What's your alternative? What cheap healthy meal do you offer?
  I don't get to have stuff, I can't even buy a sandwich from a shop if I wanted to. But I can see how people rely on it.
  
  Celiac disease kinda runs in my family. I am gluten intolerant myself. I'm aware of the struggle. All I'm saying is we need a paradigm shift as far as food is concerned. If there are no alternatives, create one for yourself. It's about time we take control of food and where it comes from. Not everything that's convenient is healthy for the long run.
- In isolation, maybe a good thing. Problem is that it's a bit of a sign of a broader trend of crazy expensive dining out.
  The stuff a fast food customer is likely to eat at home is likely even worse than the fast food. Also, groceries are also pretty expensive, though not quite as bonkers as restaurant pricing.
  
  I can't fathom what I have at home that's worse for me than a 1200 calorie value meal.
  I'd really have to go out of my way to make something that calorie dense and still edible.
- I see it as good too (took the kids (2) to burger king, I just took a burger + their menus, 44€ ... WTF), but the downside is (where I live) ordinary food prices are also skyrocketing.
  
  Bk is still my go to for lunch when I work in the office. 2 whopper jrs or 2 double cheeseburgers is like 6 bucks. The combo meals are definitely ridiculous though.
- I was thinking the same thing, the only good thing about it was the price. I can get a nice rump steak dinner and a pint at the pub for just a bit more than a trip to maccies these days.

I'm not because I stopped going, fuck these assholes and their insane prices for shitty food and terrible service.
Fast food restaurants like McDonalds have eliminated all the reasons people went to fast food places.
- And yet people still seem to go there. Things won't get better as long as people put up with it.
  
  That's their choice but yeah, it's a bad choice. Still though, a lot of people have stopped going and a lot more have reduced how often they go. I don't think that trend will be reversing unless the offending places improve service, food quality, and price.
  If I can go to an actual restaurant with better service for the same price with similar (or better) wait times, why bother with shitty fast food? You can preorder and pick up from any place too, it's not restricted to fast food.

i haven't gotten fast food regularly in years (only once this year, trip to taco bell, feelin a bit proud tbh), but i have been lucky enough to WFH for a lot of that. when you're starving and want something you just want it, even if it's overpriced garbage. i dread the day of having to work an office job again.
what really pisses me off is the psychological manipulation: these companies think they can just rewire our brains with their dogshit marketing. ohh $3 is actually fair for 1 hashbrown. there was never a ""dollar menu"". they don't even list the damn prices on their website like a normal restaurant. it's so fucking shady and dishonest, the whole damn thing, the gray prison architecture, taking away the soda fountains from customers (and making the kitchen people worry about drinks as well). it's so so fucking sick. WE'RE the ones suffering, they're the ones looking at graphs and DESIGNING our suffering. they don't have to pinch pennies, they don't have to pinch shit. fuck mcdonal i CANNOT wait to see them fall.

It's not just fast food. They're getting the attention because they're supposed to be cheap, but the price of eating out in general has jumped over the last 4 years or so.
For example: We often eat at a local barbecue place, usually getting the same order each time. (During the pandemic, we would get take out.) I don't have the numbers in front of me, but when I looked it up a while back, I think we were paying ~$15 more now for the essentially the same order. Adding $15 on to a ~$30 order is a huge increase, as a percentage.
In general, our dining out expenses have gone way up since the start of the pandemic, but we aren't eating out more often or ordering more extravagant foods. The prices have just gone up. (When we go out for meals, we go to a mix of fast food and casual dining places, some with counter service.)
- Should be noted how much of that is food and how much of that is rent. I've noticed spots that own their own location haven't had to crank their prices up quite so high. But areas in high rent neighborhoods just see restaurants collapsing like dominoes, as they're priced out and replaced with... often nothing.
  
  A good point. The BBQ place owns their own building, I believe, but in general that is a good point.
  
  Which is bizarre, as commercial real estate is in massive trouble.
- The experience has been getting worse and the pricing getting higher and bizarre.
  One of the places we would hit up a few years ago was about 8-9 dollars a person, you'd come in, sit down, have a server come out to take order/bring out food/everything.
  We went there recently and it was about $18 a person, and you went up to the counter, placed your order, then you came and picked up your food, and went up to the counter for refills. At the end you walk up to the cash register, they ring you up and then suggest a 25% tip.
  I wouldn't mind a bit more self service, but at that point it's just ridiculous amounts of money to charge people afraid of using a stove for a little while.
  
  If only we had a stove at work .. all we have are like 8 microwaves...

Good, stop eating that crap. Learning to cook was the best thing I ever did.

Yeah, fuck that noise. I took my kids to Wendy's the other day and their food was $32. Fuck off with this shit. Even fancy places charge less for two kids meals.
- I live very close to a wendy's. Some of my friends say they'd eat there all the time if they lived where I live. I also live walking distance from a grocery store. It's cheaper and only takes a couple extra minutes.
  
  Making food at home is the cheapest option
- I’ve literally had a cheaper bill at a full on sit down restaurant a few times now. The only time we eat at fast food anymore is if we’re traveling and it’s a quick choice.
  
  It's fucking crazy. I don't normally eat out, I make all of our food at home, but some times my kids ask for something.
- At the risk of sounding like a shill...Wendy's biggy bag is an incredible value. $5 for a sandwich, fries, 4 nugs, and a drink.
  I eat there like once a month at most but it's the only fast food I'll eat besides McDonald's breakfast when I convince myself I deserve a treat (also like once monthly)
  
  I don't know a lot about fast food, so thanks for this. I'll ask for if when I go there next time. Kids love this place

Im in Canada and i was telling my daughter that when I was her age, I could walk into McDonald's with $5 and get a big Mac meal and a nickel in change. Now it's like $17+ for the same thing. Probably lower quality too.
- Yeah, and my parents would tell you it hasn't been worth going to since it got to by more than a $1 for a whole bag of burgers (ten to be exact).
  Aside from that though, back then there was also this.

The CEO and now chairman of McDonald’s was paid $19.2 million last year in salary, bonuses and stock, according to federal securities filings.
He was paid a base salary of $1.4 million
https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/financing/mcdonalds-ceo-chris-kempczinski-got-raise-last-year
Being friendly and just going on his base salary and not all the other piles of money tossed his way, in plebe terms, he makes $673/hour.

Going vegan in the midwest has made avoiding fast food way too easy.
- Especially when saying "no cheese" 8 times means you will definitely be getting cheese
  
  My wife and I made a pact never to return to TBell after they messed up 5 consecutive orders. The final straw was them putting meat in her potato+bean crunchwrap...

It cost damn near 40 bucks to get two Jimmy John's sandwiches delivered. I could make 40 sandwiches for that price.
- Jimmy Johns has definitely been a rip off since before covid
- delivered
  How much would you charge a stranger to go to a store, pick up an order, and drive it to their house?

Businesses will charge as much as they can get away with.
If they CAN charge, they WILL charge, and as long as you keep buying, they'll keep gouging.
I hate to say it but maybe we could all afford to eat a little less often. We have an obesity epidemic. This "bliss point" hyper palatable processed garbage is killing us. If we stopped buying it, and learned to just fucking live with being hungry every so often, we wouldn't be dying of heart failure as much.

My solution to making home cooking taste better than fast food was buying a fat sack of MSG and using it in everything. Truly it’s the king of flavor.
- I mean, that's basically what restaurants do...
  My friends and I were hanging out at my mates' place (he used to work as a line cook), he made us all pasta and it tasted amazing.
  Turns out the secret was to add a scary amount of butter, and then add some more.
  Salt, butter and MSG is the secret behind half the restaurant industry.
  
  Sugar too.
  The calories don't count if somebody else adds them behind closed doors.
  
  Pretty much. But publicly MSG still has that “ooo scary and harmful” stigma to it. It’s no more harmful than salt or sugar, but some weird racism against Chinese immigrants in the 40s created that stigma.
- Uncle Roger that you?
- home cooking takes time and energy.

This is HORRIBLE! If we DON'T give these places TAXPAYER BAILOUTS then we will be FORCED to eat at the cheaper LOCAL PLACES!
-Small Business Loving Republicans
- I'll buy you a value menu french fries as a bet that they only do it for Chik Fil A.

It's actually serious enough that fast food companies are planning to reduce prices. It's unheard of.
- I suspect this reckoning is coming for other industries too.
  In some companies when the post-pandemic shortages hit for real and hard, they rose prices until they actually could source enough stuff to actually serve customers. Then a very vocal group of "told you so" folks saying the fact they made same money with higher prices and fewer customers and thus less expense was what they should have been doing all along. So even as shortages eased, suddenly a lot of companies switched to "low volume, high margin" strategies, e.g. screw most customers, we can gouge a few and make the same money while taking care of fewer people.
  Now you can see erosion in the "high margin" businesses, because that temporary success and the extent it continued was built on:
  Having no choice during the shortages
  Habits or some sort of lock in causing people to keep spending even after alternatives start opening up, but those wear out, and I think a lot of businesses are starting to feel this.
  
  I really hope so.

Conservatives gonna use this to justify shooting down minimum wage raise smh.
- They’re going to blame minimum wage raises, even though it was happening before the minimum wage raises, and in states where the minimum wage wasn’t raised at all.

I stopped going to five guys three years ago when a burger, fries, and a drink hit over $20. I'm not sure the local place was ever under $10.
- Wendy's 4 for $4 meal still going strong.
  
  4 for $6 where I am :(

On the flipside it’s forcing people to make healthier choices.
- Cheaper doesn't necessarily mean healthier. I know when I was young, most nights I would make a box of rice a roni and chop up a hot dog to add in. It was about the cheapest meal I could make, but it definitely wasn't healthy.
  
  I literally had cake for breakfast most days cause you could get discount nearly expired ones from the hidden end cap in Walmarts and that was cheap and gave me some energy for the day and then nothing but hotdogs and hashbrowns.
  Yeah, cheap doesn't mean healthy. We should at least start with making sure people can get all the calories they need each day this country certainly produces enough of them and throws away so much.
  I'm tired of malnutrition and starvation being looked at like a good diet for the poor.

If fast food prices get unaffordable, maybe people will eat healthier in the future. I cannot see a downside to this, at least not long term.
- healthy food isnt much cheaper. at least in my experience
  
  "Isn't much cheaper" is still way cheaper than fast food. Just changing your diet to something with less sugar, less fat, less saturated fat, less salt and a more balanced amount of carbohydrates and proteins is going to do wonders in bare months. Even if you keep your calorie intake a constant (which, with healthy food, it means you're gonna eat a fuck ton more).
  Healthy food is cheaper not for the price itself, but for the net long term benefit. Less chances of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, while improved vitality, energy and fitness levels.
  Should healthy food be cheaper? Yes, it definitely should. Should the estate subsidize or cut taxes on raw food and basic items? Hell yeah it should. Nonetheless, while we still fight and ask for that, eating healthy at home is still cheaper than buying in unhealthy fast food chains.
  
  What kind of food? Store bought TV meals or raw ingredients for home cooking?
- Unfortunately, the cost of healthier foods has gone up at the same pace. Instead people end up eating less or giving up other necessities like downsizing their housing or moving in with parents.
  
  Raw ingredients are still affordable. If you can cook, you are easily able to live on a healthy diet for small money.
  Source: I learned to cook because we were poor.

If you have been eating fast food for anything other than a treat, something is wrong anyways.
It's never really been cheap, and it certainly has never been good for you.
Weird that everyone is suddenly talking about it now.
And 5 guys? Lol it's always been way over priced.
- Five guys is a terrible example, they've always been crazy, but even five years ago BK, McDonald's, Wendy's had dollar menus with burgers and other substantial food items that poor people could access.
  Those prices are suddenly firmly gone, and it happened earlier then and far outpaced even the rampant inflation in the US.
  I agree that people shouldn't be eating that s***** fast food anyway, but a lot of low-income people saw those dollar menus and cheap fast food as lifelines, and within a few years the cheapest items have arbitrarily quadrupled Quinton toppled in price.
  There is zero practical reason aside from profit that french fries cost more than they did 5 years ago. Potatoes are just about the easiest thing to grow and there have been no diseases or mitigating circumstances in the past 5 years that explain why someone living on a couple dollars a day can no longer buy a hash brown for a dollar.
  
  You are framing this as an access issue rather than one of predation.
  Fast food chains don't make a cheap menu to help poor people experience their food, they do it to milk every bit of money from a populace.
  Don't expect social justice from corporate entities.
- It was most certainly cheap. Remember the dollar menu? You could get a McDonald's cheeseburger and fries and drink for about $3 plus tax.
  
  Post said 5 guys has been over priced, not all fast food and not McDs. And that's right, 5 guys I always found to be... "ok" but dreaded when the work guy would select 5 guys as "the lunch place" on his turn. Always about to spend a lot of money for a burger when I don't even feel like a burger that day.

That's even more reason to stay away from that junk rubbish.

I went through the burger king drive through a few weeks ago and got just a crispy chicken sangwich and the girl said €7.45 and I couldn't fucking believe it. I kept the receipt to show my wife. I also made sure we got a loaf of bread and some lunch meat to make sandwiches for the last few weeks. Honestly fuck those people
- 7.45 is a whole chicken and some other stuff where I am
  
  a whole rotissierie chicken from the grocery store is like €6. its the fast food industry that took the pandemic's supply chain issues that lasted for several months to increase prices to see how much they could increase profits. double the price and sales dont fall so far that the increase in net profit stays, they keep the increase.
  as I've said, I started buying bread and lunchmeat. I'm not buying a €13 meal every work day (this is also sandwiches from coffee chains etc, not just fast food crap).
  for me, if fast food isn't cheap its a no go. The good, fast, cheap paridigm stands: you can only ever have two.
  it used to be fast and cheap. theyre now telling us its good and fast. it was never good.

I think they all tried to become semi-fancy to compete with restaurants, instead of focusing on being cheap, cheap, cheap.

And many parents working two jobs while living in a food desert have few good alternatives. Ain't got the time nor money.
That's how you keep folks scared.
- Scared folks are desperate folks and desperate folks are trying to take your shit.

The devil's bargain that the American Middle Class struck in the 70s was that women would enter the labor force and all the domestic work would be handled by a professional service sector. Rather than cooking at home, we all eat out at cheap kitchens. Rather maintaining a home, we just rent. Rather than spend a day cleaning, we have dishwashers and rumbas and cheap immigrants to do maid work. Rather than spending time outdoors, we get a gym membership. Rather than providing child care ourselves, we outsource to daycare centers. Etc, etc.
That deal has been breaking down since at least the Housing Crisis of '08, but its really kicked into high gear after COVID. What was supposed to be cheap industrialized outsourcing has climbed in cost by leaps and bounds.
You can argue that the original deal sucked. Establishing a permanent underclass to do the grunt labor of civilization had all sorts of awful knock on effects, not the least of which was the food getting saltier and sugarier and generally more awful for our physical health.
But the alternative is what? Tell half the population to get back in the kitchen? Boycott Big Agriculture? Just eat smaller portions?
- Yes back in the kitchen but this time not just one gender. Eating out shouldn’t be the norm.
  
  You couldn't keep me out of the kitchen if you tried. But I've found that confidence fuels engagement.
  Home Econ and cooking class are great tools for establishing basic skills and familiarity. Deliver a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to grill, and he'll cook for the rest of his life.
- I don't see any connection between women entering the workforce and half the stuff you said.
- ok, boomer
  
  More elder millennial. But I'm old enough to remember the tail end of home economics and shop class taught in the American education system. And I remember when it was all immolated to cut taxes.
  Kids today have no idea how much was robbed from them. McDs selling you pink slime in a bun for 10x what it cost to produce is only the latest atrocity.
- Congrats buddy, you're now the winner of the "most sexist comment on Lemmy" award! Excited to see where your career goes as others try and battle it out with you for this prestigious prize.
  
  It's a valid point that the bargain according to people's mentality back then was that.
  It's also interesting to consider that in this domain the change in the mindset of first women and eventually men is a result of, in a couple both people having to work because one salary was not enough for a whole family and yet many men still had the expectation that it was the woman who would do most house chores and take care of the kids (I've actually saw a lot this kind of mindset even amongst well educated people of my generation - I'm in my early 50s - though in a different country which might be a little ahead or behind the US in this trend).
  Also a single earner family is absolutelly compatible with gender equality - already 20 years ago I lived in The Netherlands and 18% of families there had a stay at home dad (literally in Dutch a huisman).
  Unlike the self-serving bullshit that Neoliberal Capitalists have pushed to try to make people accept exploitation by making it seem like it is or promotes Gender Equality, it's the expectation that a stay at home person is a woman that's the Sexism, not the idea that it should be possible and acceptable for one member of a couple to stay at home.
  
  I dont see the sexism? Am i missing something? He says that since families moved away from single income households we were told we could just pay for the household services we no longer had time for, but that they have been raising the prices on those services ever since. Where sexism?
  
  most sexist comment on Lemmy
  You know what would solve this problem? Women should be confined to their homes, cooking and cleaning up after their husbands like good little wives. We don't need women working outside the home, or having any sort of autonomy or independence. They are only good for serving their menfolk and bearing children. And if they want to eat out, they should just go to fast-food chains and order off the dollar menu.

Yeah, I love my local pizza place and I'm on good terms with the owner, but the prices have gone up enough that I've set a hard limit of only going there once a month, and there are some menu items that I explicitly just will not buy because they're so overpriced.
Cost frankly does define my dietary habits. The number one reason that I don't decide to grab the odd piece of vegan chicken to put in a bagel is because it costs 50% more than regular chicken.
- Local breakfast spot... Used to be $8 for "two eggs any style" with meat and home fries and stuff. Used to be $13.50 for eggs Benedict.
  It is now $14 for 2 eggs any style (get fucked), and... $16 for eggs Benedict.
  Like ok, I'll do the eggs Benedict at that robbery rate Jesus.

Nothing has made me cook at home more than fast food prices.
I mean… the reason isn’t good, but the outcome is. Maybe this’ll actually make a dent in the obesity epidemic, which fast food exacerbates immensely.
- Note that "cook at home" is likely to mean "toss box of pre-cooked factory food featuring mechanically separated 'meat' and enough junk to keep it shelf stable for months into microwave or air fryer to reheat", which is unlikely to be any better, and in fact may likely be even worse (going harder core on some of the processing to last months in a customer pantry).
  
  Yeah, that’s a really good point. It’s kinda horrifying what poor people are forced to consume in this country. The crap we sell at the bottom tiers of food supply is actively deleterious to your health. It’s awful.

Makes it easier to not eat that trash.

Taco Bell’s app is a game changer, can still get a box for like $6. But that’s the only place I’ll get fast food anymore
- I feel real bad for everyone living in a place where Taco Bell won the texmex fast food wars instead of Del Taco. A 1/2 pound bean and cheese burrito is still under $2, the fries I get on the side are more expensive. They were bought out by Jack in the Box so I’m waiting for the quality to start tanking, though.
  
  I feel real bad for everyone living in a place where Taco Bell won the texmex fast food wars instead of Del Taco.
  Joke's on you, we've got the three seashells.
  
  There are two Del Tacos in my entire state (i didn't even know there was one), so they didn't really have a chance.
- Taco bell is the only fast food I eat as well. The rewards are pretty good. Free cheesy gordita crunch? Fuck yeah!
  
  Amen, them shits is fire
- You might want to look at the T.O.S. closely.
  https://www.allrecipes.com/mcdonalds-new-terms-and-conditions-8384841
  
  They should look at McDonald's TOS closely because they use the Taco Bell app?

In theory this will mean a more healthy population, as people start cooking food at home, instead of eating fast food.
Sucks for people on the move though.
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- disagree. if you stopped eating fast food only because you can't afford it, you're not going to all of a sudden "eat healthy." you're just going to switch to ramen, tv dinners, frozen tendies, or whatever other <1 minute to cook garbage from the grocery store. nothing's happened except "cheap fast zero effort food" has become "cheap slow greater than zero effort food"
  
  You're not wrong, but I'm still betting that stuff you buy from the supermarket and cook at home will be healthier than what's cooked at a fast food joint.
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- except that the prices of food as a whole are going up right alongside fast food.
- Who cooks three meals for themselves? Just skip breakfast.
  Cook fast meals. Meal prep.
  Regardless, stop eating garbage fast food.
  
  People who have time to cook will. Many low income families are 24/7 parenting and working with little extra time. Cooking 3 squares is just not going to happen.
  Not saying you're wrong in some cases, but I buy these pre-cooked meals at Costco, where all you have to do is heat them in a pan/oven and serve, then they're quick to do (and I'm a horrible cook to boot).
  But I get it, it comes down to how much money you have, and how much time you have to spend to make how much money that you have.
  But the bottom line is, at the end of the day, for practically everyone, eating home cooked meals is going to be better for them, than just sustaining off of fast food meals from outside 24/7.
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I can make tastier, cheaper and healthier burguers than McDonald's at home faster than the delivery itself. It's just a matter of practice. I really don't get how they can justify their prices at this point.
- They can’t but that’s not the point, they finna try it and see how it goes.
- Costco frozen patties + panini press with dishwasher safe grill plates = easier and faster than McDonald's with almost no clean up. Still trying to find a McDonald's pickles dupe though.

Re: the comments here I'm not for a moment buying the "too busy to cook, must eat fast food" argument or similar arguments portraying fast food as, why, almost necessary in this busy day and age! If you don't want to cook (I don't want to if I can avoid it, but do it anyway occasionally and usually make several days worth of dish X at a time to minimize my cooking time), you can easily go to you nearby Winco/Walmart/Aldi/etc and load up on some interesting frozen dishes for way, way less $ than the prices I'm seeing mentioned here. And I'm not talking about some kind of 1960s "TV dinner" things either - bogus stereotype of the concept. Even Trader Joe's (where you shouldn't shop b/c anti-union) is comparatively cheap and has super interesting frozen stuff. No time to cook tonight? Well just pop your frozen dish out of the freezer and into the microwave and five minutes later you've got an actual "meal" of sorts in front of you, and likely one with 1/10th the calories of that "meal" you got from McFatsos at 5x the price.
Ah, but it won't be DEEP FRIED goodness and lots and lots and lots of volume and lots and lots of pure concentrated sugar in that totally mandatory fast food dessert. No, you'll probably be getting a relatively (to McFatsos) small-ish portion and it probably won't have started its life being deep-fried and it might just have some interesting veggies ... and no dessert unless you explicitly microwave something else.
This Will Not Stand! Must have fat and more fat and more deep fry and more sugar .... that's a "meal" ... and must have it because, er, oh yeah, "no time". Yeah, that's it, no time.
Americans are simply addicted to garbage food (fat/sugar) and in tremendous quantities and if they don't get it, well now, the world is going to hell clearly.
Partial source: worked in fast food in HS (McD's clone) for a few years and did pretty much every task there was to be done in the "kitchen". The "kitchen" being, in that case, a grill for cooking greasy burgers and prepping greasy bacon and a deep fat fryer for frying up those potatoes in bulk and also the "tots" (same grease as the fries) and also the frozen "pie" concoctions (same grease as the fries).
Eating this crap if you have a grocery store anywhere nearby and a microwave is completely unnecessary but people do it anyway because it tastes soooo good! .... because of grease and sugar.
OK if you're on the road all the time, a trucker or on an extended road trip, you have to figure out something cheap/healthy, but pretty much every motel room I've ever rented has come with a fridge and a microwave and I've had no problems figuring out a workable solution with the hardware available.
Say "no" to garbage "food" addiction and you'll save a fortune.

What also stinks is that most apartment rentals have a kitchen that has enough cabinets to store:
food
plates and glasses
pots and pans
CHOOSE ONE
so eating take out or fast food is practically required.
- CHOOSE ONE
  Sitting in my apartment sobbing while trying to eat my pots and pans.
- Yup. But as a tip you can store cookware in the oven, that lets you get like 1.5 of the options and if you are willing to give up some space thrift stores sometimes have cheap shelving you can use as a makeshift pantry against one of the walls.
  I actually use a table I removed 2 legs from and have it using the windowsill instead just so I could have some useable counter space.
  My puzzle skills are always getting a workout trying to figure out cooking.

Once the cost was almost as much as a sit-down Restaurant. I just switched to them. Haven't been to a fast food place in 2 to 3 years

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