I see a lot of complaints about fast food being and other meals becoming much more expensive than usual. I know it’s true because grocery prices are absurd, but I genuinely don’t know what’s considered “expensive” with fast food.
I just instinctively know it’s expensive and never eat out. Like $8 for one small smash burger just seems absurd to me, but apparently that’s always been normal?
I’m old enough (not that old really) to remember libs looking down on poor people for eating fast food because it’s cheap and nasty and unhealthy.
Over time that’s shifted to libs looking down on poor people for eating fast food because it’s a wasteful extravagance.
American fast food chains are always the worst quality for price here. The best are always the local chinese restaurants (although they are in no way authentic Chinese cuisine). The best of the best are the takeaways that are obviously fronts for money laundering. If they only take cash and change branding every six months, the food will absolutely slap and it’ll be dirt cheap
I yearn for the days of ordering from a local Chinese place that was definitely a front, you could get a bag of wantons literally the size of your head for $5
Idk, 10-20 years ago getting fast food felt cheap. Now it’s like “what the hell did I get that added up to 20$?”
Like, you used to be able to feed several people for 20$, and now you can’t? Idk.
A meal for two with an appetizer, tax, and tip is like $50 minimum now. Just a few years ago it was $30. COVID also forced a lot of people to cook more so they really take note when even fast food costs 5X what it would to make the same thing at home.
Anyways, If we all got a 50% raise I don’t think anyone would complain about fast food prices.
literally a few weeks ago at a work event we all drove off site to get macdonalds. they each spent over €10. for fucking macdonalds. i literally walked across the street to the corner store to get a drink for €1 and then waited until after work to go spend the same money at an actual nice indie joint for more and better food.
the same with taco bell and all the rest. you can get more for cheaper a bunch of other places, and the big brands are coasting off of their names (and driving those brands into the ground to squeeze out profits, as a capitalist will do).
incidentally, thanks american brands, for coming to my country and strangling everything else we ever had!!!
My ex and I had a rule to never order anything from a restaurant we could make at home. Quite conveniently, she was an incredible cook that could make damn near anything and I’m not too bad myself. The only time we’d ever eat out was for birthdays/anniversaries or sushi once every few months or so. Spending $50-$100 for us both at “fancy” places felt like an exorbitant luxury but I realize now that’s not far off from what many people spend regularly on meals.
The combination of very rarely eating out and then living outside the US when I did eat out slightly more resulted in me being absolutely shocked at prices recently. I went with a friend to a greasy small town diner and was in utter disbelief at $14 for an omelette. He assured me that it was pretty normal and it like short circuited my brain. I just couldn’t comprehend paying that much for a few eggs prepared so simply, easily 10x the cost of the ingredients. Paying that kind of premium regularly, especially scaled up on more expensive dishes, is so far outside of what I consider reasonable or even somewhat financially responsible that I’m shocked anyone does it. But the fact that the diner was PACKED with a line out the door made me feel like I was the one that’s out of touch with reality
lol diners have always been uniquely absurd imo
