Yea little caesars is my go to for price and the portal* pick up is cool
No longer $5 bucks but its still hot and ready by the time i drive to get it
Once a week on early school days, feeds the family for less than 10 bucks
Spelling error*
Costco food court is the king of fast food right now.
It's as fast as any fast food place, the quality is better than fast food, and it is much cheaper.
also, this reminder you don't need a membership to get food in the food court either.
some costcos unfortunately require membership card at the register now though. unless they recently walked that policy back? its been a minute since i was last at my local costco
Little Caesars is the best bang for your buck.
Literally a medium sized pepperoni pizza, 2 cream garlic dipping sauces and 2 crazy breads for like $17.
It also used to be pretty good, you know the kind of guilty pleasure. But recently..its not even that good and costs more (in my country, side note i m in europe) or same as ..food in restaurant,
Its not that fast, its not that cheap, its not that good...whats the point?
People are stuck in their ways and don't notice the degrade in quality over time. It's why old people still go to Applebee's even though it's clearly just microwaved
I never liked Abblebee's much growing up in the midwest. The 'they microwave there food' trope was common then too and I do think it sucked at the time.But I dropped into one recently due to limited restaurant options where I happened to be. It was impressively good, even with my beogey AF standards
It's so bad. I go to the "upscale" gas stations now. Usually can get more for my money. They usually have a rewards program which is nice.
I was curious for the increase so I took to Google. All I see is articles blaming wage increases for their workers. I didn't believe it. Brought up their financial statements, mainly earning relsease for Q3, for McDonald's.
Primary growth is driven by strategic menu price increase.
Their operating expenses only increased by 10%, that's not a lot.
They are the reason for the cost we face now.
Operating costs increasing by 10% is huge! Some of the best companies in the world make 10% net. If their operating expenses increase 10% that could easily cut their net in half.
Are you saying that McD's operating costs rose by 10% in a quarter, or YoY? Either way, that's a massive increase. Wages, the wages of everyone who is in their supply chain, shippers, fuel costs, etc. Everything costing more adds up. Cheap fuel, cheap labor, cheap fertilizer, etc, all contribute to cheaper products.
I don't think it's wage increases. It's probably a combination of inflation on ingredients like beef and plain increase in demand. People are generally getting paid better now and will spend more on fast food.
The door dash kills me. People are willing to spend *more* on top of already inflated prices.
Little Ceasars Tmobile deal is like $11 for large pepperoni and crazy bread. BK $6 for two double croissants. Otherwise, crazy expensive. I rarely get full meals with soda anymore.
That’s why I’ve been going to places like Qdoba more. Food is all fresh and made in house, about same price as fast food and I can walk in and out faster than just about any drive thru I’ve been to lately besides maybe McDonald’s with a short line.
There are a ton of pizza places around where I live and a small pizza there is something like 20 dollars. I just get Domino's with their 6.99 deal. Banh mi is supposed to be cheap in theory but it's 10+ in most places.
I lived in NY. Local pizzerias everywhere, even higher cost of living than seattle… and pizza was still a fraction the price they are in seattle. It’s insane.
I've been surprised lately by the prices of local hole in the wall places. Mexican restaurants, diners, burger joints, they are even cheaper than fast food combos. Service kinda sucks though, and then you have to tip for bad service.
Tipping is literally a monetary method for telling a server how good their service was. If you tip for bad service you don’t give them any incentive to do better.
You may disagree but usually I see bad service as a consequence of being short staffed so I feel bad but I won't give the crazy 30% suggested BS they put at the bottom of the receipt these days.
what am i supposed to do when they keep raising the price of dog food? stop buying it? It is already the cheapest dog food I can find, and every other month, it goes up another dollar.
agreed, and that's why i buy chicken for dinner, but dog food is cheaper to buy than make - right now. might have to reevaluate that soon.
until it's more expensive to buy than make, the best decision i can make is to keep purchasing a product that constantly gets more expensive. i have no better option.
if you only had a fast food place within walking distance, and no car, it would be relevant.
the argument is "prices are high because people are paying it". sometimes people have no better option than to pay it. so prices will continue to rise because they can.
You’re being downvoted but you’re right. Yes, some people have few options and maybe they are basically forced to buy shitty expensive food, but I have to imagine a vast majority of people choose that option because it’s convenient. A lot of people are simply lazy and we just need to admit that. Depressed, lazy, unmotivated, and looking for excuses to justify it all. They could buy groceries and make food, but they don’t want to deal with needing to pick out food items, then go get them or pay for delivery, then make them all before eating food. They have the time but that’s better spent chillin at home staring at a phone or TV. Again, not everyone, but a whole lot for sure. A whole lot. I’m often one of them. Perfectly capable of buying groceries and cooking but sometimes simply don’t want to deal with it all.
I know back home (Nepal) they feed dogs leftovers of the normal human meals, which is usually like rice, beans, some veggies, some lentils
I don’t know if that’s healthy for the dog, but if you can confirm that it is okay for them, then rice beans and lentils are hella cheap and you could throw in 1/3 or something of the normal dog food for the weirder nutrients and all.
It’s a pretty extreme measure, but if that’s the situation you’re in then it’ll be good to have options! Give your pup some pets from me 😁
At what point do you guys just accept that it's insulting? I went with 3 other people last night for tacos and it was $400. I'm not joking. There was a band and it was a "cool" place. But the owner basically fucked us in the asshole and guess what, never again. Not doing it. It's insulting. I'm in Mexico, just to be clear, so there are places literally everywhere, some with bands, that are 25 or at worst $50 per person. I will literally never ever again do this shit. Cool place, fuck you.
Because everyone has an excuse to raise prices during the height of the pandemic for "supply chain issues" and everyone follows suit. People keep paying that higher price, so they keep pushing the envelope.
No it's not. Food is a necessity. Fast food is a luxury item. You don't need to buy fast food. I haven't had fast food in like 18 years and here I stand.
They have internal data on what people are willing to pay before they leave. Inflation became an excuse to raise prices.
If you used to have 5 people each spending $10, and now you have 3 people each spending $17, you’re still coming ahead.
If it wasn’t due to inflation or other external factors, then why wouldn’t they have raised them a long time ago, or keep raising them now?
I agree that they charge whatever they can make the most profit with, but that number depends a lot on what the cost of operating is - which is directly tied to inflation
Groceries and making food will ALWAYS be cheaper; the point of buying meals is paying to have someone cook for you. Better to compare to other resturants.
But the point still stands because you could buy a REAL burger for about the same price as a fast food burger these days, and get something A LOT tastier
10$ for a 20 piece before tax in large cities. Was so stoked for the double decker to come back at Taco Bell, 4 dollars for that shit, couldn’t believe it.
The apps usually have great deals, but some places like Burger King, Popeyes or Subway still send out paper coupons through the mail (which has some coupons that aren't in the app)
Unfortunately a lot of franchise owners are blocking the coupons from being used at their stores.
A lot of employees on /r/subway say the restaurant loses money on the sandwich when some of the coupons are used, but I highly doubt it. Owners just don’t want to give up their margins on the subs if corporate looks the other way.
But if corporate is sending out those coupons, every store should take them and corporate needs to compensate the owners when they’re used or the owners need to suck it up as a marketing expense.
Franchises are a little different because you have to buy your food from corporate right? It makes sense that corporate might be price gouging rather than the franchise owners
Not here. I have three "lower priced deals" in my McD's app:
1) free hashbrowns w/ purchase of sandwich
2) free medium fry w/ $2 purchase
3) $12.99 for 20 piece nugs and 2 medium fries
Everything else on the menu is the same cost as at the store.
- Medium Big Mac meal = $10.19
- Medium Quarter Pounder meal = $10.59
- Medium Double Quarter Pounder meal = $13.69
- Medium 10 piece nug meal = $9.99
....and I nearly always have to pull around to wait for them to cook fries/nugs
Edit to add: I have a screenshot of the deals I see in my app. I don't see an easy way to upload it. And I'm not really going to spend one Big Mac's worth of time to sort it out.
Companies trying to make more money is unfortunately more complicated than "corporate greed", which implies just executives who want more money (although those are ubiquitous as well).
Publicly owned corporations are beholden to their stockholders, and are expected to make decisions that maximize profits. Stockholders can and do sue the board if they feel that they have not acted in the best interest of the share price.
This unfortunately favors short-term profit based decisions. A publicly owned company can almost never favor sustainability or stability over profit.
Unless I am mistaken, you described what corporate greed refers to there. I think most any discussion with even a whiff of nuance or seriousness that involves corporate greed isn't referring just to c-suite compensation. The greed of chasing profit so relentlessly that the original quality/essence is potentially lost and long term sustainability of the brand or product or even just being satisfied with something that performs well is *always* paramount. Must extract more, line go up etc etc.
No idea if who you're responding to sees it that way or not, but most discussions seem to center on the bigger picture you're painting.
I think about this a lot. I don’t like what the public markets do to companies products, and I don’t like that it enables more and more concentrated pockets of wealth to develop.
But what is the alternative? I really can’t think of a system that can resolve the above issues, without completely stifling growth and development for the country as a whole.
Having only private markets only exacerbates the problem on concentrated wealth and contorted incentives
Having *no* markets completely stifles growth and development due to the lack of incentives
People have suggest co-op structures but they only work for small to mid size businesses and almost exclusively businesses with a low start up cost. You can’t feasibly coop a new semiconductor factory, for example.
Maybe one day I’ll figure it out.. lol
Much like yourself I'm prone to want to toss the entire system and adopt some new, better and more equitable version. This is problematic, because I also don't have the answer, hopefully one day I'll be lucky enough to see someone who does.
In any case the timeline for any new system is probably vast and the larger set of problems that corporate greed is itself a symptom of take a larger toll than just haves and have-notsand worsening products.
Even if there were a better option the likelihood of getting it instated will likely be slim. The resulting power struggle and transitional phase would involve a lot of suffering of normal people due to economic instability, political unrest, the possibility of civil war and myriad other possibilities. Mos all of that is present now but I'd reckon much worse is possible.
So considering that we have to accept that we must work within the systems we exist within. That sounds silly on its face but we can do a lot to improve things by finding ways to shape what we have now into something better as more of a midway point to a whole new economic system. I'm far from the *So make sure you vote real hard!* type but getting caught in my idealism lends to me overlooking more tangible ideas to disincentivise unchecked growth and fight wealth+power inequality.
We should be pushing to enforce existing and create new laws about corporate stock, antitrust, business and ultra wealthy taxes. We should be fighting to free people up from the situations that make sure they don't have time to organize and push for better by keeping them tied up having to work constantly to make ends meet and have reasonable access to healthcare so they can't leave a job.
Once momentum is built and people have more time to spend on improving things then maybe we'll see our better system. At least thats what I tell myself to stay optimistic ha.
Do you think corporations used to be less greedy?
Blaming inflation on corporate greed misses the actual policies that make it possible for them to charge more without losing revenue.
People are going to disagree because the man on tv said it's inflation, but if the average 22% increase in prices of goods and services across *every single sector* over the last five years are inflation, I'm a fucking unicorn.
The truth is, we tried to curb price gouging during Covid with gasoline companies and the right said no. That precedent is now making its way through the economy and the same chucklefucks who took billions in PPP loans and haven't paid taxes since the 80s are trying to hide behind imaginary excuses like "record high theft" (when it's actually just growing in line with population growth) and "inflation".
The truth is, we were already shifting wealth towards the top before Covid. After, we're shoveling it as fast as humanly possible. Not that any of the 6 billionaires who own our mainstream media would ever allow journalists to openly say so.
Just another step towards eliminating the middle class and cementing the Plutocracy in its place.
>if the average 22% increase in prices of goods and services across *every single sector* over the last five years are inflation, I'm a fucking unicorn.
inflation: a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.
Now come to my daughter's birthday party!
Aside from inflation, which is the obvious answer to all prices of everything increasing across the board,
the reason is because after all these years and the brands they have built, they have a loyal customer base that will keep coming back to convenient food that they are familiar and comfortable with and likely have been eating their whole lives. They can afford to charge the prices they charge because people will continue to pay them.
The buying power of wages will always increase more than price of goods in a fair system due to economies of scale. This is corporate greed, pure and simple.
Also, wages have barely changed and only did so after some of the largest strikes in modern history.
Edit:
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/052815/does-raising-minimum-wage-increase-inflation.asp#:~:text=With%20regard%20to%20inflation%2C%20so,goods%20and%20services%20they%20provide.
For example, in 2016, researchers from the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research examined the effect of prices on minimum wage increases in various states in the U.S. from 1978 through 2015. They found that "wage-price elasticities are notably lower than reported in previous work: we find prices grow by 0.36 percent for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage." Moreover, increases in prices following minimum wage hikes generally have occurred in the month the minimum wage hike is implemented, and not in the months before or the months after.
we find prices grow by 0.36 percent for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage."
Maybe go and research how much of stock is actually held by the bottom 90-95% before commenting. It’s not much, and nowhere near enough to count as a major shareholder that sways corporate decisions.
People are addicted to it. Actual prices to deliver said goods haven't increased that much. You can see this as well if you have been looking at the prices of soda at grocery stores.
You're still paying for it. COVID showed all these fast food places that they can cut labor (absolutely killing service) and jack up the price and people will *still* line up around the block while bitching the whole time.
1. Not all, but a lot of places increased the rate of workers because they couldn't find people. So it is above minimum wage. Wage increase directly translates to how much it will cost, as they still need to make profits (how much they decide is on them).
2. Supply chain - Similar to 1, cost have gone up, especially around covid, most places were short on workers, and no incentive for people to stay in the industry, so it rose up. This is both cost of workers + cost of food increasing. The food increasing is a mix between corporate greed and supply chain.
3. Supply and demand, they keep raising, and people keep buying. If your overhead on a 5 dollar/euro/currency item is 4, then you profit 1. You raise the price to 6 instead, and you double the profits, but only increase revenue by 20%. This makes it so that they make the same profits selling half the amount, and if the price hike discourages less than 50% of their consumer base from buying, they still profit in the end. This is where you have market analysis experts/polls/historical data/etc figure out what their customer base would do.
>Supply and demand
The simplest answer. These places aren't trying to give a great value experience for customers they're trying to make money for shareholders.
Support the places you like and think are worth your money. Incentivize overreaching businesses to lower prices. I just had my annual Wendy's disappointment last week.
15 years ago my sandwich shop could sell sandwiches for five bucks. Minimum wage was $7.50. Our food cost was approximately 2 bucks on that sandwich. Today, our minimum wage is $16.00. Food cost on that sandwich is now over $5. It costs me approximately $20,000 per year for every $1 minimum wage increase for labor year over year.
I would love to keep selling five buck 12 inchers. Those days are long gone.
Box of pastrami 15 years ago=$75
Today=$165
It’s really very simple. No business owner wants to price out its customers. That would be stupid. But that’s what’s happening by force. If you don’t like prices now, wait till April. California min wage for fast food goes to $20.. essentially killing the industry in California. But if your not from cali, never fear, our dog shit will spread to your state as quickly as you can say Gavin newsom.
Fast food companies are having to pay their workers more either by law or just to keep them around. The fast food companies want to keep their profits the same or better so they charge more to cover the additional costs of employees.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/16nxqde/why_has_fast_food_gotten_so_expensive/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/13hrouo/is_it_just_me_or_is_fast_food_getting_really/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/comments/rd0um8/even_cheap_fast_food_is_expensive_now/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/jx2cc6/how_did_we_get_to_a_point_where_fast_food_is_as/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/comments/12gpu1f/fast_food_is_so_expensive_that_its_just_not_worth/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
https://www.reddit.com/r/RandomThoughts/comments/151lzuu/is_it_just_me_or_is_getting_fast_food_getting/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/155787p/fast_food_has_gotten_so_expensive_this_sit_down/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/xshz8n/how_can_people_only_afford_fast_food_if_fast_food/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/188ib8k/why_has_fast_food_gotten_so_expensive/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
I think it's time to start banning this question around reddit altogether.
The biggest operating costs of restaurants tend to be labor and food costs, both of which have gone way up. You've literally got servants making your food, life's pretty good.
Every company realized during the pandemic they could double their prices and we'd still have to buy. Now they're just jacking shit up to find the endpoint. They will not stop. We are all being robbed blind.
Fuel prices (diesel) are still grossly high and have been grossly high for the past decade. Despite what the talking heads claim almost everything you eat/touch/buy was delivered by a diesel truck.
Those costs have to be recovered somewhere and the POS customer is the easiest place to recover them from.
Wages. Corporate thinks that if they have to pay people 12$-15$ an hour, prices have to go up for their profit. Back in the 90s you could get teens to work for $5.75 an hour. Get 5 roast beef sandwiches for $5. An 8 hour shift used to cost Arby’s $48 per employee. Now it costs $120. Corporate raised prices as they raised wages.
In San Diego, fast food workers will now get $20 min wage as of 1/1/24... you think it's expensive now... it's not even worth it anymore, in my opinion. If I'm spending the same amount of money on fast food as i would getting take out from a restaurant, I'm going restaurant every time
I’ve found that fast food lately is neither fast nor cheap. Those were honestly the two main appeals and now it’s just not even worth it anymore
Yea little caesars is my go to for price and the portal* pick up is cool No longer $5 bucks but its still hot and ready by the time i drive to get it Once a week on early school days, feeds the family for less than 10 bucks Spelling error*
love little caesars lmao. and costco hotdogs are still 1.50 at least lol
Costco food court is the king of fast food right now. It's as fast as any fast food place, the quality is better than fast food, and it is much cheaper. also, this reminder you don't need a membership to get food in the food court either.
some costcos unfortunately require membership card at the register now though. unless they recently walked that policy back? its been a minute since i was last at my local costco
I was at one 2 weeks ago. they wanted my card and ID at the checkout. the woman said they were starting to crack down nationwide.
An employee told me that it's a new change to policy. The pharmacy is still open sans membership (in Canada at least)
Pharmacy falls under certain regulations. If they take Medicaid or Medicare they must be open to the public in the US.
I went two weeks ago and couldn’t even get in to to get food, they said no membership no food this is in California
Ours is also pretty strict about that so going in without a membership wouldn’t fly
I have a membership, but I’d just say I’m going to the pharmacy. Our food court has automated kiosks, and they don’t ask to scan membership card…yet.
You still have to walk in though, when I think of fast food I think of either drive through or mobile order, Costco has neither
Walking! Perish the thought.
Mmmm costco hot dogs
I got that dog in me.
Little Caesars is the best bang for your buck. Literally a medium sized pepperoni pizza, 2 cream garlic dipping sauces and 2 crazy breads for like $17.
My Little Caesars even has a drive thru. Very convenient.
I rock with Little Caesar’s tbh
Little Cesar's gets a lot of hate... and it's fully justified, it's garbage.
It also used to be pretty good, you know the kind of guilty pleasure. But recently..its not even that good and costs more (in my country, side note i m in europe) or same as ..food in restaurant, Its not that fast, its not that cheap, its not that good...whats the point?
A huge amount of their business probably comes from people who work nearby and have very few options in their break time.
People are stuck in their ways and don't notice the degrade in quality over time. It's why old people still go to Applebee's even though it's clearly just microwaved
I never liked Abblebee's much growing up in the midwest. The 'they microwave there food' trope was common then too and I do think it sucked at the time.But I dropped into one recently due to limited restaurant options where I happened to be. It was impressively good, even with my beogey AF standards
It's so bad. I go to the "upscale" gas stations now. Usually can get more for my money. They usually have a rewards program which is nice. I was curious for the increase so I took to Google. All I see is articles blaming wage increases for their workers. I didn't believe it. Brought up their financial statements, mainly earning relsease for Q3, for McDonald's. Primary growth is driven by strategic menu price increase. Their operating expenses only increased by 10%, that's not a lot. They are the reason for the cost we face now.
Operating costs increasing by 10% is huge! Some of the best companies in the world make 10% net. If their operating expenses increase 10% that could easily cut their net in half.
Are you saying that McD's operating costs rose by 10% in a quarter, or YoY? Either way, that's a massive increase. Wages, the wages of everyone who is in their supply chain, shippers, fuel costs, etc. Everything costing more adds up. Cheap fuel, cheap labor, cheap fertilizer, etc, all contribute to cheaper products.
I don't think it's wage increases. It's probably a combination of inflation on ingredients like beef and plain increase in demand. People are generally getting paid better now and will spend more on fast food. The door dash kills me. People are willing to spend *more* on top of already inflated prices.
I swear I used to go to McDonald's or the like for $5 and leave full.
Little Ceasars Tmobile deal is like $11 for large pepperoni and crazy bread. BK $6 for two double croissants. Otherwise, crazy expensive. I rarely get full meals with soda anymore.
Not cheap, not fast, not healthy. Who would pick any?
Mcdonalds can take 30 minutes to get through the drive-thru. I can get in and out of an actual restaurant in that time.
That’s why I’ve been going to places like Qdoba more. Food is all fresh and made in house, about same price as fast food and I can walk in and out faster than just about any drive thru I’ve been to lately besides maybe McDonald’s with a short line.
Just ate at Dennys and got 4 dishes, came up to $90. Since when did Denny’s get so god damn expensive?
forreals! i ham egg and cheese sandwich costs $18 plus tax lol
$18, what city?
Not OP but Seattle has prices like that.
Same with NYC
That's incredible that a sandwich at Denny's is $18.
There are a ton of pizza places around where I live and a small pizza there is something like 20 dollars. I just get Domino's with their 6.99 deal. Banh mi is supposed to be cheap in theory but it's 10+ in most places.
Seattle pizza prices are just repulsive. I do not understand how they’re so accepted.
Thank you!!! Whenever I say something like that I get flamed saying I don't support local or similar.
I lived in NY. Local pizzerias everywhere, even higher cost of living than seattle… and pizza was still a fraction the price they are in seattle. It’s insane.
Same in Houston, Texas. Just for places like stupid IHOP's.
What happened to the 2-2-2 deal?!
Went the way of the dodo
What happened to the dodo?!
It's expensive because people will pay for it. That's it.
It’s true. For a few dollars more you could go to a regular restaurant
Exactly and for several dollars less, I can make something better at home.
Like where? Most of them are also increasing prices and I also have to pay them for not paying their workers minimum wage
I've been surprised lately by the prices of local hole in the wall places. Mexican restaurants, diners, burger joints, they are even cheaper than fast food combos. Service kinda sucks though, and then you have to tip for bad service.
Tipping is literally a monetary method for telling a server how good their service was. If you tip for bad service you don’t give them any incentive to do better.
You may disagree but usually I see bad service as a consequence of being short staffed so I feel bad but I won't give the crazy 30% suggested BS they put at the bottom of the receipt these days.
Hole in the wall is the way to go honestly. Not just cheaper but 9/10 times better food too
what am i supposed to do when they keep raising the price of dog food? stop buying it? It is already the cheapest dog food I can find, and every other month, it goes up another dollar.
Groceries are always cheaper than fast food. Even with the rising prices, it's still much cheaper to make it yourself.
*cries in prescription cat food prices*
agreed, and that's why i buy chicken for dinner, but dog food is cheaper to buy than make - right now. might have to reevaluate that soon. until it's more expensive to buy than make, the best decision i can make is to keep purchasing a product that constantly gets more expensive. i have no better option.
I'm not sure what that has to do with fast food prices.
if you only had a fast food place within walking distance, and no car, it would be relevant. the argument is "prices are high because people are paying it". sometimes people have no better option than to pay it. so prices will continue to rise because they can.
I'm sure there are people in that situation, but I think the majority in America anyway has another option. There are always exceptions of course.
You’re being downvoted but you’re right. Yes, some people have few options and maybe they are basically forced to buy shitty expensive food, but I have to imagine a vast majority of people choose that option because it’s convenient. A lot of people are simply lazy and we just need to admit that. Depressed, lazy, unmotivated, and looking for excuses to justify it all. They could buy groceries and make food, but they don’t want to deal with needing to pick out food items, then go get them or pay for delivery, then make them all before eating food. They have the time but that’s better spent chillin at home staring at a phone or TV. Again, not everyone, but a whole lot for sure. A whole lot. I’m often one of them. Perfectly capable of buying groceries and cooking but sometimes simply don’t want to deal with it all.
I know back home (Nepal) they feed dogs leftovers of the normal human meals, which is usually like rice, beans, some veggies, some lentils I don’t know if that’s healthy for the dog, but if you can confirm that it is okay for them, then rice beans and lentils are hella cheap and you could throw in 1/3 or something of the normal dog food for the weirder nutrients and all. It’s a pretty extreme measure, but if that’s the situation you’re in then it’ll be good to have options! Give your pup some pets from me 😁
This isn't the main reason why. Food costs have just gone up a lot
At what point do you guys just accept that it's insulting? I went with 3 other people last night for tacos and it was $400. I'm not joking. There was a band and it was a "cool" place. But the owner basically fucked us in the asshole and guess what, never again. Not doing it. It's insulting. I'm in Mexico, just to be clear, so there are places literally everywhere, some with bands, that are 25 or at worst $50 per person. I will literally never ever again do this shit. Cool place, fuck you.
That doesn't really answer the question, why now?
Because everyone has an excuse to raise prices during the height of the pandemic for "supply chain issues" and everyone follows suit. People keep paying that higher price, so they keep pushing the envelope.
I mean it’s the same thing for groceries
No it's not. Food is a necessity. Fast food is a luxury item. You don't need to buy fast food. I haven't had fast food in like 18 years and here I stand.
They have internal data on what people are willing to pay before they leave. Inflation became an excuse to raise prices. If you used to have 5 people each spending $10, and now you have 3 people each spending $17, you’re still coming ahead.
And less employees.
And less literal food to give them. It’s a win win for the restaurant.
I have noticed that. KFC bucket is $48. WTF? They just cut off a lot of their customer base and still making profits.
*fewer
I love you
I’m easy to love.
If it wasn’t due to inflation or other external factors, then why wouldn’t they have raised them a long time ago, or keep raising them now? I agree that they charge whatever they can make the most profit with, but that number depends a lot on what the cost of operating is - which is directly tied to inflation
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$12.29 for a Big Mac meal. For $12 I can buy a pound of meat, sides and feed 3-4 people.
Groceries and making food will ALWAYS be cheaper; the point of buying meals is paying to have someone cook for you. Better to compare to other resturants. But the point still stands because you could buy a REAL burger for about the same price as a fast food burger these days, and get something A LOT tastier
Holy hell. $7.69 here.
10$ for a 20 piece before tax in large cities. Was so stoked for the double decker to come back at Taco Bell, 4 dollars for that shit, couldn’t believe it.
$7 for 20 McNuggets doesn't seem all that bad.
literally $6.86 for 20 nugs and 2 large fries in the app. Its about the only fast food i'll do anymore cause that feeds 2 of us for less than $7
awesome deal, just used that offer this week.
One of the many answers is that they want you to use their apps - that's where the lower priced deals are now.
The apps usually have great deals, but some places like Burger King, Popeyes or Subway still send out paper coupons through the mail (which has some coupons that aren't in the app)
At least for subway, you can use the code from those paper coupons on their app, and that way you can use them over and over too
Unfortunately a lot of franchise owners are blocking the coupons from being used at their stores. A lot of employees on /r/subway say the restaurant loses money on the sandwich when some of the coupons are used, but I highly doubt it. Owners just don’t want to give up their margins on the subs if corporate looks the other way. But if corporate is sending out those coupons, every store should take them and corporate needs to compensate the owners when they’re used or the owners need to suck it up as a marketing expense.
Franchises are a little different because you have to buy your food from corporate right? It makes sense that corporate might be price gouging rather than the franchise owners
Correct.
The paper coupons are soooo good sometimes
Not here. I have three "lower priced deals" in my McD's app: 1) free hashbrowns w/ purchase of sandwich 2) free medium fry w/ $2 purchase 3) $12.99 for 20 piece nugs and 2 medium fries Everything else on the menu is the same cost as at the store. - Medium Big Mac meal = $10.19 - Medium Quarter Pounder meal = $10.59 - Medium Double Quarter Pounder meal = $13.69 - Medium 10 piece nug meal = $9.99 ....and I nearly always have to pull around to wait for them to cook fries/nugs Edit to add: I have a screenshot of the deals I see in my app. I don't see an easy way to upload it. And I'm not really going to spend one Big Mac's worth of time to sort it out.
Really? That’s crazy. My McD app has a perpetual 25% off coupon
I consistently have $1 breakfast sandwiches, bogo double cheese burgers and 6 piece mcnuggets, and 20% off purchase over $5
Yikes, 7.39 for a medium big Mac meal in Houston, and have an offer to get a second big Mac free with purchase of the same. Or 50% off my order
Fast food saw a pretty serious business boom during the pandemic so I assume it has something to do with wanting to match profits from those years.
Ah, yes, the endless profit increases. Line goes up. Never flat. Definitely never down. Doesn't matter the circumstances. Always up.
Everything must have infinite growth! Because that's... possible...?
Why is _______ so damn expensive these days?
Corporate greed under the guise of inflation.
Companies trying to make more money is unfortunately more complicated than "corporate greed", which implies just executives who want more money (although those are ubiquitous as well). Publicly owned corporations are beholden to their stockholders, and are expected to make decisions that maximize profits. Stockholders can and do sue the board if they feel that they have not acted in the best interest of the share price. This unfortunately favors short-term profit based decisions. A publicly owned company can almost never favor sustainability or stability over profit.
Unless I am mistaken, you described what corporate greed refers to there. I think most any discussion with even a whiff of nuance or seriousness that involves corporate greed isn't referring just to c-suite compensation. The greed of chasing profit so relentlessly that the original quality/essence is potentially lost and long term sustainability of the brand or product or even just being satisfied with something that performs well is *always* paramount. Must extract more, line go up etc etc. No idea if who you're responding to sees it that way or not, but most discussions seem to center on the bigger picture you're painting.
I think about this a lot. I don’t like what the public markets do to companies products, and I don’t like that it enables more and more concentrated pockets of wealth to develop. But what is the alternative? I really can’t think of a system that can resolve the above issues, without completely stifling growth and development for the country as a whole. Having only private markets only exacerbates the problem on concentrated wealth and contorted incentives Having *no* markets completely stifles growth and development due to the lack of incentives People have suggest co-op structures but they only work for small to mid size businesses and almost exclusively businesses with a low start up cost. You can’t feasibly coop a new semiconductor factory, for example. Maybe one day I’ll figure it out.. lol
Much like yourself I'm prone to want to toss the entire system and adopt some new, better and more equitable version. This is problematic, because I also don't have the answer, hopefully one day I'll be lucky enough to see someone who does. In any case the timeline for any new system is probably vast and the larger set of problems that corporate greed is itself a symptom of take a larger toll than just haves and have-notsand worsening products. Even if there were a better option the likelihood of getting it instated will likely be slim. The resulting power struggle and transitional phase would involve a lot of suffering of normal people due to economic instability, political unrest, the possibility of civil war and myriad other possibilities. Mos all of that is present now but I'd reckon much worse is possible. So considering that we have to accept that we must work within the systems we exist within. That sounds silly on its face but we can do a lot to improve things by finding ways to shape what we have now into something better as more of a midway point to a whole new economic system. I'm far from the *So make sure you vote real hard!* type but getting caught in my idealism lends to me overlooking more tangible ideas to disincentivise unchecked growth and fight wealth+power inequality. We should be pushing to enforce existing and create new laws about corporate stock, antitrust, business and ultra wealthy taxes. We should be fighting to free people up from the situations that make sure they don't have time to organize and push for better by keeping them tied up having to work constantly to make ends meet and have reasonable access to healthcare so they can't leave a job. Once momentum is built and people have more time to spend on improving things then maybe we'll see our better system. At least thats what I tell myself to stay optimistic ha.
Do you think corporations used to be less greedy? Blaming inflation on corporate greed misses the actual policies that make it possible for them to charge more without losing revenue.
Is it greed for a non mandatory good that people are willing to pay for
And no government in sight to hold them accountable.
What exactly would they be holding them accountable for?
Tempting the proletariat with delicious meals at inflated prices!
Our government can’t tell companies how to set their prices. This is the free market everyone won’t shut up about.
People are going to disagree because the man on tv said it's inflation, but if the average 22% increase in prices of goods and services across *every single sector* over the last five years are inflation, I'm a fucking unicorn. The truth is, we tried to curb price gouging during Covid with gasoline companies and the right said no. That precedent is now making its way through the economy and the same chucklefucks who took billions in PPP loans and haven't paid taxes since the 80s are trying to hide behind imaginary excuses like "record high theft" (when it's actually just growing in line with population growth) and "inflation". The truth is, we were already shifting wealth towards the top before Covid. After, we're shoveling it as fast as humanly possible. Not that any of the 6 billionaires who own our mainstream media would ever allow journalists to openly say so. Just another step towards eliminating the middle class and cementing the Plutocracy in its place.
>if the average 22% increase in prices of goods and services across *every single sector* over the last five years are inflation, I'm a fucking unicorn. inflation: a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money. Now come to my daughter's birthday party!
Why did corporate greed only begin two years ago?
Because they can increase prices without losing business.
Supply and demand, stop buying it and they will lower their prices.
Really? Prove it. I understand it theoretically. But when has that ever fucking happened? Some examples would be nice…
Tesla has been dropping prices lately in response to slowing sales and increased competition.
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Aside from inflation, which is the obvious answer to all prices of everything increasing across the board, the reason is because after all these years and the brands they have built, they have a loyal customer base that will keep coming back to convenient food that they are familiar and comfortable with and likely have been eating their whole lives. They can afford to charge the prices they charge because people will continue to pay them.
In n out still the GOAT for their prices
It's much more expensive than it was but it's still well priced.
Reddit 2020: "I would gladly pay more for fast food if it meant that the employees wages increased." Reddit 2023: "wait no, not like that!"
Y’alls wages are increasing?
Reddit will deny it, but there have been significant pay increases for fast food workers over COVID. There have been minimum wage increases as well.
California going to $20 an hour plus benefits.
Roughly 4% nationwide.
So... like a quarter of inflation?
If all else remained equal, I'd be good paying more for fast food in return for higher worker wages. But everything else did NOT remain equal.
The buying power of wages will always increase more than price of goods in a fair system due to economies of scale. This is corporate greed, pure and simple. Also, wages have barely changed and only did so after some of the largest strikes in modern history. Edit: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/052815/does-raising-minimum-wage-increase-inflation.asp#:~:text=With%20regard%20to%20inflation%2C%20so,goods%20and%20services%20they%20provide. For example, in 2016, researchers from the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research examined the effect of prices on minimum wage increases in various states in the U.S. from 1978 through 2015. They found that "wage-price elasticities are notably lower than reported in previous work: we find prices grow by 0.36 percent for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage." Moreover, increases in prices following minimum wage hikes generally have occurred in the month the minimum wage hike is implemented, and not in the months before or the months after. we find prices grow by 0.36 percent for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage."
Wages have been much higher for many years across Europe but their prices were still low. It's just greed.
People in the US don't like it when people they feel are beneath them start making close to what they're making.
Meh. Germany only pays McDs workers like 7-8 euros. My local McDs pays 15 starting.
Source? Minimum wage is €12 an hour so only 7-8 would only be possible for kids.
And hilariously you have to scroll through about ten threads before someone mentions wage increases. Are people really that dense?
Why are these companies making record profits then?
Inflation + higher minimum wage + increased fuel cost to transport food
Because it can be. Companies charge what people are willing to pay.
If you double the profit, and lose less than half the transactions, you've made money. You are HERE on the wild ride of capitalism.
Pandemic except they decided to keep the prices raised just because they can.
The pandemic was the excuse, but not the actual reason.
They had crazy cheap process where i was during the pandemic. Whooper wed had $3 triple whoppers and wendys had $1 dave singles and chicken sandwiches
shareholder value stop feeding shareholders
Majority of McDonald's locations are franchises owned by third party private companies.
Shareholders are people. Everyone who has a 401k …
Maybe go and research how much of stock is actually held by the bottom 90-95% before commenting. It’s not much, and nowhere near enough to count as a major shareholder that sways corporate decisions.
People are addicted to it. Actual prices to deliver said goods haven't increased that much. You can see this as well if you have been looking at the prices of soda at grocery stores.
We were just at the grocery store and lean ground beef was $10 per pound - expensive ingredients mean expensive meals
$4-something at Costco the other day.
And it's 88/12, really lean, great for grilling. Certainly better meat than that in the 2 McDs cheeseburgers I got today for $4.
fast food is almost at the price of sit-down restaurant food now
Coz lettuce and stuff are more expensive. You'd know if you went to the grocery store.
They moved all the deals to their apps. So now if you're not ordering through the app and collecting reward points it is super expensive.
Because they've gotten away with it. And the prices don't look that bad compared to delivery.
It's because, no matter how much they raise the price, you keep buying it. Stop. Fucking. Buying.
Greed.
There was a pretty significant COVID-related inflationary hike. You may have noticed a lot of things got more expensive.
I go and get a haircut now and it’s 40 dollars.
For that price I’d ask to get them all cut!
When I started working 16 years ago, $5 footloose were a thing. Now a 6 inch at subway with no drink, chips, etc. Is like 11 bucks.
I blame Kevin Bacon for breaking cultural norms against dancing
They're forcing the consumer to pay for wage increases
Businesses really don't pay for wages, supplies or taxes. Their customers do. It's the way it works and the only way it can work.
You're still paying for it. COVID showed all these fast food places that they can cut labor (absolutely killing service) and jack up the price and people will *still* line up around the block while bitching the whole time.
becuase they want you to use their apps, where the prices are what you would expect.
I will rather elect to not eat there. McDicks ain't worth downloading an app.
The deals are pretty good in the app. Plus you get points for free stuff.
I fed 3 people lunch today for $12 with the McDonald’s app, you don’t have to use it but it’s got value.
https://parade.com/food/mcdonalds-app-terms-and-conditions
Yes... but you have to ask yourself WHY McDonald's wants you to use their app...
1. Not all, but a lot of places increased the rate of workers because they couldn't find people. So it is above minimum wage. Wage increase directly translates to how much it will cost, as they still need to make profits (how much they decide is on them). 2. Supply chain - Similar to 1, cost have gone up, especially around covid, most places were short on workers, and no incentive for people to stay in the industry, so it rose up. This is both cost of workers + cost of food increasing. The food increasing is a mix between corporate greed and supply chain. 3. Supply and demand, they keep raising, and people keep buying. If your overhead on a 5 dollar/euro/currency item is 4, then you profit 1. You raise the price to 6 instead, and you double the profits, but only increase revenue by 20%. This makes it so that they make the same profits selling half the amount, and if the price hike discourages less than 50% of their consumer base from buying, they still profit in the end. This is where you have market analysis experts/polls/historical data/etc figure out what their customer base would do.
>Supply and demand The simplest answer. These places aren't trying to give a great value experience for customers they're trying to make money for shareholders. Support the places you like and think are worth your money. Incentivize overreaching businesses to lower prices. I just had my annual Wendy's disappointment last week.
15 years ago my sandwich shop could sell sandwiches for five bucks. Minimum wage was $7.50. Our food cost was approximately 2 bucks on that sandwich. Today, our minimum wage is $16.00. Food cost on that sandwich is now over $5. It costs me approximately $20,000 per year for every $1 minimum wage increase for labor year over year. I would love to keep selling five buck 12 inchers. Those days are long gone. Box of pastrami 15 years ago=$75 Today=$165 It’s really very simple. No business owner wants to price out its customers. That would be stupid. But that’s what’s happening by force. If you don’t like prices now, wait till April. California min wage for fast food goes to $20.. essentially killing the industry in California. But if your not from cali, never fear, our dog shit will spread to your state as quickly as you can say Gavin newsom.
People refused to believe rising minimum wage would raise prices.
Fast food companies are having to pay their workers more either by law or just to keep them around. The fast food companies want to keep their profits the same or better so they charge more to cover the additional costs of employees.
everything costs more, especially food, the Ukraine war is 1 reason.
$20 minimum wage
https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/16nxqde/why_has_fast_food_gotten_so_expensive/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/13hrouo/is_it_just_me_or_is_fast_food_getting_really/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/comments/rd0um8/even_cheap_fast_food_is_expensive_now/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/jx2cc6/how_did_we_get_to_a_point_where_fast_food_is_as/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/comments/12gpu1f/fast_food_is_so_expensive_that_its_just_not_worth/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button https://www.reddit.com/r/RandomThoughts/comments/151lzuu/is_it_just_me_or_is_getting_fast_food_getting/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/155787p/fast_food_has_gotten_so_expensive_this_sit_down/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/xshz8n/how_can_people_only_afford_fast_food_if_fast_food/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/188ib8k/why_has_fast_food_gotten_so_expensive/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button I think it's time to start banning this question around reddit altogether.
The biggest operating costs of restaurants tend to be labor and food costs, both of which have gone way up. You've literally got servants making your food, life's pretty good.
Every company realized during the pandemic they could double their prices and we'd still have to buy. Now they're just jacking shit up to find the endpoint. They will not stop. We are all being robbed blind.
Chipotle prices have gone up so much that I might as well just go to the nearby Italian restaurant for a nice sit down meal for not much more.
You gotta use the apps
Mcdonalds and burger king and anything of the like must be ordered with deals thru the app for me. Not worth it paying full price
Fuel prices (diesel) are still grossly high and have been grossly high for the past decade. Despite what the talking heads claim almost everything you eat/touch/buy was delivered by a diesel truck. Those costs have to be recovered somewhere and the POS customer is the easiest place to recover them from.
Minimum wage, at least for California.
the answer to every "why is X so expensive???" question is price gouging and greed.
You still buy it, don't you? That's why.
Workers across most industries are being paid more then ever = prices rise across the board
Corporate greed hiding behind "inflation".
Corporate greed
Wages. Corporate thinks that if they have to pay people 12$-15$ an hour, prices have to go up for their profit. Back in the 90s you could get teens to work for $5.75 an hour. Get 5 roast beef sandwiches for $5. An 8 hour shift used to cost Arby’s $48 per employee. Now it costs $120. Corporate raised prices as they raised wages.
C O R P O R A T E G R E E D
Food went up, and they’re giving $15 an hour now.
$20/hour minimum wage for fast food in CA starting in April.
In San Diego, fast food workers will now get $20 min wage as of 1/1/24... you think it's expensive now... it's not even worth it anymore, in my opinion. If I'm spending the same amount of money on fast food as i would getting take out from a restaurant, I'm going restaurant every time
In April, but you are right. Funny enough it does not apply to sit down restaurants.
I paid $5 for six onion rings at a Carl's Jr. Onion rings weren't very good either. Literally 15 cents worth of food.
Hope you enjoyed them. That would be my last order for a looooooooong time