Yeah, prices went up and the quality went down. The best thing to do is stop buying there. As multiple people already pointed out, you can get a lot more and better food for 25 bucks.
The fast food chains forgot that they aren’t actual restaurants. The customers have to remind them. Aaaaaaaand that’s the problem.
I bought a single Big Mac in rural nowhere the day before yesterday. I expected to pay about 4.50. Nope. Almost 7 dollars. 6.80 for single, cold, dry, wilted ass lettuce, dry ass cheese, sloppily made burger. I waited outside for nearly half an hour for it. Girl came to my window and said, “what did you order?” I told her and she still handed me a bag with a 4 piece nugget and a small fry. I had to go in and tell them they got it wrong, show my receipt which was stuck on the bag, then wait another 15 minutes for that cold, yucky sandwich.
The person who ordered the nuggets either left without looking or decided to say “fuck it”, because they didn’t come back in with me.
I would have done that, but I paid 7 bucks for the the shit.
That is it for me.
I don’t get mad when people make mistakes, and I wasn’t mad when all that happened. The only thing that made me mad was the price.
McDonald’s can kiss my ass. A few more dollars and a short wait and I could have got a banging ass meal just down the road at the noodle joint.
It’s the Satanic pursuit of endless profit growth that has driven these companies to Hell. For decades, they focused on expanding the number of stores. But eventually you hit a wall. Eventually the country is saturated, and marketing can only convince people to eat so many burgers.
In a sane world, this is when companies would be content with their current size. Congrats. You won capitalism. Good job. Now just maintain your current size and pay out handsome dividends forever. No need to keep trying to grow.
Well, that’s not good enough for Satanic capitalism; the growth needs to come from somewhere. So they have to start slashing quality and raising prices. It’s enshittification/late-stage capitalism. When you max out growth, all that’s left is to raise prices and cut quality. Ultimately this does destroy a business, but Satanic capitalists only care about short-term concerns.
It’s a bummer.
Like, all around.
When I was a kid, going to town was an event. We’d head down to the local hardware store which stocked NES and SNES games for us kids, had a section for toys and everything. Nothing fancy, just water guns and action figures. My mom actually talked the guy into stocking Nintendo games so we didn’t have to travel two towns over to get them. We’d leave there and my mom would take us to Speedy’s for a haircut. (They recently tore his old building down. I hated to see it). Then we’d walk down to the fabric shop so my mom could buy some stuff to make curtains and things. Once we were done there we’d go down to the little grocery store, the owner always gave me and my brother a lollipop and a dollar bill. Then we’d go from place to place browsing and window shopping.
Walmart ended all of that when it came to my town. People fought it for a long time and finally compromised and let them build on the highway.
I liked capitalism before it got like this. When people owned their towns and local businesses.
They thought they tapped out the fast food market and had to attract restaurant goers.
People in comments saying to cook for yourself. I do cook for myself but geez grocery prices aren’t making it easy.
I cook for myself and it’s still not good
Three cans of hoppin johns beans, one can of chilli beans, 1 oz can of tomato sauce, 1/2 lb ground beef several onions sliced, garlic. About $20-25 for this and if makes 5-6 meals.
“fast” food? ha! try standing in line while a bunch of dickhead doordashers get to cut you in line. try walking into an empty establishment only to wait 20 minutes for a sandwich because of all the idiots that want to pay twice the price for a fucking meal.
I’ll say I live in a big city and have never once used Doordash/Uber Eats/any other exploitative meal delivery app for that reason. But even then you’re not safe.
I once placed an online order for takeout, ordered on the actual site for the restaurant (not any of those branded online order services hosted by the meal delivery companies), picked the option that said I’d walk over and pick it up, and then was told when I got there that Doordash already came by and grabbed it.
I then get a call on my phone from a Doordash driver asking where I live, because it wasn’t included with the order for some reason (gosh I can’t imagine why that would be). After spending 5 minutes explaining that I would not give them my address because I was at the restaurant and never ordered delivery, they show up 10 minutes later and hand me a cold bag of takeout.
Amazing service.
That sounds like a real outlier. Never had anything like that happen on a pickup order.
Outlier maybe, but definitely something that only happened because of the fact that delivery drivers are allowed to walk right up to wherever prepared orders are kept and take whatever is there with no questions asked.
It’s usually not that messed up, but yes, some restaurants do delivery through DoorDash/Uber. I’ve had that happen at multiple places: get excited that a restaurant offers delivery but then cancel when I find out it’s uber eats.
please tell me you got a refund and ate elsewhere
I’m a fairly nonconfrontational person so I just took my cold food without argument and heated it up again at home. The restaurant at least comped part of the bill by way of apology.
sounds like you might be more of the google review type…
Can’t say I’ve ever left reviews online, either. Not looking to shame or name drop a struggling restaurant, just to commiserate about the flawed and exploitative system of gig labor.
i assumed it was a bigger chain-type restaurant. the owner would probably actually appreciate a kind call to let them know what happened.
edit - like, a call where you say something like ‘sorry, i’m not calling to complain, but something weird happened the other day that might bother some of your other customers if it happened to them’
sounds like they’re just trying to figure out how to slot all the uber-important orders into their workflow.
I would have made them remake it, since they let someone run off with my food.
Sounds fun. Maybe I’m missing something but I wouldn’t expect a local restaurant to have rolled their own takeout backend. Are you actually seeing places that do? The branding might be subtle, but I’d be really surprised if they weren’t using a canned service.
They’re mostly contracted services, but I meant more that it wasn’t the services managed directly by the big food delivery companies like Grubhub/Uber Eats/Doordash etc.
If I don’t order through Doordash, I would expect no involvement from a Doordash driver whatsoever.
A lot of people are saying to learn to cook, but things aren’t that simple. Many people know how to cook perfectly well but order out anyway, either because they’re busy or because they have mental health conditions that make cooking incredibly stressful.
We need to change our economic system so that CEO bonuses aren’t inflating the prices of people’s food. This would make it easier for people to eat out more often if they feel they need to. It shouldn’t break the bank to get simple meals at a restaurant.
I have a small, poorly designed and lit kitchen. Next place I buy will have a much better kitchen.
The downtown experience: $45 burger with a side of truffle fries. It’s mediocre at best.
Lol, and they charge you for the fries.
I mean… at least it’s still fast, right?
Seriously though, I don’t remember the last time I ate fast food. If we don’t count pizza delivery that is.
A Costco hot dog+soda is still $1.50, and good.
Steak and Shake is still pretty cheap too, and darn good.
Cheap fast food is still out there… if you know where to look. But it’s definitely not McDonalds, Chick-Fil-A or any of the giga chains.
That’s Taco bell in India. Never had such expensive, shitty food before.
I’ve heard that Indian street food can be so unhygienic that a YouTuber almost got seriously ill after eating it. There are tons of videos showing Indian street food vendors where the food looks unsanitary and even dangerous.
If you’re local you know where to go but your immune system is also used to the baseline contaminants that exist. To eat street food as a traveler you risk a few days-weeks of stomach upset but after you get through that you’re usually ok for while.
India isn’t special for it, same concerns exist in any country that doesn’t have reliable clean water or well enforced food safety standards. If the FDA, EPA, and USDA aren’t fixed soon this will soon be true in the USA as well.
How do you “ almost” get seriously ill?
more like it almost killed him.
I’ve heard that Indian street food can be so unhygienic
True. But at least it’s cheap. Taco Bell in India is as expensive as a full dinner at a good restaurant.
unsanitary and even dangerous.
I mean yeah… That’s what you get when you visit/live in an unregulated, corrupt hellhole.
Or order delivery, and buy the same thing from 3 different places because all of them sell the same cheap frozen / deep fried crap that turns cold amd soggy by the time it gets to you
During these trying times I just get 2 hot dogs from Sam’s. Can’t beat $3 lunch.
I’ve been eating a metric fuckton of hot dogs lately. I get a pack of 8 for $3.99 and a pack of cheap but not too cheap buns for like $3. Roughly $7 for four “meals” isn’t bad (except for my health maybe).
Plus I cut lines in them and air fry them and toast the buns, so, you know, fancytrash
Onion and bell pepper chopped and sautéed for a topping brings a whole lever of flavor without costing much. So fancy you need to eat with your pinky extended.
I like making Chicago dogs. Tomatoes, onions, a pickle slice, and mustard. I’ll skip the sport peppers unless I can find some good ones.
This is the realest meme I have ever seen.
Fast food and major chains have gotten absurd. I used a gift card at Red Robin a couple months back. It was $19 before tip for a dry burger and bland fries. Two bucks more could’ve gotten me a seat and meal at a five-star local place just down the street. The value just isn’t there anymore. Eating local almost always tastes better, feels better, and costs the same or less. Why settle for mediocrity when better is right around the corner?
$25 for fast food for a single person? Two McDoubles, a small fry and a small drink is $11.05 here in Canada. More than enough food for a quick meal.
In the US I use the app to get 2 mcchickens and a large fry on Friday for $4. Does the job just fine.
We also have a $5 mcdouble, 4pc mcnugget, small fry and small drink combo. You can’t just walk in and order what you want if you want a good price, unfortunately - but theres still some value to be had if you at least try - that $5 combo is on the app, drive through board, and the in store kiosk.
Eww McDonals. I’d rather just go hungry
I spent roughly 16 USD on my order, I normally got two bacon mcdoubles no onions, a large fry and a large lemonade. This same meal used to be 11/12$ less than 4 years ago
Prices have definitely gone way up, but the only way you’re paying $25 for fast food is if you’re getting it doordashed, and if you’re doing that, you are the problem.
The first time my usual Taco Bell order cost $25 instead of $15 I said “How much?? Are you sure??” He sheepishly said “ Yeah… we raised our prices because of Covid. Do you want to cancel your order?”
It’s not going to go back down.
On my birthday a couple weeks ago I was looking at getting two nugget meals from McDonalds for me and my roommate. It wasn’t delivery, was pick up in the store. Was with a coupon.
$23.
Nah bro. Shit just expensive now.
I mean that’s for two people. So your meal cost was half of that.
I got the value one on a coupon and it was still half that.
My point still stands.
I have no idea why you’re trying to argue that fast food isn’t expensive anymore when it just is lol
Not saying it’s not expensive, nor am I saying it’s worth the money. Just saying there’s a big difference between $12 and $25. And that people who are willing to way overpay to get shit food doordashed really fuel the low standards in delivery food.
Stop eating that shit and its not a problem
