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

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.

UncleGrandPa ,

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

BonesOfTheMoon ,

We have this local market with an excellent hot food and submarine bar in my work neighbourhood, and it’s the only place I ever go. Not only is it super inexpensive, the people who own it won the lottery some years ago and just don’t charge you tax. The price says 6 dollars, it’s 6 dollars. You buy a few things, she rounds down the price to 10 bucks at the register. The place is always packed with those in the know, and they must make a ton of money even doing it this way. Explore your local hole in the wall places and support local and eat better if you are able. It’s worth the effort and time rather than giving McDonald’s more money.

We also have a local dumpling place where I get a huge box of veggie dumplings for 8 bucks. It’s just a little nothing of a storefront. It’s fantastic.

BigMacHole ,

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

BonesOfTheMoon ,

I’ll buy you a value menu french fries as a bet that they only do it for Chik Fil A.

mechoman444 ,

A big Mac is like 11 bucks right now. The fuk.

BaardFigur ,

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    MrBusiness ,

    I wouldn’t say they’re cheaper, just now less expensive than the alternative. Gotta stick with the beans, lentils, rice, and some veggies since most other stuff is expensive. Fruit seems like a luxury with their prices most of the time.

    Shadywack ,
    @Shadywack@lemmy.world avatar

    I really see a lot of grocery prices, and the complaints about them, and then I look at how grocery stores mostly stock some permutation of corn and 5+ aisles of snack shit that’s worse for you than even fast food, while being comparably expensive. The truth is that buying core ingredients and actually cooking, preparing a meal, from scratch, saves you a shit ton of money over the bullshit most people buy. The issue is really that of time budget, in hustle culture we get so busy living life and being tied to the toil of work that the time left to reasonably cook for yourself falls off.

    The idea of stepping back, forcing boundaries, and learning this skill, while painful, is still a good thing. Eating less shit, and more good ingredients, leads to better health overall. I hate the price gouging but love what this may lead to. Just fucking cook something healthy with real ingredients, and you may find it’s not just lentils, beans, potatoes, and cheap shit. People might check out some recipes and rediscover the produce area with cheap as fuck awesome ingredients and make stuff that restaurants typically don’t match on quality because the fucking same Sysco Foods truck just drops of microwaveable shit at each restaurant in town and they all just serve you fucked up gross shit you could’ve done far better than on your own.

    Draegur ,

    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.

    rapechildren ,

    www.vidlii.com/watch?v=-HkErc-xfRK

    JudahBenHur ,

    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

    Dkarma ,

    7.45 is a whole chicken and some other stuff where I am

    JudahBenHur ,

    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.

    killjuden ,

    www.vidlii.com/watch?v=-WsMgmNsRuD

    J12 ,

    If I eat fast food I always check their apps first for any deals. Arby’s had some decent deals a month ago (free sandwich with $3 purchase) but nothing since then and no chance I’m spending $12 for an Arby’s meal.

    McDonald’s App is a little more consistent although they’ve got rid of a lot of the good deals.

    Without the apps I wouldn’t eat at these places. It’s cheap food at nearly sit down prices.

    skuzz ,

    And the apps exist so the companies can at least gather telemetry from your mobile device, so you’re still paying for them, just…in a different way.

    J12 ,

    Yep, they get no permissions except location right when I’m beside the location and they get removed immediately afterwards. And the email gets sent through the Apple hide my email. I’m sure they got more info but they gotta work for the rest.

    woodenskewer ,
    @woodenskewer@lemmy.world avatar

    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

    restaurantbusinessonline.com/…/mcdonalds-ceo-chri…

    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.

    Sorgan71 ,

    good. Maybe people will stop eating shit

    EnderMB ,

    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.

    3volver ,

    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.

    EnderMB ,

    Literally the first Google result amongst hundreds.

    thrivemarket.com/blog/natural-food-prices

    Processed, crappy food will always be more expensive than natural, whole foods like vegetables.

    Sorgan71 ,

    Fast food is more expensive

    EnderMB ,

    That’s not what my comment says. I’ve said that processed food will always be cheaper, so you’re just replacing shit for shit.

    Sorgan71 ,

    not always

    Jode ,

    It cost damn near 40 bucks to get two Jimmy John’s sandwiches delivered. I could make 40 sandwiches for that price.

    Retrograde ,
    @Retrograde@lemmy.world avatar

    Jimmy Johns has definitely been a rip off since before covid

    Lets_Eat_Grandma ,

    delivered

    How much would you charge a stranger to go to a store, pick up an order, and drive it to their house?

    RecursiveParadox ,
    @RecursiveParadox@lemmy.world avatar

    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.

    Dkarma ,

    Scared folks are desperate folks and desperate folks are trying to take your shit.

    Joelk111 ,

    Wendy’s biggie bag is the only good deal in chained fast food right now. Otherwise you’ve gotta find a local joint with good prices.

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