I’ve pulled back as well. They’ve eliminated all their good coupons and increased all their prices to the point where a more upscale restaurant is on equal footing in price and far ahead in quality.
McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, and Burger King all compete on being cheap, filling, and of adequate quality for most people. Now they’re not cheap anymore and I can get Cane’s, Popeye’s, Culver’s, and Five Guys for nearly the same price. What incentive to I have to choose McDonald’s/BK/TB/etc? Also, I don’t drink soda, so no value meal options anywhere for that. I’ll never buy that $5 meal deal.
Taco Bell’s chili cheese burrito is $3.79. Beef and bean burritos are $2.49 for gods sake. That shit used to be 89 cents. Even with inflation it should only be about $1.50. McDonald’s double cheeseburger is $3.79, too. BKs app deals are a joke and what was once a pretty good value meal is basically toast. Same at Wendy’s, and they’re also investigating surge pricing for food, even though they walked it back.
I’m glad folks are voting with their wallets and saying no more to this crap. I get prices go up in the long term but damn, this feels more like price gouging than inflation.