this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2024
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Housing Bubble 2: Return of the Ugly
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I'd say the real concern here is that someone is spending over $30 at Burger King. For that much I could have gone somewhere good.
People have families that also need to eat.
That's just it, though. A lot of fast food places have been pricing themselves up to the point where they're meeting the price of proper sit-down restaurants. The only thing they have to offer at this point is convenience. It's just not worth buying fast food any more.
Last time I went to Taco Bell, I paid $27 for two people, and was told to wait in a parking space. 25 minutes later, they brought out our cold stale food. I could phone in a takeout order from the fancy local Mexican restaurant up the road for almost the same price, same wait, and better food. So convenience is not even part of it, at least where I live.
That’s pretty bad. Taco Bell has been consistently decent in the few states that I’ve lived, but every franchise has some variation in quality.
This one was consistently decent until the last year or so. It’s one of the few places that’s still open past 9:00 since 2020, and the only place open after 11:00, so I was going about once a week on my late night. Lately it’s just not worth the time, money, health, or disappointment.
I’m sure it’s because they’re understaffed. The other two Taco Bells nearby have always been bad though.
There's so many reasons to still get fastfood.
Some people, especially kids, actually like it.
Some people are picky eaters or have difficulty with a lot of foods due to neurodivergence, and fast food is often the lowest common denominator within a group of people.
Some people are on the go and fast food might be the quickest thing to get (not always the case, I know).
Some people don't live in a city or town or don't have access to transportation to a different place, or the time to go there. A fast food place might be the closest place to get food.
You might be in a new location and want to go with a chain so you know what you can expect.
It might just be the only place that's open on a Sunday or at night.
I personally never get fast food from these international chains anymore, but I realize that's because I have access to plenty of different options, and I actually like to cook (if I have the time).
This wasn't really a discussion about whether or not people need fast food. The main issue is that fast food places are selling low quality food options at high prices compared to restaurants that are selling higher quality foods with personal service.
I don't want to spend $15-20 on a meal that just tastes like different textures of salt. At that price, I expect some quality food, and fast food prices clearly don't match the quality they're providing.
Ah yeah sorry that makes sense, i sometimes miss the point of online discussions
Judging by the last time I went to Burger King that $30 probably paid for 2 people to eat. There are plenty of good restaurants I can go to and get an entree for $15 or possibly less.
No good restaurant has a $15 entree unless your idea of good is Chile’s. Which is fine, no judgment to those who enjoy Chile’s and such. But let’s be clear here.
That depends very much where you live. Around me, 8-15 is a pretty standard range for decent sit-down places. You can pay more, but most places hit that range pretty squarely. Depending where you go, you can get burgers and the like for under $4, much better quality than fast food, but not sit down places.
Wages here are pretty damned low, though, so they really can’t charge a lot and actually have business.
I agree depends very much on where you live but anywhere where Burger King costs over $30 is going to be more expensive than the kind of areas you are talking about. That seems to be the underlying assumption in this thread at least.
But that really isn’t true either because fast food has gotten quite out of control here as well.
A large whopper meal at the closest place is almost $17. So you could easily hit $30 for 2.
Dude a whopper meal doesn’t cost $17 anywhere. A cursory google search will show you that. The most expensive I see is $12 and that is 1 source. The rest run $6-$10 typically.
Dunno what to tell you man, that’s what comes up here on the bk website. There’s a whole 2 locations within an hour of me. I don’t eat fast food and I’m not about to install their app just for this conversation, so but hey, let’s even say the $16.70 is a whole 20% higher than the actual price.. that’s still like $14 for the large meal, which still puts it squarely within the $30/2 range.
I tend to agree with @[email protected] , prices can vary wildly, in my area I'm closer to his 12ish bucks. This is for a large meal WITH cheese and bacon
Where do you live?! I ate a Mexican lunch so fat I nearly exploded. $20, tip and all.
Lunch specials i would say certainly deserve an asterisks, and $20 is a lot of money for one meal.
Well yeah $15 is not going to get you haute cuisine prepared by Chef Ramsay himself, but there are tons of little local spots that fall in that range. Hell, I could get Chinese take out or a whole pizza and spend less than $30, and those are both better than Burger King lol
Where the hell do y’all live? Because round here plenty of places have good entrees for $15, sure it’s been creeping up to 18 lately but I’m pretty sure I can get a decent meal for that.
I appreciate the unexpected turns this comment took.
If that’s the point no one made it until now lol
I can feed my family at a sit down restaurant for about the same price as fast food, and the food is better on top of it...
I keep hearing this sentiment but I've yet to find a single real world example.
So I have to use doordash to look at pricing cuz I'm not installing the McDonald's app.
The quarter pounder with cheese it is $10.59 for the combo meal. It used to be just over $2 when I was a teenager.
Using DoorDash still but for a local restaurant called muddy cow, the cheeseburger meal there is $13.
So I can go to McDonald's and will cost me $11 or I can go to the sit down restaurant and it'll cost me $13. And the sit down restaurant the burger was fresh cooked, I get way more fries (and frankly better fries), and I don't act like pickles are the most valuable thing on the planet.
I don't know just open up door dash and start looking at prices around you that's what I did.
So, to try and prove your point, you're looking at a third party delivery service, who is known to change prices to maximize said third parties bottom line? 🤔
Feel free to get in a car and go drive around tonight look at prices. You said you didn't see proof I provided proof and then you complaining cuz you don't like it cuz it's not in the context that you wanted. This is on you.
"go spend your time and money to prove me right because I wasn't able to prove myself right about a stranger spending 2 dollars more than I would" 🤦♀️🤦♀️
Hey, guess what - not everyone is able to go out to eat (not only due to physical disability, but lack of time and energy, and lets not forget a pandemic is still raging out there, and some people can't just ignore it like the rest of you).
The fact that you're getting all high and mighty over a poster whose life you know nothing about, for the sake of 2 dollars says a lot more about you than spending 30 bucks on fast food says about well, anyone.
What is your actual malfunction!?
I have two words of advice. One take your own advice, because everything you just yelled at me about applies to you.
Two context, I have no idea what you're talking about. The conversation was about is fast food price similar to sit down restaurant price. It was 11:00 p.m. so I used an app where I could see multiple restaurant pricings in one central location. You're over here getting on your goddamn high horse. You need to go reevaluate your priorities.
For $30 you can order a week’s worth of meal kit for two (6 meals) from some of the cheaper meal kit websites.
Ignoring the fact that you also need the spare time and energy to prepare a fresh meal every day after potentially working 2 or 3 jobs and maybe taking care of a couple of kids. And never mind disabled people who can't cook for themselves...
It's interesting how people who make these judgments like you never seem to be this critical of the people who own the fast food chains and actively make the decision to sell shit food for obscene prices, or our economy forcing people in to corners where it's their only option (even if it isn't yours). I guess it's just so much easier punching down, eh?
Yes. So why TF are they buying from Burger King? That's not food.
And $30 at any fast food place these days does not feed a family.
"And by God, it better be Burger King"
Not around here, take out is going to be $40-50+ for two people even at cheap places.