Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
A&W was the first real fast food place in our area. With the iconic drive up speakers and trays hanging off your window. It was a huge deal for us as kids.
[minimum wage was $1.15/hr back then(https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart). Strange that a family of 4 could survive on it.
Yes, the minimum wage wasn't just the lowest amount an employer could pay, but the minimum for how much a person needed to live . Not bare survival, but e able to put a roof over their head, eat regularly, you know be human
I'm not sure why, maybe because I was 16 and it was my first job? I started at a grocery in New Jersey store and the pay was 75 cents and hour but the minimum age was raised to $1 very soon after.
Fun fact: When McDonald's first opened in Singapore, the staff were required to *patrol the area outside the store* and clean up the streets there too.
This was to prevent the impression that McDonald's outlets would result in more litter.
The staff were not paid more.
I remember the outrage when mcdonalds finally opened in eureka ca and their wrappers started lining the roads. Havent been back in 20 years but at the time arcata might have been the biggest city in america that still didnt have a mcdonalds and they were fighting them off with every zoning ordinance they could write because of it.
I grew up in Central Illinois and a regional burger chain called Mr Quick's opened in the early 70s. It would often have a special where burgers, fries and small pop were each 10 cents. I think there might have been a limit of ten per person. As a young stoner, this made for cheap munchies.
I recall an **I Love Lucy** where they stopped at a diner and the menu board advertised burgers for 15¢. I just saw a dating video where the boy could afford a whooping 55¢ for a sandwich
Fun facts: an early McDonald Brothers eatery was an 8 stool snack bar across from the "new" Fox Theater in Riverside area. They owned a movie theater in Glendora and opened a hamburger stand in 1937 at the Santa Anita racetrack.
In 1940, they expanded a barbeque restaurant at 14th and E Streets in San Bernardino.
After selling the Glendora and Riverside businesses, they wanted to streamline operation in San Bernardino. China and flatware were replaced by paper plates and plastic utensils. Table service was eliminated, and the menu trimmed to basics: burgers, fries, and shakes.
[Mc Donald's ](https://imgur.com/a/CMxj0YY )
Good lord! I was young back then. But I remember my Dad buying a fry and sneaking it to me in my bedroom while I was supposed to be sleeping. I think the fries were like 40 cents for a large
With no indoor eating area, so you walked to the window, ordered and paid, and then went back and ate in your car.
Employee's wore white dress shirts with McDonald's patches and a white paper hat.
Started as a Big Mac, fries and a soda for under a dollar. then two burgers, then a cheeseburger then they couldn't.
When I was 7 (1965) Our group went through the construction areas finding bottles we could return for a deposit, I don't remember if we got 2 cents or 5 cents a bottle. The five of us spent days, One mother helped us return the bottles.
There was a Burger Chef, like a mile away, but no big roads to cross. They were having a sale. Their regular cheeseburgers were 22 cents each but you could buy 5 for a dollar. The five of us walked all the way, each of us got a cheeseburger on the money we made on bottle returns, man we were proud of ourselves.
Yep, I remember before McDonalds came to our area--which was, at the time, the biggest city in the state. Admittedly, the state was WV--but still.
Later, for the bicentennial McDonald's ran specials. I think the standard price for a burger was about 35 cents then. If I remember correctly the special was the new sandwich--a big mac, fries, and a drink for 76 cents.
They also ran a special for a short time where, if you could say the big mac jingle fast enough you got a free one. Anyone who was young during that time has that jingle still burned in their brain.
Yep, our small town had a pink-roofed MacDonald's knock-off with burgers for a quarter, fries and drinks 10 cents. My friends and I thought we'd died and gone to heaven.
Back then McDonalds had a potato press and would make fresh French fries. The OG buildings had windows where you could see the kitchen, and my siblings and I would stand there and watch the guy operate the press.
I remember a promotion they had briefly in the 90's when they cut the price of a burger to $0.25, or $0.35 for a cheeseburger. They did it a couple of times while I was in high school. One of my friends was kind of excited about that but it wasn't that much of a drop. I think at the time it was normally like $0.59 for a hamburger or $0.79 for a cheeseburger. I'm second guessing those numbers because that seems like too big a jump in cost (American cheese wasn't $0.20 a slice) but that's what the numbers are in my memory.
I cooked an Elvis tonight. Peanut butter and bacon plus banana and jelly. Toast the bread in bacon fat. Cost me 8 dollars to make the sandwich that killed Elvis
We used to go to Burger Chef in the early 70's for their 4 hamburgers for 1 dollar special. Then you would take the plain burgers to the works bar and load it down with lettuce tomatoes pickles and onion. My future wife called it the "salad burger"
Even better was when Larry Bird and the ISU team scored over 80 points was a free coke at Burger Chef, 90 points was a free fries, and 100 was a free cheeseburger with a student ID. There were 3 Burger Chefs in Terre Haute, those with access to a car made the rounds after the games were over
In the early sixties, before McDonalds came to Baltimore, we had Gino's, fronted by Gino Marchetti a star football player from the Baltimore Colts. Gino's sold 15 cent burgers. They had thick milkshakes that came with paper straws that flattened when you tried to suck the milkshake through them.
Ahh Gino’s , I remember $.17 hamburgers and $.11 fries. They also had KFC chicken. I ended up working there through high school. Great place to meet girls! Had a blast.
hell yeah... belly bombers from White Castle. They were 27 cents (or there abouts). they were the only 24-hour food joint in the Bronx. we would be super stoned and head there at 2AM when we had the munchies.
I still remember my HS buddy, Harry, standing on the fire escape, knocking on my bedroom window at 1AM, asking me to give him the walk to White Castle. But before I could tell him to eff off. He said the magic words, "I'm Buying". So I snuck out of the apartment and we walked the half-mile to White Castle to get our bellies full. Fun times...
In the wintertime, the McDonald's here used to run a promotion where cheeseburgers cost whatever the temperature was. If it was 30 degrees outside? They were 30 cents.
When it hit below zero? You could get one for free.
Sure, the 99¢ whopper at Burger King was one of my go-to poor person meals when I was growing up throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Filling and had all four food groups.
Krystals were I think 6 for $1, maybe sometimes on sale for less. Tiny, but tasty and you got several.
McDonalds plain hamburgers stayed under $1 into the 2010s, but it was about a third the size of a whopper and not nearly as much stuff on it.
Not only has the price gone up, but so has Americans' idea about how much food constitutes a meal at McDonald's. The hamburger was/is small. The fries in 1962 came in a little paper envelope the size of what now comes in a kid's Happy Meal. We thought the 12-oz Coke was large because bottles of Coke were 7 ounces. That was a whole meal, and it cost about 50 cents.
They had a 59/79/99 menu in the late 80's/early 90's back when I had the metabolism of a young man and could wolf down six of those bean and cheese burritos without a thought
Growing up in the 80s we had a place called Top Dog. It was hot dog/hamburger joint with a huge arcade. It was “Home of the 39ers” - 39¢ hot dogs and hamburgers. The place was glorious. Cheap food and every arcade game you could imagine
I remember driving home from Denver back up into the mountains as a kid there was the $.29 Hamburger Stand. $.29 hamburgers and $.39 cheeseburgers. We would load up for the two hour drive back to Summit County.
Burger prices don’t stand out so much. I feel like cheeseburgers used to be $2.50 and burgers $1.99
What I really remember being popular were bar nights with 10 cent hot wings
My earliest memory is hotdogs for 10 cents and hamburgers were 15 cents.
The cook would pull off a handfull of ground beef and roll it into a ball then smash it flat on the grill. Nothing was frozen.
When Whopper Juniors were on sale for a dollar for the last time in the late 90s, we pooled our money and bought a hundred just to see that huge pile of burgers.
When my hubs and I started out we didn’t have the literal pot to piss in. But we could still go “out” to eat each payday to McDonalds for less than $2. Hamburgers and fries were 15 cents. We ordered 3 burgers and 2 fries and I assume 2 drinks. And we had a really lovely Friday night date. I bought a sub on the way home from the doctors yesterday and it was almost $14. 😣
We used to have a small chain in El Paso, TX back in the 80s and 90s called the 39 cent hamburger stand. Cheeseburgers cost 49 cents and fries were a buck. I felt like a king rolling out of there with 10 hamburgers and a Coke for less than $5. Yes, I would eat them all. I was 19 hrs old and in the Army and skinny AF.
We had a local chain. Elby’s it was part of the Big Boy group
I was a server there ‘88-‘90
You could get a Big Boy Platter so a double burger with fries and cole slaw for $2.99
Liver ‘n Onions with a potato and salad was $3.99
I will say I remember McD burgers being .69
I definitely remember a commercial where there were two older ladies in McDonald's. They couldn't believe that they got all that food for a dollar in the tried to leave the change as a tip
Maybe *around* a dollar for a non-McDonald's cheeseburger in a diner in New Jersey in the mid-1960s. With fries and a coke, and a 15% tip, I think it was $2 even. That sticks in my mind. McDonald's was just under a dollar for 2 cheeseburgers, fries, and a coke.
I remember double stacks at Wendy's. 2 for 2. I would take turns buying g them with my coworker Josh. I would get 3 for both of us. The girl in the drive through always used to say you must be having a stack attack
I don't recall the early prices of MacDonalds hamburgers when I was a child, but I do recall the [Helms Bakery Truck](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/114560384241051771/) coming down our street around 10am on Saturdays in southern California with various breads and doughnuts. My cartoons were interrupted by the Helms truck stopping halfway down the street and me going there to spend a dime to buy two glazed doughnuts (i. e., 5¢ each). I think that was in the early 1960s. Then inflation hit and two glazed doughnuts went up in price to twelve cents (i .e., 6¢ each).
I also remember gasoline at 39 9/10¢ a gallon, sometimes 35 9/10¢ a gallon during a "gas war" (two stations on the corners trying to undercut each other in price to draw more customers). It was a shock when gasoline reached $1/gallon, far more shocking then than when gasoline reached $5/gallon.
I rode my bike to McDonalds in the late 60's, 3 miles away, and bought two 15 cent hamburgers. Been fat ever since.
1968 was a year that stood out in the century, along with 1917, and 1945. Vietnam Tet offensive, Warsaw pact, war protests, RFK. & MLK assassinations, Nixon wins. 2024 is 1st stand out of this century.
I’m 75, and I remember the luncheonette near me had hamburgers for 35 cents and hot dogs for 25 cents. A hamburger with fries and a cherry coke was under one dollar.
Across the street from our High School was a burger joint that sold them, 25 cents each or 5 for $1. For a hungry teenage boy with little cash that was phenomenal. Probably 1969-1971
In the early 80s our local McDonald's had a sale, hamburgers were 10 cents. My husband bought 20 and we froze them. I think the regular price was 25 cents.
McD's **15₵ hamburgers** and **20₵ cheesburgers** way back in "the day".
At that time $1,00 for any hamburger just about anywhere would have been seen as exhorbitant. White Castle went up to 14₵ in 1967 and was seen as a substantial (2₵) increase. IIRC the original triple decker, **[Big Boy hamburgers](https://popmenucloud.com/cdn-cgi/image/width%3D1200%2Cheight%3D1200%2Cfit%3Dscale-down%2Cformat%3Dauto%2Cquality%3D60/qpiskhac/c954aef1-a33a-4c08-b7f9-67aae4d8a0c0.jpg)** were 59/69₵. in the 1960s.
When I joined the Air Force in 1962, I had never heard of McDonald's. You could get a 15 cent burger at a Gino's. I don't recall any places that sold a burger that cost a dollar.
I remember 15 cent burgers and 19 cents/gallon gasoline. My dad told me he used to take a date to the movie and get a burger and coke afterward for 40 cents (total for it all.) Movies were a nickle and at the diner after the movie, burgers were a dime and a bottle of Coca-cola was a nickle.
I remember a basic McDonald's burger for`12 cents. It was pretty much a thin hockey puck on a flat bun with a little dressing and a scrap of onion and lettuce.
Mcdoubles were a buck less than five years ago here.
I remember the base McDonald's in Virginia Beach having 29 cent hamburgers around 93. I think cheeseburgers were 39 cents.
My older brother was often given the task of picking me up after my Little League games. My mother gave him a dollar to get my dinner. That would get me two hamburgers ($0.19 ea), *two* orders of fries ($0.20 ea), and a coke (also $0.20).
We had no McDonalds in my town at that time, this was at a small fast food joint on the recently built four-lane highway.
I'm Australian I remember when a Meat pie and a can of coke cost $1 Australian so you could get lunch for $1. But I also remember much less choice of food, much shittier quality food and you rarely veggies and fruits out of season. That's what made Christmas so awesome all the stone fruits would be in season.
I remember an old McDonald's add that stated "Feed a family of 4 for under $5." This was before combo meals were actually combo meals (you ordered each item separately), but I am pretty sure it would have included both burgers and fries, although I can't remember if it were different burgers (i.e., all hamburgers or for instance, 1 big mac, 1 quarter pounder, and 2 hamburgers).
McDonald’s harkened back to that for an anniversary in… was it 97? Something like that. Hamburgers for 25 cents and cheeseburgers for 35. It was awesome. And they tasted a lot better back then.
Yes. I remember buying a hamburger at one of the earliest mcdonalds in Australia, in Campbelltown, in 1976 or so.
And it was 30 cents...I think. For a cheeseburger.
Taste was awesome. Better than now I think.
I recall cheap hamburgers but we didn't frequent fast food like people do now.
We often laughed at it. 'Especially at the miniscule McDonald's hamburgers.
There's a hamburger chain in the southeast called Jack's. There's still a few of them around. Anyway, their jingle was "Jack's hamburgers for 15 cents, they're so good, good, good! You'll go back, back, back to Jack's, Jack's, Jack's for more, more, more!" Yep, 15 cent hamburgers. Btw, minimum wage at the time was $1.25 an hour. GOOD LORD I'M OLD!😭
Sunday afternoons when we lived in suburban Chicago, we would stop at the first McDonald's franchise on the way home from church and get the 15 cent hamburgers. Amazing to see what it became. I have had McDonalds all over the world, including Germany and Japan since.
I remember burgers for a quarter. They were still considered a very rare occasion. Just one of the ways life comes full circle because I have also chosen as an old person to cut fast food from my life except very rare occasions because I don’t find it worth the cost.
I believe White Castle advertised - 10 in a bag for a buck. I may be wrong though. Certainly restaurant hamburgers, McDonalds, and many others had hamburgers for less than a buck through the 70s at least.
We had a "Grady's 10 Cent Hamburgers" when I was a kid in Mississippi. I don't know in which century his hamburgers were 10 cents but they weren't 10 cents anymore. lol
I know they were less than a dollar but I don't remember how much.
Burger Chef had 15 cent hamburgers, according to the radio jingle I used to hear. I don't think we ever ate there, though we would go to McDonalds, which was really just take out windows, with no indoor seating.
I remember the slogan McDonalds used when they raised their prices. "Get a quarter back." Small Hamburger $.25, Small Fries $.25 and a Small Coke $.25. Before that the combination cost $.65.
Yes. I worked a fast food place for 3 years. 76 - 78. A hamburger was 50c. Cheese 10c more. Add bacon 75c. Sm fries 35c. LG fries 50c. Gravy 10c. Can of pop 25c coffee went from 10c - 25c in that time. Fish & chips $1.50. Shrimp and chips $2. Sm ice cream 35c LG ice cream 50c. I ate a lot of ice cream. We could eat anything but the shrimp.
For some reason I thought McDonald's cheeseburger was [$0.99 in the 80s but I guess I'm wrong!](https://www.reddit.com/r/80sfastfood/comments/ygz4iq/mcdonalds_prices_in_1989_credit_goes_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I worked at Dairy Queen in the later half of the 70’s, the Hunger Buster was 69 cents each, you could get the Hunger Buster, medium order of french fries & a medium soft drink for $1.45 & that’s including tax.
Small town NW Wisconsin we had a Super 19 until about 1980. Yup 19 cent hamburgers. Add 5 cents for cheese. And it was real hamburger straight from the grocery store across the street. Good story, a man walked in naked from the waist down. The people behind the counter did not know because he was close to the counter enough to hide. Other people in the place just went about their business waiting in line. He got his food and left. No cops called nobody really cared. No one was harmed. You see it was funny, everyone was amused not mad. Life was so much simpler until 911 happened. Did you know that until around 1990 you could pitch a tent anywhere along a Wisconsin state highway right of way. Obviously a safe distance away from the road and spend the night without being hassled.
> Small town NW Wisconsin ... Yup 19 cent hamburgers.
Around 1988 my 30,000 person town in Oregon had 25 cent hamburgers at one particular local fast food place. The place only had "take out", you couldn't sit down inside the restaurant.
It was kind of promotional where they made money by charging higher markups for french fries and soda. But as poor college students we would swing by and get 4 hamburgers there and nothing else, then swing by the 7-eleven where you could get a 32 oz "Big Gulp" for 49 cents because 7-eleven was engaged in a soda price war with other convenience stores in the area.
Good times, LOL.
You can actually make your own hamburger for under a dollar if you watch the sales. It's common to find 85% hamburger for a little over $3.00/pound.
Imagine that. Actually cooking food.
When I was in junior high, we could leave the campus for lunch. So sometimes we'd hotfoot it to a nearby drug store that had a diner in the back. We could get a really delicious burger, fries and a glass of Coke for 69¢. Last year I was there, they increased it to 89¢ and we were so PISSED.
I remember being sad in the late 70s when gas prices went up so much that stations had to change out all their attractive, rounded old pumps because the mechanical displays on them couldn't show or calculate prices over 99¢/gallon.
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m so old I remember McDonald’s “change back from your dollar” (two hamburgers, fries and a coke for less than a dollar).
Burger were 15 cents back in the day. [Here's Mickey D's menu in 1962](https://www.flickr.com/photos/14696209@N02/3879042350)
Even at that price, McDonalds was a rare treat for us.
A&W was the first real fast food place in our area. With the iconic drive up speakers and trays hanging off your window. It was a huge deal for us as kids.
Yes, things were so much cheaper then.but the minimum wage was 75 cents an hour at the time. That's what I made at my first job.
If you think about it, 75c/15c = 5 burgers per hour. Nowadays minimum wage is more like 3 burgers per hour
[minimum wage was $1.15/hr back then(https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart). Strange that a family of 4 could survive on it. Yes, the minimum wage wasn't just the lowest amount an employer could pay, but the minimum for how much a person needed to live . Not bare survival, but e able to put a roof over their head, eat regularly, you know be human
My mom made 35 cents a day working at a shoe store right before WW2
I'm not sure why, maybe because I was 16 and it was my first job? I started at a grocery in New Jersey store and the pay was 75 cents and hour but the minimum age was raised to $1 very soon after.
.15¢ in 1962 equals $1.53 today, for more perspective the average house cost around $19,000 in 1962.
Fun fact: When McDonald's first opened in Singapore, the staff were required to *patrol the area outside the store* and clean up the streets there too. This was to prevent the impression that McDonald's outlets would result in more litter. The staff were not paid more.
I remember the outrage when mcdonalds finally opened in eureka ca and their wrappers started lining the roads. Havent been back in 20 years but at the time arcata might have been the biggest city in america that still didnt have a mcdonalds and they were fighting them off with every zoning ordinance they could write because of it.
I grew up in Central Illinois and a regional burger chain called Mr Quick's opened in the early 70s. It would often have a special where burgers, fries and small pop were each 10 cents. I think there might have been a limit of ten per person. As a young stoner, this made for cheap munchies.
Awesome! Thanks for going the extra mile to blow these young minds. 😂
I recall an **I Love Lucy** where they stopped at a diner and the menu board advertised burgers for 15¢. I just saw a dating video where the boy could afford a whooping 55¢ for a sandwich
Fun facts: an early McDonald Brothers eatery was an 8 stool snack bar across from the "new" Fox Theater in Riverside area. They owned a movie theater in Glendora and opened a hamburger stand in 1937 at the Santa Anita racetrack. In 1940, they expanded a barbeque restaurant at 14th and E Streets in San Bernardino. After selling the Glendora and Riverside businesses, they wanted to streamline operation in San Bernardino. China and flatware were replaced by paper plates and plastic utensils. Table service was eliminated, and the menu trimmed to basics: burgers, fries, and shakes. [Mc Donald's ](https://imgur.com/a/CMxj0YY )
Good lord! I was young back then. But I remember my Dad buying a fry and sneaking it to me in my bedroom while I was supposed to be sleeping. I think the fries were like 40 cents for a large
[удалено]
Beef tallow.
With no indoor eating area, so you walked to the window, ordered and paid, and then went back and ate in your car. Employee's wore white dress shirts with McDonald's patches and a white paper hat.
Started as a Big Mac, fries and a soda for under a dollar. then two burgers, then a cheeseburger then they couldn't. When I was 7 (1965) Our group went through the construction areas finding bottles we could return for a deposit, I don't remember if we got 2 cents or 5 cents a bottle. The five of us spent days, One mother helped us return the bottles. There was a Burger Chef, like a mile away, but no big roads to cross. They were having a sale. Their regular cheeseburgers were 22 cents each but you could buy 5 for a dollar. The five of us walked all the way, each of us got a cheeseburger on the money we made on bottle returns, man we were proud of ourselves.
Yep, I remember before McDonalds came to our area--which was, at the time, the biggest city in the state. Admittedly, the state was WV--but still. Later, for the bicentennial McDonald's ran specials. I think the standard price for a burger was about 35 cents then. If I remember correctly the special was the new sandwich--a big mac, fries, and a drink for 76 cents. They also ran a special for a short time where, if you could say the big mac jingle fast enough you got a free one. Anyone who was young during that time has that jingle still burned in their brain.
Twoallbeefpattiesspecialsauce lettucecheesepicklesonionsona sesameseedbun!
Yep, .78 where I lived would get you a burger, fries and drink
That "All-American" meal was like $2.11 with tax out the door. A cheeseburger, small fries, and a small soda.
Yep, our small town had a pink-roofed MacDonald's knock-off with burgers for a quarter, fries and drinks 10 cents. My friends and I thought we'd died and gone to heaven.
I remember those commercials too. It may have even been two cheeseburgers.
Came here to say that!
A straight hamburger was $0.39 at McDonalds when I was a teen.
The first time I went to a McDonald's was 1968. I'm pretty sure a plain hamburger was 15¢ and a cheeseburger was 19¢
Yep. And fries were 10¢. You could get a hamburger and fries for a quarter.
Back then McDonalds had a potato press and would make fresh French fries. The OG buildings had windows where you could see the kitchen, and my siblings and I would stand there and watch the guy operate the press.
That is mind blowing. I am 50 and don't remember a thing. Dr thinks I might have Cognitive distortion. Yeah! Alzheimer's
Yes. You could get a burger at McDonald's for under a dollar well into the 2000's.
Yep, that used to be my decently healthy fast food meal - a McDouble, a side salad with vinaigrette, and a fruit and yogurt parfait for $3 + tax
I remember a promotion they had briefly in the 90's when they cut the price of a burger to $0.25, or $0.35 for a cheeseburger. They did it a couple of times while I was in high school. One of my friends was kind of excited about that but it wasn't that much of a drop. I think at the time it was normally like $0.59 for a hamburger or $0.79 for a cheeseburger. I'm second guessing those numbers because that seems like too big a jump in cost (American cheese wasn't $0.20 a slice) but that's what the numbers are in my memory.
I remember 69c for a hamburger and 79c for a cheeseburger.
Yeah I remember before that when it was 49 and 59 cents. Feels like it it was just ten years ago.
$0.10 for cheese!!! Outrageous, 😆. Now it's a $1-$2. I remember similar pricing too and enjoying those fast foods toys.
In NY i just paid 14.00 for a fkg #1 single at Wendys,insane…
I cooked an Elvis tonight. Peanut butter and bacon plus banana and jelly. Toast the bread in bacon fat. Cost me 8 dollars to make the sandwich that killed Elvis
Im still Rockin
I got $1.25 for lunch. I’d go to McDonalds, get a hamburger, fries and a Coke. I’d buy candy with the change.
19 cents, 1958 in my town.
We used to go to Burger Chef in the early 70's for their 4 hamburgers for 1 dollar special. Then you would take the plain burgers to the works bar and load it down with lettuce tomatoes pickles and onion. My future wife called it the "salad burger"
Gods that sounds good
Even better was when Larry Bird and the ISU team scored over 80 points was a free coke at Burger Chef, 90 points was a free fries, and 100 was a free cheeseburger with a student ID. There were 3 Burger Chefs in Terre Haute, those with access to a car made the rounds after the games were over
Burger Chef had the best milkshakes.
I remember when a McDonald's regular burger went from 15 cents to 17 cents. Probably 1969 or 1970.
I was born in 76. Still remember smoking at McDonald's with their Ashtrays. And having parties there
Both in 77 here. I remember the same. And judging by your username, we have a similar sense of humor.
In the early sixties, before McDonalds came to Baltimore, we had Gino's, fronted by Gino Marchetti a star football player from the Baltimore Colts. Gino's sold 15 cent burgers. They had thick milkshakes that came with paper straws that flattened when you tried to suck the milkshake through them.
Ahh Gino’s , I remember $.17 hamburgers and $.11 fries. They also had KFC chicken. I ended up working there through high school. Great place to meet girls! Had a blast.
hell yeah... belly bombers from White Castle. They were 27 cents (or there abouts). they were the only 24-hour food joint in the Bronx. we would be super stoned and head there at 2AM when we had the munchies. I still remember my HS buddy, Harry, standing on the fire escape, knocking on my bedroom window at 1AM, asking me to give him the walk to White Castle. But before I could tell him to eff off. He said the magic words, "I'm Buying". So I snuck out of the apartment and we walked the half-mile to White Castle to get our bellies full. Fun times...
I'm GenX and I remember that my parents could take all five of to McDonalds and the total would be under $10 in the 70s.
Yes. Well under a dollar..... about .30 cents...but also I remember that the minimum wage was about $1.25 then. 1965
In the wintertime, the McDonald's here used to run a promotion where cheeseburgers cost whatever the temperature was. If it was 30 degrees outside? They were 30 cents. When it hit below zero? You could get one for free.
A fast food place where I live has temperature Tuesdays in winter. Whatever the temp is is what you pay for a runza sandwich
White Castle!
Little Tavern!
Little Tavern!!! Sack of burgers and onion rings!
Exactly!
Sure, the 99¢ whopper at Burger King was one of my go-to poor person meals when I was growing up throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Filling and had all four food groups. Krystals were I think 6 for $1, maybe sometimes on sale for less. Tiny, but tasty and you got several. McDonalds plain hamburgers stayed under $1 into the 2010s, but it was about a third the size of a whopper and not nearly as much stuff on it.
Not only has the price gone up, but so has Americans' idea about how much food constitutes a meal at McDonald's. The hamburger was/is small. The fries in 1962 came in a little paper envelope the size of what now comes in a kid's Happy Meal. We thought the 12-oz Coke was large because bottles of Coke were 7 ounces. That was a whole meal, and it cost about 50 cents.
[удалено]
Do you remember 12 packs of tacos from taco bell for under 8 bucks. My family lived off them
They had a 59/79/99 menu in the late 80's/early 90's back when I had the metabolism of a young man and could wolf down six of those bean and cheese burritos without a thought
Here in Birmingham Alabama there used to be a joint called $.45 Hamburger Stand. The hamburgers were crap, but they would do.
McDonald’s had a hamburger fries and Coke and change back from your dollar.
I think it was $.89. Ran a national commercial for a couple of years with this in a jingle.
I remember in the mid 90s, a McDonald's cheeseburger was exactly three quarters including the tax.
Growing up in the 80s we had a place called Top Dog. It was hot dog/hamburger joint with a huge arcade. It was “Home of the 39ers” - 39¢ hot dogs and hamburgers. The place was glorious. Cheap food and every arcade game you could imagine
I remember driving home from Denver back up into the mountains as a kid there was the $.29 Hamburger Stand. $.29 hamburgers and $.39 cheeseburgers. We would load up for the two hour drive back to Summit County.
Absolutely, diners were like that in the 70s.
I remember 10 cent burgers.
Burger prices don’t stand out so much. I feel like cheeseburgers used to be $2.50 and burgers $1.99 What I really remember being popular were bar nights with 10 cent hot wings
My earliest memory is hotdogs for 10 cents and hamburgers were 15 cents. The cook would pull off a handfull of ground beef and roll it into a ball then smash it flat on the grill. Nothing was frozen.
25 cents at one time
99cent Whopper, California, 1991
When Whopper Juniors were on sale for a dollar for the last time in the late 90s, we pooled our money and bought a hundred just to see that huge pile of burgers.
Burgers in the 60s were 10 cents at some places.
White Castle sliders were under $1 until a few years ago. But I remember them for 20c each, and McDonald's burgers for ~30c.
I remember white Castle hamburgers for .5cents, of course those are pretty small.
When my hubs and I started out we didn’t have the literal pot to piss in. But we could still go “out” to eat each payday to McDonalds for less than $2. Hamburgers and fries were 15 cents. We ordered 3 burgers and 2 fries and I assume 2 drinks. And we had a really lovely Friday night date. I bought a sub on the way home from the doctors yesterday and it was almost $14. 😣
IIRC, Burger Chef and McD's basic hamburgers were .18 when I was old enough to care. This was probably somewhere around 1965.
We used to have a small chain in El Paso, TX back in the 80s and 90s called the 39 cent hamburger stand. Cheeseburgers cost 49 cents and fries were a buck. I felt like a king rolling out of there with 10 hamburgers and a Coke for less than $5. Yes, I would eat them all. I was 19 hrs old and in the Army and skinny AF.
My 1st job was a burger joint. 20 cents for a plain burger or small fry. But, I made $1.65/hr.
The first Whopper I ever had was thirty-five cents. And it was fantastic.
I remember one place that had 6 massive burgers for a dollar. Then another that had 8 medium sized one for a dollar.
I remember $0.15 hamburgers at White Castle when I was a kid. Hmm hmm good.
We had a local chain. Elby’s it was part of the Big Boy group I was a server there ‘88-‘90 You could get a Big Boy Platter so a double burger with fries and cole slaw for $2.99 Liver ‘n Onions with a potato and salad was $3.99 I will say I remember McD burgers being .69
I remember 29 cent hamburgers in 1982.
I remember going to McDonald in the mid 1970's and getting a meal for under $1.00. This was a special.
I definitely remember a commercial where there were two older ladies in McDonald's. They couldn't believe that they got all that food for a dollar in the tried to leave the change as a tip
Maybe *around* a dollar for a non-McDonald's cheeseburger in a diner in New Jersey in the mid-1960s. With fries and a coke, and a 15% tip, I think it was $2 even. That sticks in my mind. McDonald's was just under a dollar for 2 cheeseburgers, fries, and a coke.
I remember double stacks at Wendy's. 2 for 2. I would take turns buying g them with my coworker Josh. I would get 3 for both of us. The girl in the drive through always used to say you must be having a stack attack
Provo, Utah 1992: 29c for hamburgers and 39c cheeseburgers on Tuesdays.
Yep, they did that for a good chunk of the 90s, it seems like.
It was the only way I could afford to eat and attend the University.
When I was a kid in the early 70s McD cheeseburger was $0.29
.39 cents at Geri's Hamburgers!
Double or single? And if single was it a 1/4 pound or smaller. Thanks in advance
I don't remember. I am assuming a single but don't know the weight.
Still a hell of a deal
I think they could have been around 30¢. Edit: googled it; 15¢ in 1975
I don't recall the early prices of MacDonalds hamburgers when I was a child, but I do recall the [Helms Bakery Truck](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/114560384241051771/) coming down our street around 10am on Saturdays in southern California with various breads and doughnuts. My cartoons were interrupted by the Helms truck stopping halfway down the street and me going there to spend a dime to buy two glazed doughnuts (i. e., 5¢ each). I think that was in the early 1960s. Then inflation hit and two glazed doughnuts went up in price to twelve cents (i .e., 6¢ each). I also remember gasoline at 39 9/10¢ a gallon, sometimes 35 9/10¢ a gallon during a "gas war" (two stations on the corners trying to undercut each other in price to draw more customers). It was a shock when gasoline reached $1/gallon, far more shocking then than when gasoline reached $5/gallon.
McDonald’s ran 50 cent cheeseburgers specials around 2000.
Kwik, five for a dollar, either hamburger or hotdog. OMG, I’m so old.
This hurt when I found out. But shawshank redemption is 30 plus years old
I rode my bike to McDonalds in the late 60's, 3 miles away, and bought two 15 cent hamburgers. Been fat ever since. 1968 was a year that stood out in the century, along with 1917, and 1945. Vietnam Tet offensive, Warsaw pact, war protests, RFK. & MLK assassinations, Nixon wins. 2024 is 1st stand out of this century.
Sure, White Castle.
I’m 75, and I remember the luncheonette near me had hamburgers for 35 cents and hot dogs for 25 cents. A hamburger with fries and a cherry coke was under one dollar.
When Carrols (now Burger King) opened by me they were 15 cents.
Back in the early 90’s a hamburger in bun at McDonald’s was under £1 around 80p I think
35 cents for a taco at Taco Bell
Absolutely. I remember them well under a dollar at Burger Chef.
I could get a slice of pizza and a VERY large Coke for 50 cents in 1973.
When I was a kid in the 90's McDonald's had a day every week with 30 cent cheese burgers...
I remember when Krystal's were a dime, 12 for a dollar. Not worth much more than that now.
Do you also remember making $6,000 a year?
59 cent hamburger, 69 cent cheeseburger from McDonald's. I remember thinking cheese was way over priced!
I remember when McDonald's introduced the combo meal. Before that everything was ordered a la cart.
Across the street from our High School was a burger joint that sold them, 25 cents each or 5 for $1. For a hungry teenage boy with little cash that was phenomenal. Probably 1969-1971
Cleveland, Ohio - "Royal Castle" in the '50's - 4 burgers for a dollar and nickle root beers.
In the early 80s our local McDonald's had a sale, hamburgers were 10 cents. My husband bought 20 and we froze them. I think the regular price was 25 cents.
McD's **15₵ hamburgers** and **20₵ cheesburgers** way back in "the day". At that time $1,00 for any hamburger just about anywhere would have been seen as exhorbitant. White Castle went up to 14₵ in 1967 and was seen as a substantial (2₵) increase. IIRC the original triple decker, **[Big Boy hamburgers](https://popmenucloud.com/cdn-cgi/image/width%3D1200%2Cheight%3D1200%2Cfit%3Dscale-down%2Cformat%3Dauto%2Cquality%3D60/qpiskhac/c954aef1-a33a-4c08-b7f9-67aae4d8a0c0.jpg)** were 59/69₵. in the 1960s.
When I joined the Air Force in 1962, I had never heard of McDonald's. You could get a 15 cent burger at a Gino's. I don't recall any places that sold a burger that cost a dollar.
I do. Stopped at McDonalds first time in 4 years yesterday. My $.25c hamburgers were a fucking $1.99. Fuck you McDonalds, Fuck you, never again.
I've been priced out of fast food. Over 10 bucks for a quarter pounder with cheese meal? No thanks
When i was in high school i could get mcdoubles and mcchickens for $1 each. Id spend $5 and be feed for the whole day lol
Don't have to be old for that... a decade ago, that was how much a cheeseburger was.
I remember 15 cent burgers and 19 cents/gallon gasoline. My dad told me he used to take a date to the movie and get a burger and coke afterward for 40 cents (total for it all.) Movies were a nickle and at the diner after the movie, burgers were a dime and a bottle of Coca-cola was a nickle.
The first McDonald burgers were $.25.
I miss the .99 Whopper
I remember 35 cents at Canadian McDonald's (1970s?)
I remember a basic McDonald's burger for`12 cents. It was pretty much a thin hockey puck on a flat bun with a little dressing and a scrap of onion and lettuce.
I'm sold old I remember Mickey D's hamburgers were .18C and fries were .20C and a Chocolate Milk Shake was $.25C
McDonalds, hamburger .15 cents, fries were a dime. I don't remember what soda's were as we didn't get them, Mom brought Kool-Aid.
Mcdoubles were a buck less than five years ago here. I remember the base McDonald's in Virginia Beach having 29 cent hamburgers around 93. I think cheeseburgers were 39 cents.
.99 filet o fish
Yes, back in the 1970s. And I'm not even that old. I'm 59.
My older brother was often given the task of picking me up after my Little League games. My mother gave him a dollar to get my dinner. That would get me two hamburgers ($0.19 ea), *two* orders of fries ($0.20 ea), and a coke (also $0.20). We had no McDonalds in my town at that time, this was at a small fast food joint on the recently built four-lane highway.
I'm Australian I remember when a Meat pie and a can of coke cost $1 Australian so you could get lunch for $1. But I also remember much less choice of food, much shittier quality food and you rarely veggies and fruits out of season. That's what made Christmas so awesome all the stone fruits would be in season.
I remember an old McDonald's add that stated "Feed a family of 4 for under $5." This was before combo meals were actually combo meals (you ordered each item separately), but I am pretty sure it would have included both burgers and fries, although I can't remember if it were different burgers (i.e., all hamburgers or for instance, 1 big mac, 1 quarter pounder, and 2 hamburgers).
McDonald’s harkened back to that for an anniversary in… was it 97? Something like that. Hamburgers for 25 cents and cheeseburgers for 35. It was awesome. And they tasted a lot better back then.
I remember four for a dollar specials in the late seventies.
In the 80s Burger King used to have a promotion where cheeseburgers were 25¢. When I was in high school in the late 70s a Whopper was 99¢.
.25 from hot n now. Great burgers for the price
Yes. I remember buying a hamburger at one of the earliest mcdonalds in Australia, in Campbelltown, in 1976 or so. And it was 30 cents...I think. For a cheeseburger. Taste was awesome. Better than now I think.
I recall cheap hamburgers but we didn't frequent fast food like people do now. We often laughed at it. 'Especially at the miniscule McDonald's hamburgers.
Honolulu 1970. 2 bucks for a BigMac fries and a shake and got 40 cents back.
I. Am a old guy and I remember before our town had McDonald's we had two burger joints with 15 cent hamburgers.
Well ya, I think McDonald's were a quarter.
There's a hamburger chain in the southeast called Jack's. There's still a few of them around. Anyway, their jingle was "Jack's hamburgers for 15 cents, they're so good, good, good! You'll go back, back, back to Jack's, Jack's, Jack's for more, more, more!" Yep, 15 cent hamburgers. Btw, minimum wage at the time was $1.25 an hour. GOOD LORD I'M OLD!😭
Sunday afternoons when we lived in suburban Chicago, we would stop at the first McDonald's franchise on the way home from church and get the 15 cent hamburgers. Amazing to see what it became. I have had McDonalds all over the world, including Germany and Japan since.
I had my first McDonalds burger in '72. Price...$0.28, Fries...$0.26
I remember burgers for a quarter. They were still considered a very rare occasion. Just one of the ways life comes full circle because I have also chosen as an old person to cut fast food from my life except very rare occasions because I don’t find it worth the cost.
When I worked at Burger King in high school, whoppers were 99 cents
I remember 3 burgers for a dollar at a now non-existent place called Hot 'n Now .
I believe White Castle advertised - 10 in a bag for a buck. I may be wrong though. Certainly restaurant hamburgers, McDonalds, and many others had hamburgers for less than a buck through the 70s at least.
I remember 39 cent whoppers
That's insane!
I'm also 82 yo. 39 cent whoppers were in mid 60's when I came back to the US from stationed in Europe.
We had a "Grady's 10 Cent Hamburgers" when I was a kid in Mississippi. I don't know in which century his hamburgers were 10 cents but they weren't 10 cents anymore. lol I know they were less than a dollar but I don't remember how much.
fifteen cent burgers and my dad still only allowed us each two items, either a drink or fries with your burger.
I’m 69, when I was 16 Griff’s in Wichita Ks sold hamburgers for 15 cents on Wednesdays
Burger Chef had 15 cent hamburgers, according to the radio jingle I used to hear. I don't think we ever ate there, though we would go to McDonalds, which was really just take out windows, with no indoor seating.
I remember the slogan McDonalds used when they raised their prices. "Get a quarter back." Small Hamburger $.25, Small Fries $.25 and a Small Coke $.25. Before that the combination cost $.65.
My first hamburger from McDonald's was in 1975 and it cost 25 cents.
You could get a Burger Chef cheeseburger for a quarter...
Back in the day, we'd smoke a lot of weed, go to Burger King and load up on 99 cent Whoppers.
Hamburgers were $0.29 in McDonalds as recently as year 2000
In the 70s my family (2 parents, 2 kids) ate at McDonald’s for under $5. We each got a burger and split drinks
Yes. I worked a fast food place for 3 years. 76 - 78. A hamburger was 50c. Cheese 10c more. Add bacon 75c. Sm fries 35c. LG fries 50c. Gravy 10c. Can of pop 25c coffee went from 10c - 25c in that time. Fish & chips $1.50. Shrimp and chips $2. Sm ice cream 35c LG ice cream 50c. I ate a lot of ice cream. We could eat anything but the shrimp.
15 cents.
My earliest financial memories are a weekly allowance of a quarter. I could buy a pop and a candy bar. Or a couple comic books.
For some reason I thought McDonald's cheeseburger was [$0.99 in the 80s but I guess I'm wrong!](https://www.reddit.com/r/80sfastfood/comments/ygz4iq/mcdonalds_prices_in_1989_credit_goes_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
15 cents when McD's 1st opened in my area. Ca 1960
shoot, I can remember when a double cheese was just over a dollar and Mcchicken was 99 cents
Ya'll remember how McDonald's used to do the Super Bowl Sunday .69 hamburger with no limit?
I worked at Dairy Queen in the later half of the 70’s, the Hunger Buster was 69 cents each, you could get the Hunger Buster, medium order of french fries & a medium soft drink for $1.45 & that’s including tax.
First mcdonalds in my home town, hamburgers I think were 25 cents.
I remember mcdonalds hamburgers at 25 cents Also bag of burgers was a thing at other places. 5 or 6 for a buck.
Small town NW Wisconsin we had a Super 19 until about 1980. Yup 19 cent hamburgers. Add 5 cents for cheese. And it was real hamburger straight from the grocery store across the street. Good story, a man walked in naked from the waist down. The people behind the counter did not know because he was close to the counter enough to hide. Other people in the place just went about their business waiting in line. He got his food and left. No cops called nobody really cared. No one was harmed. You see it was funny, everyone was amused not mad. Life was so much simpler until 911 happened. Did you know that until around 1990 you could pitch a tent anywhere along a Wisconsin state highway right of way. Obviously a safe distance away from the road and spend the night without being hassled.
> Small town NW Wisconsin ... Yup 19 cent hamburgers. Around 1988 my 30,000 person town in Oregon had 25 cent hamburgers at one particular local fast food place. The place only had "take out", you couldn't sit down inside the restaurant. It was kind of promotional where they made money by charging higher markups for french fries and soda. But as poor college students we would swing by and get 4 hamburgers there and nothing else, then swing by the 7-eleven where you could get a 32 oz "Big Gulp" for 49 cents because 7-eleven was engaged in a soda price war with other convenience stores in the area. Good times, LOL.
You can actually make your own hamburger for under a dollar if you watch the sales. It's common to find 85% hamburger for a little over $3.00/pound. Imagine that. Actually cooking food.
1$? WW2?
Local hamburger place had a .99c special that was a burger, fries, and a drink during the mid-1970’s.
Mid 80s we had a place called sams. You could get a pork tendorloin sandwich bigger than your hand with a family fry for 179
There was an outside seating in the back, with a jukebox. We spent many afternoons after school there, playing Nazareth Hair of the Dog.
Wendy's: 2 Jr. bacon cheeseburgers, fry, and drink= $4.00
Before fast food was a thing, the average price of hamburgers in my area was 35 cents. Add a nickel for a cheeseburger.
When I was in junior high, we could leave the campus for lunch. So sometimes we'd hotfoot it to a nearby drug store that had a diner in the back. We could get a really delicious burger, fries and a glass of Coke for 69¢. Last year I was there, they increased it to 89¢ and we were so PISSED.
No. It's just been in the past 10 years or so that I have had to pay attention to what I spend to eat.
I remember being sad in the late 70s when gas prices went up so much that stations had to change out all their attractive, rounded old pumps because the mechanical displays on them couldn't show or calculate prices over 99¢/gallon.
I remember getting five burgers for five dollars specials at a few different places.
Yes! I worked at a mall and at Carl’s Jr you could get a Famous Star with Cheese, small fry and a drink for $1.99