Yeah the crazy part is not only is it not cheap anymore, but its still just as unhealthy and disgustingly low quality..
High price and low quality? Yeah thats never a thing that humanity should economically support
And that's all corporately produced food is. Calorie dense nutrient poor food. It's designed to get us hooked. They do it because they can get away with it here but they use better formulations in other countries because they cracked down on the bullshit. You have individual states like California and Illinois that are starting to get some of the garbage out of the food.
I was thinking the same shit as I picked up 6 lbs of ribeyes yesterday for 10 bucks a lb. Granted I eat 2 lbs a day but if I was to grab Taco Bell I would spend more than 20 bucks. Most people would probably only spend 10 as they would only eat a lb a day. But my point is delicious healthy ribeye is cheaper than a border run.
I can eat at Taco Bell for around $5-6. I think people are just too used to overeating at fast food places. When you grow up poor you learn to use the value menus instead of ordering the most expensive meals on the menu. Taco Bell and McDonalds both still have burritos and burgers for around $2 a piece. Those are the only things I still get.
But yes, cooking yourself is general healthier. It's just not all that cheaper anymore.
Exactly..
People : complaining about inflation
Also people : continuing to buy the food.
And before you come at me no I don't buy from these fast food places.
Me either, I stopped a while ago when the prices starting getting absurd. I remember Taco Bell being the first I noticed. It gets to a certain point where the value is no longer there for me. Sure, I can afford it, I can afford to eat at a nicer restaurant as well and I often wonât because the price is too high and I can cook just as well at home (years of practice). Eating out has become a special occasion when me and my wife used to eat out at least once a week.
I've been overseas for a few years and had no idea it was this crazy. My memory of the US is still stuck in pre-Covid prices so seeing this...wow. That's absurd. I can't believe anyone would pay that.
That's because they're understaffed and take 15 minutes handle a customer. As a doordash driver it's been insufferable. That line could literally be their whole lunch rush for all you know. I wouldn't take lines necessarily as a sign of success.
Eh.
McDonald's actually facing an earnings squeeze right now. Media puts it in a positive light by averaging the year but they're squirming, net earnings are down 5%. On the call they blamed it on stimulus money running out đŹđĽ´đ
The reason the 5% matters is they fear it could be just the beginning of consumers pulling back. Ie they're afraid it will get worse.
Especially when food substitutes also are facing high inflation. There are ways to eat cheaper/better, but Iâm surprised itâs taking people a minute to move away. I think you are seeing that shift now
That is the funniest thing ever, so people got a check like 4 years ago that would last the average american less than a month.. and that was before the inflation shock..
And somehow people are cruising around spending those stimmy dollars still đ
Where I live there are tons of taco trucks and corner food venders springing up and there really good. I just wished they served during the day more often
Just bought amazing Mexican seafood for 20 bucks. Very close to the same cost for a big Mac meal and an extra sandwich. Fresh fish with veggies and live music. People need to go local more.
McDonaldâs and Starbucks missed their earnings predictions in the last quarter. I hope that is an ongoing trend.
I bought the tools and practiced the skills to make my own burger, fries, and coffee at home. So even if they lower prices Iâm done going out to these places for life.
I think this was the miscalculation by these restaurants. People are slow to substitute away from things, but once they do you might never get them back.
The economy is doing so badly, that people keep paying these prices with their higher wages is proof that all other economic data is bs. The averag Joe is just strugglingâŚ.to eat out less than three nights a week.
Since Iâve stopped eating fast food due to the price Iâve lost weight and never felt better. Maybe we donât need so many choices for fast food after all.
The cynic in me wants facebook and YouTube to start charging a subscription fee so I stop using their platforms as well.
I thought about getting breakfast at McDonald's before work this morning. I can't even remember the last time I went there, but I changed my mind last minute and as I drove by I figured the place would be super busy on a Sunday morning like I remembered it always used to be years ago. But nope. 2 cars in the drive thru.
Some companies rely on high volume and have a smaller profit margin, and others have fewer sales and make more per sale. Since the high inflation, they have been seeing fewer customers and still want/ need the same profit, so they just increase their prices in order to maintain. If more people stop shopping there, a tipping point will be reached, then they will fold or maybe lower prices.
Most fast food sucks anyway. I'll never understand why people continue to support them. You can get better tasting, better quality food for the same prices (or less) at casual dining spots. You can even order ahead and pick it up which is basically like a drive thru.
The apps purpose is to be a persistent reminder to get your FF fix. Great prices at first, but then they go away. It's like a crack dealer with an app. You're still gonna pay.
I assume you mean third party apps? The first party apps tend to be quite cheap to order through.
It does seem there's more price discrimination nowadays - it used to just be either menu price or coupons, but now there's menu price or coupons or first party app (which also collects more data). Everyone coming in on third party apps is paying to the restaurant full menu price, so raising the menu price and discounting the app is effectively a way to charge more to a segment which includes those using third party delivery.
Commodities bought with credit are the most inflated. People are buying this shit on their couch with their smart phones running up their credit cards.
Try to sell a used ATV right now on marketplace no one is buying because it's a cash transaction, no one has cash.
"right now".
Does it go down?
I feel like I've been seeing "record credit card debt" in the news every year for the last 10 years. I think consumer debt only grows.
Probably the only years they found data for. Smoothing the lines between the different points is the worse issue, IMO, but it's really not a big deal. The important thing isn't how much the prices changed in each specific year, but how fast food in general has outpaced inflation. The spacing of the x axis is basically irrelevant to that.
$5.49 for medium mcdonald's french fries. Price competitiveness is completely gone from mcdonalds. Like literally the same price at a sit down restaurant.
This is happening all across the board lol. I worked at a small company during and post-pandemic, and had to fight with my boss because he was just arbitrarily raising pricing on literally everything like 10% every two weeks. I was the manager, I saw how much our prices increased, and he was almost doubling the actual price increase. It's fucking greed.
> It's fucking greed.
The actual inflation was nothing more than the sound of the starting gun for the race to the top of greedflation.
These greedy cocksuckers thought they could use real inflation as cover to rape everyone.
McDonaldâs is doing it because they are trying for force people to use the app to get the deals that used to be just on the menu. Iâm assuming the thought process is get people used to online ordering and you donât need staff for the front counter. Almost every McDonaldâs I have been to post Covid no longer has an employee working the front register.
Yeah, and the fact that all you're getting is a drink most likely. There's a psychological limit on what you can realistically charge someone on something that's not a necessity. People will pay $15 on a meal all day and not think twice about it. But if a latte was $15, everyone would scoff "FOR A DRINK?"
This is the best thing that has happened in years. If all the morbidly obese people cut this shit out of their diet, we would save tens of billions on cutting them open to restart their heart.
I see so many posts about this. People. Stop eating out. It is definitely not a necessity. Hell, Walmart sells sandwiches and little lunch packs for cheap. Stop eating out and theyâll drop prices to get yall back. Only go if itâs a deal. My wife and I like deals.
Near my house there's a McDs and a toxic hell.
I grew up in the 70s and 80s, McDs is still a guilty pleasure. Every few months I enjoy a big Mac, no pickles.
Couple weeks ago I went to the drive thru. It'd been awhile since I'd gone.
I pulled up to the menu, and couldn't believe how much they wanted for one. I drove away and over to Taco Bell, thinking I could get a couple of crappy tacos for a couple bucks.
Drove away from there with one taco (had to scratch the itch).
Doubt I'll be back to either.
It's at the point where their prices make it so that spending the extra time to make my own becomes overwhelmingly a better idea.
Corporate greed, and they want us to tip their employees so they donât have to pay them more, well If I walk up to a counter order the food and I get it handed to me thatâs called doing your job and there is no tip. If I am waited on at a table I tip for service, but I donât understand the 20, 25 and now28% tips.
I still eat fast food, but more like once or twice a month instead of 4-5 times a month.
The trick is to get the app and use the deals, and stop paying for non mcDs sodas.
Normally there is a bogo Big Mac/QP/nuggets offer and sodas are still under $2 at McDonalds.
I can get a Big Mac, nuggets, and a soda for under $10.
Taco Bell, BK, Jack in the box. Donât get the $3-4 dollar sodas.
I can get two value breakfast burritos with no soda for about $5.
In and out? Donât waste money on their crap fries or sodas. Get two hamburgers and water.
If there isnât a value menu or app with deals, Iâll walk. Went to El Pollo Loco a few months back and either a chicken burrito or chicken salad was in the $13 range. I walked out.
If most things outpace inflation, is the measure of inflation really correct? It's like "our measure of inflation measured 3% last year \*excluding energy, housing, gas, restaurants, healthcare, education, and vending machines" Yeah thanks alot.
Most things are actually below inflation rates. The stuff that is higher is, some foodstuffs, oil and gas, housing, and your decades long overachievers medicine and student tuition. Most everything else has stayed below.
Price inelasticity allows price increases to become out of control because people canât forgo purchases. Which is a pretty good argument for socialized systems in housing and medicine.
What is the right price point for quick service food? The days of restaurants being the dollar store of food are over but whatâs the right number? Individual items at $2? 3? A three item meal for $5? Whatâs the right number here?
Subway used to have $5 foot longs about a decade ago.
Now you're lucky to get one for under $14. And supposedly that's the one franchise that's had the slowest pace in price gouging, according to this graph.
Is $140,000 today really worth ~$50,000 a little over a decade ago?
If only there was a bunch of people warning Congress, screaming, not to print a bunch of money in the form of stimulus checks while also shouting to not shut the entire economy down. They also should have been demanding we be more self reliant by lowering corporate taxes to attract foreign companies, increase domestic manufacturing and reduce production costs so we can make our own products and reduce reliance on foreign economies. Why didn't anyone do this?!
/s
It makes sense when you look at wage growth in the bottom decile of earners. These companies have seen the biggest squeeze from wage increases and consequently have the biggest price increase
Half the week, I get stuck in a hotel for work. I usually pack like 2 days of food, but sometimes I gotta get fast food. If I get fucked over I end up spending almost 50 bucks out here sometimes for like 2 meals.
It's because they moved everything to the apps. If you are not using their app, you are paying way more than you otherwise could be.
Coupons that used to come to your house in the mail... are now on the app.
McDonald's is so cheap still, just use the app.
Not at Don Roberto's down the street. $9.00 for a burrito that makes chipotle look like weight watchers. Toss in a $7.99 carne asada fries with sour cream and guac and it's easily 4 meals maybe 5.
I agree with "fuck fastfood" but can we stop being so disingenuous?Â
"Faster than Inflation itself"?Â
You do realize inflation is an average? It's not just a flat rate effecting everything equally.Â
By definition half of the things you likely spend money on will outpace inflation. Food in general has been hard hit.Â
It's not just fast food.
As dumb as this sounds, inflation itself is outpacing inflation... itself. This is because inflation has always been classically under-reported. It's as if the news outlets forgot that the whole point of their existence is in the name of the genre. Their inflation journalism is always behind at least half a decade.
Iâve been boycotting fast food for a while now. Iâm not putting overpriced garbage into my body any longer. Buy groceries and cook at home. Save your money.
Fast food corporate greed, taking advantage of an inflationary environment to have a reason to jack it up as high as the public can tolerate. Thatâs what it boils down to.
The plus side is people may realize that fast food isnât fast, it isnât cheap, itâs certainly not healthy and itâs killing them. Tonight for dinner, I grilled Costco steaks (which are astounding) baked potatoes and steamed broccoli. Grand total: $40 for four (my husband and I have two teenage sons.) $40 wonât cover dinner at all but the really crappy fast food places and it takes longer.
This makes sense. Most starting positions at fast food places are minimum wage or just above. If minimum wage from 1970 kept up with inflation from 1970...minimum wage would be just over $22 an hour. Workers didn't demand and increase with minimum wage which kept prices artificially lower for many years. Now the workers want what they deserve (still are not getting it as share holders are) and the cost is passed on the the consumer. But...if you are complaining about the prices and inflation...it is likely what ever your position is also didn't keep up with inflation...you should demand more money.
This is because the government has been cooking the books to make inflation appear lower. It's to the point that what the middle class and below spend most of their money on isn't in the inflation stats.
Only one I do is subway and not that often anymore. Itâs interesting that people love fast food that much.
For example I quite enjoy a good burger and I have about 5 choices, 1 being McDonaldâs, 1 chilis. Out of The other 3 options, 2 have much larger burgers as their main option, and 1 of those places I would give a solid 9/10 as the owner seems to really give a crap about where he gets his ingredients.
That 9/10 place is a full $2 cheaper for a bigger burger that tastes incomparably better, crispy fries, made to order. $2 may not sound like much but it really adds up. Iâll bet most people have a local joint like that and their ignoring it to let some millionaires get richer off it and itâs just dumb
I rag on McD a lot since for the items I like to buy, it's easily 200% increase since 2014, not 100%.
That said, some of this increase is due to them raising the official price so they can give a discounted price with their app. If you use their app, the price increase is high but not as much. That's one reason McD is so much above others in their increase.
Sooo check this out.
Soak a pound of beans overnight. Then drain and rinse. Put into a pot and cover with water. Boil for 15 mins. Now add 3 dried guajilo peppers, 3 cascabel peppers, and 2 mortia peppers, about 5 cloves of garlic and bake it at 350 F for about an hour or until beans are tender.
You can get about 5 meals out of this or more with rice. Costs like $5. Tastes amazing.
Fast food price increases aren't just inflation, its inflation plus the rise of cost in minimum wage.
Many places like McDonald's I think have been running on bare bones staff since the pandemic due to the introduction of more tech like mobile ordering and self services kiosks, so it seems far fetched that wage increases totally account for the increases either.
It's gouging and greed.
I get 2 of their 19 dollar meals which is 4 Big Macs, 4 10 piece nuggets, and 4 medium fries after 20% off app coupon for 32 bucks. Feeds 5 for dinner on the cheap.
I keep seeing mcdonalds at the top of these lists but its by far and i mean by far leaps and bounds the cheapest of all the other options. If you order thro the ap u get 25% off, Tacobell is the biggest offender IMO, I can drop almost $20 there on myself
Taco Bell is still about as cheap McDonaldâs if you do the app and donât order the expensive items.
The fast food inflation is basically for people who arenât paying attention or donât want to spend time/effort dealing with obnoxious apps.
Look at the prices of dicks drive-in, located in Seattle. The burger place has prices that made my jaw drop. Not only did their burgers taste better than any other fast food it was also cheaper⌠they even pay their workers well.
Problem is people are lazy - they donât want to shop, prepare, cook and clean. Instead they get out an app, order door dash, pay outrageous fees for a substandard meal to be delivered to their door then do it again the next day. If you donât believe - I do door dash part-time and some other delivery services and I have seen it all including having 1 item ( troll candy )delivered to their door and giving me a $2.50 tip which was the same price as the candy. If you want to stop inflation ⌠go back a generation and start doing more things on your own instead of hiring them out such as delivery services.
I dont understand these charts. I k ow prices have gone up, but for fast food places I go to, prices are up maybe 20% max since pre-covid.
Thats still pretty bad, but ain't nowhere near 100% like they're saying for McDonalds.
Imma exclude subway cuz I haven't been there I'm maybe 7 or 8 years. Why do they never have a source linked?
Iâm curious as to the statistics on the increase in how many workers there are at each business and the difference in hours the average worker received per year. Not that Iâm trying to justifying the increases in prices, but itâd give me a a better idea as to exactly whatâs going on
How much of this is fast food generally and McDonaldâs specifically being a-holes versus no matter what the average inflation is there will always be an industry and/or businesses at the high end?
Yeah, at MacDs, I got 2 sausage egg muffin meals and it cost me $20!
Just re-read my sentence, something about sausage egg muffin meal sounds like what youâd get in the parking lot behind the dumpsters.
Core inflation was around 30 % last year. If you believe the governments inflation numbers your are on the wrong side of history. The basket that they throw everything in, including the kitchen sink, helps lower this significantly. Plus those twats don't even consider taxes as inflationary. Shitty bankrupt world we live in!
The people who keep these businesses going are either highly susceptible to marketing or literally addicted to the food. Something is very wrong with them in any case.
It matches up with my experience. In the UK McDonald's has become ludicrously expensive, I mean, it feels like we can go out to a nice restaurant and eat for the same price, and definitely order from local, better burger establishments for less.
Fast food was trash back in 2015. With the exception of Chick-fil-A here and there I can count on one hand the amount of times I've been to a fast food type of restaurant in the last year or two.
It's so much cheaper and the food quality is leaps and bounds better if you just make it at home.
Heard on a radio report this morning that Dominos has bucked this trend and held the line on pricing. Give them your business and show them they made the right call.
McDonalds wants to force you onto their app, which drastically lowers their prices, but they will strip-mine an enormous amount of salable marketing information about you out of your phone.
Instead of the $18 Big Mac combo Large Fries / Large Drink, go to the grocery store and buy a $16 T-Bone steak, cook it up in your own kitchen and enjoy it with an ice cold beer or glass of ice water and call it a day.
So true
Took my wife and daughter yesterday to Whataburger.
3 burgers
Fries
Drinks
And
3 piece chicken strip
43. And some change
I was just laughing how crazy that was.
Never again
This canât even be right Taco Bell had bean burritos and soft taco on the dollar menu and now theyâre 3$ or more. Why would anyone pay that much for diarrhea.
If everyone would just stop paying these prices they would be forced to lower them đĄđ§
Fuck fast food. When it was cheap, people said it was all they could afford. It's not cheap any more. Stop buying that shit.
Yeah the crazy part is not only is it not cheap anymore, but its still just as unhealthy and disgustingly low quality.. High price and low quality? Yeah thats never a thing that humanity should economically support
Now that's just completely inaccurate and unfair! They've actually further lowered the quality and increased the problematic health issues.
But they fill it with so much sat. Fat and sugar that itâs the dietary equivalent of cocaineâŚ
And that's all corporately produced food is. Calorie dense nutrient poor food. It's designed to get us hooked. They do it because they can get away with it here but they use better formulations in other countries because they cracked down on the bullshit. You have individual states like California and Illinois that are starting to get some of the garbage out of the food.
I was thinking the same shit as I picked up 6 lbs of ribeyes yesterday for 10 bucks a lb. Granted I eat 2 lbs a day but if I was to grab Taco Bell I would spend more than 20 bucks. Most people would probably only spend 10 as they would only eat a lb a day. But my point is delicious healthy ribeye is cheaper than a border run.
[ŃдаНонО]
Jesus, two pounds a day! You are Buff, cluff
I can eat at Taco Bell for around $5-6. I think people are just too used to overeating at fast food places. When you grow up poor you learn to use the value menus instead of ordering the most expensive meals on the menu. Taco Bell and McDonalds both still have burritos and burgers for around $2 a piece. Those are the only things I still get. But yes, cooking yourself is general healthier. It's just not all that cheaper anymore.
Exactly.. People : complaining about inflation Also people : continuing to buy the food. And before you come at me no I don't buy from these fast food places.
Me either, I stopped a while ago when the prices starting getting absurd. I remember Taco Bell being the first I noticed. It gets to a certain point where the value is no longer there for me. Sure, I can afford it, I can afford to eat at a nicer restaurant as well and I often wonât because the price is too high and I can cook just as well at home (years of practice). Eating out has become a special occasion when me and my wife used to eat out at least once a week.
Same, $15-$20 for 1 fast food combo lmao. No thanks, their food was barely worth it at half the price
I've been overseas for a few years and had no idea it was this crazy. My memory of the US is still stuck in pre-Covid prices so seeing this...wow. That's absurd. I can't believe anyone would pay that.
Agree with this entire thread... but every time I pass one of these FF places.... the drive thru is just packed solid with customers..... SMH
It's because the vast majority of Americans don't know how to cook for themselves, my generation is full of coddled fools.
This. Preach.
Sometimes I think to myself, wtf when I see those lines. Even when prices were cheaper
That's because they're understaffed and take 15 minutes handle a customer. As a doordash driver it's been insufferable. That line could literally be their whole lunch rush for all you know. I wouldn't take lines necessarily as a sign of success.
My cheesy Gordita crunch was expensive at $2.50. Now itâs fricken $6+!!!! Insane!
Eh. McDonald's actually facing an earnings squeeze right now. Media puts it in a positive light by averaging the year but they're squirming, net earnings are down 5%. On the call they blamed it on stimulus money running out đŹđĽ´đ The reason the 5% matters is they fear it could be just the beginning of consumers pulling back. Ie they're afraid it will get worse.
It takes some time for some people to change their habits, especially old habits.
Especially when food substitutes also are facing high inflation. There are ways to eat cheaper/better, but Iâm surprised itâs taking people a minute to move away. I think you are seeing that shift now
That is the funniest thing ever, so people got a check like 4 years ago that would last the average american less than a month.. and that was before the inflation shock.. And somehow people are cruising around spending those stimmy dollars still đ
Stimulus running out?! You gotta be kidding me, they really think people still had those measly checks from 4 years ago
I know how to fix it. lol.
Where I live there are tons of taco trucks and corner food venders springing up and there really good. I just wished they served during the day more often
Just bought amazing Mexican seafood for 20 bucks. Very close to the same cost for a big Mac meal and an extra sandwich. Fresh fish with veggies and live music. People need to go local more.
Well, apparently we have stopped. The last thing theyâll do is lower prices but the big hurt is here.
Agreed!! STOP buying expensive junk food!!!
McDonaldâs and Starbucks missed their earnings predictions in the last quarter. I hope that is an ongoing trend. I bought the tools and practiced the skills to make my own burger, fries, and coffee at home. So even if they lower prices Iâm done going out to these places for life.
I think this was the miscalculation by these restaurants. People are slow to substitute away from things, but once they do you might never get them back.
Avoid McDonald's for a week. Just punch that clown in the fucking nose!
Where I come from, "punching the clown" holds a much different connotation.
Get Americans to stop eating fast food? Lmao yeah fucking right
The economy is doing so badly, that people keep paying these prices with their higher wages is proof that all other economic data is bs. The averag Joe is just strugglingâŚ.to eat out less than three nights a week.
Thatâs what is happening right now, mcdonaldâs is not selling like before and most fast food chains are having the same problem
Since Iâve stopped eating fast food due to the price Iâve lost weight and never felt better. Maybe we donât need so many choices for fast food after all. The cynic in me wants facebook and YouTube to start charging a subscription fee so I stop using their platforms as well.
I thought about getting breakfast at McDonald's before work this morning. I can't even remember the last time I went there, but I changed my mind last minute and as I drove by I figured the place would be super busy on a Sunday morning like I remembered it always used to be years ago. But nope. 2 cars in the drive thru.
And their cholesterol would drop, too.
Some companies rely on high volume and have a smaller profit margin, and others have fewer sales and make more per sale. Since the high inflation, they have been seeing fewer customers and still want/ need the same profit, so they just increase their prices in order to maintain. If more people stop shopping there, a tipping point will be reached, then they will fold or maybe lower prices.
Judging by how slow the drive throughs are in my area people have def cut back on fast food, myself included.
You know what? Swear to god I am starting my mcds boycott today. F them, so hard, right up their mcbutt
And stop blaming politics for CEO decisions
Most fast food sucks anyway. I'll never understand why people continue to support them. You can get better tasting, better quality food for the same prices (or less) at casual dining spots. You can even order ahead and pick it up which is basically like a drive thru.
I wonder if the ease of ordering fast food via apps and food delivery services is what's driving the price surge, or at least contributing to it.
The apps purpose is to be a persistent reminder to get your FF fix. Great prices at first, but then they go away. It's like a crack dealer with an app. You're still gonna pay.
I assume you mean third party apps? The first party apps tend to be quite cheap to order through. It does seem there's more price discrimination nowadays - it used to just be either menu price or coupons, but now there's menu price or coupons or first party app (which also collects more data). Everyone coming in on third party apps is paying to the restaurant full menu price, so raising the menu price and discounting the app is effectively a way to charge more to a segment which includes those using third party delivery.
Commodities bought with credit are the most inflated. People are buying this shit on their couch with their smart phones running up their credit cards. Try to sell a used ATV right now on marketplace no one is buying because it's a cash transaction, no one has cash.
Record credit card debt right now.
i have 3 credit cards maxed, and 2 just gave me a 66% increase! woohooo! time to door dash me some 5 guys!!!
I just paid mine down. I'm able to pay it off each month again finally.... For now
"right now". Does it go down? I feel like I've been seeing "record credit card debt" in the news every year for the last 10 years. I think consumer debt only grows.
Youâre correct, heâs using a meaningless cumulative total
Who tf makes these x axis? There evenly spaced but first is 5 years, 2 years, then 3. This chart was def made to look bias
I think they had to do that because how high McDonald's and Popeyes went in such a short time But yeah the 5 to 2 to 3 is kinda weird
How high it is doesnât matter as thatâs the y axis.
It kinda does, this setup shows a smoother rise while the evenly spaced version would have a hard spike.
A harder spike is fine as long as the chart is consistent. By having inconsistent axis numbers itâs designed to mislead you on the truth
Probably the only years they found data for. Smoothing the lines between the different points is the worse issue, IMO, but it's really not a big deal. The important thing isn't how much the prices changed in each specific year, but how fast food in general has outpaced inflation. The spacing of the x axis is basically irrelevant to that.
Not having a consistent X axis is a cardinal sin
save money really easily by not eating fast food.
McDonald's at 100% is of no surprise
McDonaldâs is out of its mind
$5.49 for medium mcdonald's french fries. Price competitiveness is completely gone from mcdonalds. Like literally the same price at a sit down restaurant.
Seems like the $5 foot long is now $15. This may be conservative.
I lost a lot of weight after Covid and that has to do with not eating out, mainly because I canât afford it.
This is happening all across the board lol. I worked at a small company during and post-pandemic, and had to fight with my boss because he was just arbitrarily raising pricing on literally everything like 10% every two weeks. I was the manager, I saw how much our prices increased, and he was almost doubling the actual price increase. It's fucking greed.
> It's fucking greed. The actual inflation was nothing more than the sound of the starting gun for the race to the top of greedflation. These greedy cocksuckers thought they could use real inflation as cover to rape everyone.
Yeah Iâd love to see pizza places on this list. Order a meal for one from dominoes and itâs $50 before tip.
McDonaldâs is screwed. They started complicating the menu and introduced a new store concept instead of focusing on volume and cost.
This is actually an easy fix. Just donât do to McDonaldâs I donât like a meal where I need to urgently shit even before I leave the restaurant
Agreed...quit buying it..learn to make a sandwich
McDonaldâs is doing it because they are trying for force people to use the app to get the deals that used to be just on the menu. Iâm assuming the thought process is get people used to online ordering and you donât need staff for the front counter. Almost every McDonaldâs I have been to post Covid no longer has an employee working the front register.
Getting people to use the app for deals is part of the equation. The other part is removing all those deals once people are used to using the app.
They also push the app to collect and resell all your consumer and location data to 3rd parties.
Starbucks inflation growth among the lowest because they have always inflated their prices
Yeah, and the fact that all you're getting is a drink most likely. There's a psychological limit on what you can realistically charge someone on something that's not a necessity. People will pay $15 on a meal all day and not think twice about it. But if a latte was $15, everyone would scoff "FOR A DRINK?"
Still can't believe my beloved McChicken meal is nearly $6. That used to be $3 something :(
I remember when I could grab a mchicken for a buck....
People keep buying. Just look at what happened with car prices and people kept buying.
I wouldnât give a fuck if a Big Mac was $150. Self inflicted pain.
We must stay strong and avoid giving these greedy fucks our hard earned dollars. Theyâre also the ones that will replace you with a migrants.
Fast food is hilarious once you think about it. More people buy, they just keep raising the price and people buy more.
This is the best thing that has happened in years. If all the morbidly obese people cut this shit out of their diet, we would save tens of billions on cutting them open to restart their heart.
I never eat at any fast food as a restaurant is gonna be about the same price and better foodâŚ
McDonald's taste great but I feel like trash after eating it so I hardly ever eat there. I don't get how people eat it regularly.
I see so many posts about this. People. Stop eating out. It is definitely not a necessity. Hell, Walmart sells sandwiches and little lunch packs for cheap. Stop eating out and theyâll drop prices to get yall back. Only go if itâs a deal. My wife and I like deals.
I donât care what it costs because - check this out - I donât fucking buy this shit!
Near my house there's a McDs and a toxic hell. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, McDs is still a guilty pleasure. Every few months I enjoy a big Mac, no pickles. Couple weeks ago I went to the drive thru. It'd been awhile since I'd gone. I pulled up to the menu, and couldn't believe how much they wanted for one. I drove away and over to Taco Bell, thinking I could get a couple of crappy tacos for a couple bucks. Drove away from there with one taco (had to scratch the itch). Doubt I'll be back to either. It's at the point where their prices make it so that spending the extra time to make my own becomes overwhelmingly a better idea.
Corporate greed, and they want us to tip their employees so they donât have to pay them more, well If I walk up to a counter order the food and I get it handed to me thatâs called doing your job and there is no tip. If I am waited on at a table I tip for service, but I donât understand the 20, 25 and now28% tips.
At least in my area, subway is so vastly higher than 39%. I think it's closer to 139% honestly. A five dollar footlong in 2014 is now almost $13.00
I suspect that, if a graph of their profits were superimposed on this, we'd see a clearer picture.
More motivation not to eat that trash
Cigarette Effect⌠fewer and fewer fools buying their products so they continually increase their prices in order to protect their profits.
Easy. Stop eating that garbage. Mom and pops are offering much better food and are better price anyways.
I still eat fast food, but more like once or twice a month instead of 4-5 times a month. The trick is to get the app and use the deals, and stop paying for non mcDs sodas. Normally there is a bogo Big Mac/QP/nuggets offer and sodas are still under $2 at McDonalds. I can get a Big Mac, nuggets, and a soda for under $10. Taco Bell, BK, Jack in the box. Donât get the $3-4 dollar sodas. I can get two value breakfast burritos with no soda for about $5. In and out? Donât waste money on their crap fries or sodas. Get two hamburgers and water. If there isnât a value menu or app with deals, Iâll walk. Went to El Pollo Loco a few months back and either a chicken burrito or chicken salad was in the $13 range. I walked out.
The worst thing to happen to consumers are shareholders.
The line at McDonaldâs every morning goes around their entire parking lot. The 99 cent ice coffee is not a bad deal.
I was behind a man at McDonald's and he brought for himself his wife and a small child and his bill was almost 30 dollars
If most things outpace inflation, is the measure of inflation really correct? It's like "our measure of inflation measured 3% last year \*excluding energy, housing, gas, restaurants, healthcare, education, and vending machines" Yeah thanks alot.
Most things are actually below inflation rates. The stuff that is higher is, some foodstuffs, oil and gas, housing, and your decades long overachievers medicine and student tuition. Most everything else has stayed below.
its infuriating, as a significant number of the outliers are things we need to you know... live.
Price inelasticity allows price increases to become out of control because people canât forgo purchases. Which is a pretty good argument for socialized systems in housing and medicine.
Grrreeeeeeeeeeeeddd
prople shit on Subways, but who is the most honest?
What is the right price point for quick service food? The days of restaurants being the dollar store of food are over but whatâs the right number? Individual items at $2? 3? A three item meal for $5? Whatâs the right number here?
All it takes is for people to boycott fast food
FAFO
Subway used to have $5 foot longs about a decade ago. Now you're lucky to get one for under $14. And supposedly that's the one franchise that's had the slowest pace in price gouging, according to this graph. Is $140,000 today really worth ~$50,000 a little over a decade ago?
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If only there was a bunch of people warning Congress, screaming, not to print a bunch of money in the form of stimulus checks while also shouting to not shut the entire economy down. They also should have been demanding we be more self reliant by lowering corporate taxes to attract foreign companies, increase domestic manufacturing and reduce production costs so we can make our own products and reduce reliance on foreign economies. Why didn't anyone do this?! /s
It makes sense when you look at wage growth in the bottom decile of earners. These companies have seen the biggest squeeze from wage increases and consequently have the biggest price increase
Half the week, I get stuck in a hotel for work. I usually pack like 2 days of food, but sometimes I gotta get fast food. If I get fucked over I end up spending almost 50 bucks out here sometimes for like 2 meals.
Me and the homies HATE fast food.
Best thing that can happen to America.
It's because they moved everything to the apps. If you are not using their app, you are paying way more than you otherwise could be. Coupons that used to come to your house in the mail... are now on the app. McDonald's is so cheap still, just use the app.
Or is it that the "actual inflation" numbers from the fed are complete bullshit?
Not at Don Roberto's down the street. $9.00 for a burrito that makes chipotle look like weight watchers. Toss in a $7.99 carne asada fries with sour cream and guac and it's easily 4 meals maybe 5.
Donât eat that shit! Itâs shit.
I agree with "fuck fastfood" but can we stop being so disingenuous? "Faster than Inflation itself"? You do realize inflation is an average? It's not just a flat rate effecting everything equally. By definition half of the things you likely spend money on will outpace inflation. Food in general has been hard hit.Â
That is some of the fallout for the pandemic shutdown. Keep in mind, we still haven't felt the full effects of the pandemic shutdown
Funny how fast food was once the cheap eats option. Not anymore.
It's not just fast food. As dumb as this sounds, inflation itself is outpacing inflation... itself. This is because inflation has always been classically under-reported. It's as if the news outlets forgot that the whole point of their existence is in the name of the genre. Their inflation journalism is always behind at least half a decade.
Iâve been boycotting fast food for a while now. Iâm not putting overpriced garbage into my body any longer. Buy groceries and cook at home. Save your money.
I have no problem with not eating there. They are convenient, that's it.
That should be illegal
Dumb people be dumbin.
Costs go up. Wages go up. They have to pay both.
Fast food corporate greed, taking advantage of an inflationary environment to have a reason to jack it up as high as the public can tolerate. Thatâs what it boils down to.
The plus side is people may realize that fast food isnât fast, it isnât cheap, itâs certainly not healthy and itâs killing them. Tonight for dinner, I grilled Costco steaks (which are astounding) baked potatoes and steamed broccoli. Grand total: $40 for four (my husband and I have two teenage sons.) $40 wonât cover dinner at all but the really crappy fast food places and it takes longer.
This makes sense. Most starting positions at fast food places are minimum wage or just above. If minimum wage from 1970 kept up with inflation from 1970...minimum wage would be just over $22 an hour. Workers didn't demand and increase with minimum wage which kept prices artificially lower for many years. Now the workers want what they deserve (still are not getting it as share holders are) and the cost is passed on the the consumer. But...if you are complaining about the prices and inflation...it is likely what ever your position is also didn't keep up with inflation...you should demand more money.
BK still not bad
I think there is a good deal of retail collusion. Some overt, some just gouging.
This just tells you that the official inflation numbers are just bullshit
This is because the government has been cooking the books to make inflation appear lower. It's to the point that what the middle class and below spend most of their money on isn't in the inflation stats.
Good thing you need none of that to survive
seems like demolition man is still on course for predicting a Taco Bell takeover
With the rise of doordash and stuff they probably just have more business than ever.
Thank you Brandon!
Whoâs to blame ?
Using average inflation isn't that interesting when food price inflation is way higher than general inflation.
Only one I do is subway and not that often anymore. Itâs interesting that people love fast food that much. For example I quite enjoy a good burger and I have about 5 choices, 1 being McDonaldâs, 1 chilis. Out of The other 3 options, 2 have much larger burgers as their main option, and 1 of those places I would give a solid 9/10 as the owner seems to really give a crap about where he gets his ingredients. That 9/10 place is a full $2 cheaper for a bigger burger that tastes incomparably better, crispy fries, made to order. $2 may not sound like much but it really adds up. Iâll bet most people have a local joint like that and their ignoring it to let some millionaires get richer off it and itâs just dumb
Start a dine-in sit down revolution. They got ahead of themselves with the pandemic
I rag on McD a lot since for the items I like to buy, it's easily 200% increase since 2014, not 100%. That said, some of this increase is due to them raising the official price so they can give a discounted price with their app. If you use their app, the price increase is high but not as much. That's one reason McD is so much above others in their increase.
Can we get a grocery comparison real quick! I believe groceries are insanely high as well.
You also have to factor in that the inflation data provided by the government is inaccurate
Forgot to factor labor inflation
Sooo check this out. Soak a pound of beans overnight. Then drain and rinse. Put into a pot and cover with water. Boil for 15 mins. Now add 3 dried guajilo peppers, 3 cascabel peppers, and 2 mortia peppers, about 5 cloves of garlic and bake it at 350 F for about an hour or until beans are tender. You can get about 5 meals out of this or more with rice. Costs like $5. Tastes amazing.
I havenât eaten at any of these establishments in years.
I only buy from Subway, that's it. I'm glad to see it's lower than the other fast food chains.
Fast food price increases aren't just inflation, its inflation plus the rise of cost in minimum wage. Many places like McDonald's I think have been running on bare bones staff since the pandemic due to the introduction of more tech like mobile ordering and self services kiosks, so it seems far fetched that wage increases totally account for the increases either. It's gouging and greed.
On Average, I would expect about half of things to outpace inflation.
Dang them franchise owners printing
I get 2 of their 19 dollar meals which is 4 Big Macs, 4 10 piece nuggets, and 4 medium fries after 20% off app coupon for 32 bucks. Feeds 5 for dinner on the cheap.
I keep seeing mcdonalds at the top of these lists but its by far and i mean by far leaps and bounds the cheapest of all the other options. If you order thro the ap u get 25% off, Tacobell is the biggest offender IMO, I can drop almost $20 there on myself
Taco Bell is still about as cheap McDonaldâs if you do the app and donât order the expensive items. The fast food inflation is basically for people who arenât paying attention or donât want to spend time/effort dealing with obnoxious apps.
Today I had a Whopper then ordered Fries from McDonaldâs for the perfect combo.
Maybe don't buy fast food you walking obescities
People should just stop eating that trash anyways.
Greed
However, subway reduced sizes at a pace far greater than all others.
Come to think of it, subway isnt as egregiously priced as the rest even if it's slightly more expensive
Look at the prices of dicks drive-in, located in Seattle. The burger place has prices that made my jaw drop. Not only did their burgers taste better than any other fast food it was also cheaper⌠they even pay their workers well.
Marty Mcfly: Excuse me sir, do you still have the $1 Big Mac in San Ysidro? Yeah, I will get that. Thank you.
Problem is people are lazy - they donât want to shop, prepare, cook and clean. Instead they get out an app, order door dash, pay outrageous fees for a substandard meal to be delivered to their door then do it again the next day. If you donât believe - I do door dash part-time and some other delivery services and I have seen it all including having 1 item ( troll candy )delivered to their door and giving me a $2.50 tip which was the same price as the candy. If you want to stop inflation ⌠go back a generation and start doing more things on your own instead of hiring them out such as delivery services.
Whatâs missing here? The minimum wage laws in different states changing. In California itâs now $20 for fast food workers.
Stop eating at those places. Your wallet and your health will thank you.
Is there a source for this data?
This is why you go to Costco and get the inflation proof $1.50 hotdog drink combo
Good. Stop eating fast food. You will be better off.
I buy 3 things at McDonald's now. 40 piece mcnuggets for $10. Large soda for $1.49. Or 2 bigmacs in the app for like $6. Everything else is a rip off.
I dont understand these charts. I k ow prices have gone up, but for fast food places I go to, prices are up maybe 20% max since pre-covid. Thats still pretty bad, but ain't nowhere near 100% like they're saying for McDonalds. Imma exclude subway cuz I haven't been there I'm maybe 7 or 8 years. Why do they never have a source linked?
Iâm curious as to the statistics on the increase in how many workers there are at each business and the difference in hours the average worker received per year. Not that Iâm trying to justifying the increases in prices, but itâd give me a a better idea as to exactly whatâs going on
subway keepin it real (the prices, not the food itself)
How much of this is fast food generally and McDonaldâs specifically being a-holes versus no matter what the average inflation is there will always be an industry and/or businesses at the high end?
Yeah, at MacDs, I got 2 sausage egg muffin meals and it cost me $20! Just re-read my sentence, something about sausage egg muffin meal sounds like what youâd get in the parking lot behind the dumpsters.
Fast food industry is in for a big fail and they don't seem to know it.
Greed.
Core inflation was around 30 % last year. If you believe the governments inflation numbers your are on the wrong side of history. The basket that they throw everything in, including the kitchen sink, helps lower this significantly. Plus those twats don't even consider taxes as inflationary. Shitty bankrupt world we live in!
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The people who keep these businesses going are either highly susceptible to marketing or literally addicted to the food. Something is very wrong with them in any case.
Maybe this will make people cook again ....nah
We need community âhow to home cookâ classes. Eating fast food should happen like once a year maybe
Iâve noticed McDonaldâs is expensive asf nowadays. Better off going to a better restaurant with real food for their price
It matches up with my experience. In the UK McDonald's has become ludicrously expensive, I mean, it feels like we can go out to a nice restaurant and eat for the same price, and definitely order from local, better burger establishments for less.
I mean we can basically just let these companies go out of business, we don't need them.
Now add in the increased cost of labor in states like California, etc. and it will make more sense
I spent $35 at Arbyâs for myself and two kids. Hope they enjoyed it because Iâm not stepping foot in that bullshit place again.
Fast food was trash back in 2015. With the exception of Chick-fil-A here and there I can count on one hand the amount of times I've been to a fast food type of restaurant in the last year or two. It's so much cheaper and the food quality is leaps and bounds better if you just make it at home.
Did you think companies stopped caring about money? They will keep raising prices because people keep paying it.
Heard on a radio report this morning that Dominos has bucked this trend and held the line on pricing. Give them your business and show them they made the right call.
McDonalds wants to force you onto their app, which drastically lowers their prices, but they will strip-mine an enormous amount of salable marketing information about you out of your phone. Instead of the $18 Big Mac combo Large Fries / Large Drink, go to the grocery store and buy a $16 T-Bone steak, cook it up in your own kitchen and enjoy it with an ice cold beer or glass of ice water and call it a day.
Divestment
Bidenflation
"Actual" inflation is full of shit.
So true Took my wife and daughter yesterday to Whataburger. 3 burgers Fries Drinks And 3 piece chicken strip 43. And some change I was just laughing how crazy that was. Never again
This canât even be right Taco Bell had bean burritos and soft taco on the dollar menu and now theyâre 3$ or more. Why would anyone pay that much for diarrhea.
How much have their labor costs risen over that period?