Kevin Roberts remembers when he could get a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a drink from Five Guys for $10. But that was years ago. When the Virginia high school teacher recently visited the fast-food chain, the food alone without a beverage cost double that amount.
Roberts, 38, now only gets fast food “as a rare treat,” he told CBS MoneyWatch. “Nothing has made me cook at home more than fast-food prices.”
Roberts is hardly alone. Many consumers are expressing frustration at the surge in fast-food prices, which are starting to scare off budget-conscious customers.
A January poll by consulting firm Revenue Management Solutions found that about 25% of people who make under $50,000 were cutting back on fast food, pointing to cost as a concern.
And itll be spun into blaming the cost on pay increases of the workers
I’ve been seeing a metric fuck ton of articles pop up about California’s recent wage hike and blaming the price hikes on that.
Literally in the article…
Yeah they dont waste time
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Not only have the prices become absurd, the quality control has gone to crap.
For years we’ve taken regular road trips and use to stop at fast food places every single time. In the past 3 years we’ve repeatedly been served triple salted food, awful sub sandwiches, “cheese” burgers missing the cheese and condiments, and cold burger patties so old and dry they couldn’t be choked down. When you factor in the amount of waste due to the lousy food, the actual prices are way higher than what’s shown on the menu.
The ridiculous prices and regular bad experiences pushed us to a tipping point and we now find a grocery store along the way for deli sandwiches. It usually only adds about 5 minutes to the trip. Not only are the prices about 30% less but the food is consistently edible which makes the real price probably 1/2 of fast food places.
This is something we wouldn’t have taken he time to do a few years ago, so for us there’s been a big upside to the absurd prices and lousy food. We’re permanently changed our habits and cut fast food out of our diet completely. We are now spending less and getting consistently better quality, healthier food.
Maybe we should send “thank you” notes to the various fast food corporate headquarters.
This is a really good idea!
You can’t pay your employees poverty wages and expect them to care about quality.
It has to hurt for the people who spend their hard earned money on a night off from cooking by ordering out at McDonald’s, but it’s a lesson we all learn the hard way.
it’s very hard to give a shit when you’re making a meal that costs $15 in 30 seconds when you make maybe $9/hr. the math is so plainly unfair and it’s right in front of you all day
All the fasst food places here pay like 15$ minimum, mcdonalds. Bk, Wendy’s, all the big names.
It’s still shit money but it’s not THAT low.
Yeah. When you entire shift could just barely afford a days worth of calories and nothing more I think you would basically check out.
If you’re selling a product that you can’t produce by paying employees a lousy wage, you have to pay what’s needed to produce a salable product. This is the way business works everywhere and is true for both skilled and unskilled labor.
These companies have radically increased their prices while allowing the products produced to go to shit, and their customers are doing what customers always do when faced with crappy products and high prices. We’re going elsewhere.
After trying a few grocery store deli sandwiches, I will avoid fast food sandwich shops unless there’s simply nothing else available. The deli is there to get you in the store to spend money. They don’t have as much of a financial incentive to skimp on the ingredients. It wasn’t uncommon for me to get a sandwich so stuffed I couldn’t close it
I usually go to the salad bar of my grocery store and pickup a salad with no protein or dressing, then go to the dressing isle and buy a bottle of the dressing of my choice, finally go to the deli and pickup a cooked chicken. At home I shred the chicken and store it in a container and every day after I just stop buy the salad bar and pickup a hefty salad for $5, add a bit of my shredded chicken and dressing with gusto.
Best lunch ever.
“The whole conceit was that you were getting some OK-level of food …”
Don’t be conceited. And cook your own food at home. You’re welcome.
That’s pure greed at this point…Jimmy John’s is still well in an affordable range. As a rule, I tend to avoid buying food from places with surge pricing as fast food is supposed to be affordable! It’s not fine dining and as a result should be priced appropriately; they’ve forgotten their role in the food space and thus their business will live or die based on future choices.
Surprised to hear this. Where im at Jimmy John’s is the most expensive. I wonder if it’s supply chain related.
I wonder about that, it could be they simply feel that’s a price people will pay there! Honestly, if I get a sandwich, chips, and a cookie for delivery it’s around 19 and some change. If I buy in store it’s around 13 dollars.
In addition to my original comment, I totally forgot about Culver’s which would actually be the cheapest; Their value combo is less than 10 dollars and mighty tasty! I visit both places as they are lighter on my bank account.
Jimmy John’s
Yeah, but their owner is a big trump fan, and for some inexplicable reason he’s paying Rudy Giuliani 's legal bills…
Their subs are decent tho and probably cheaper than subway at this point.
Man, subway actually used to be decent too. $5 for a foot long is pretty much what it was worth. And if you knew what you were doing it could have been relatively healthy.
I haven’t been in probably a decade now. But sometimes I still get JJ’s. Just wanted to mention that like a lot of big chains, we really shouldn’t be giving them a lot of money.
Sucks to hear that but thank you the info.
I could be wrong but I don’t believe he owns the company any longer, I think he was bought out.
Yeah by Inspire brands, the same people that run Sonic and Arby’s. I mean I guess it’s better than Yum! In quality…
But this is also Roark capital who named themselves after an Ayn Rand character and have several violations and creepy history as a private equity firm and are currently trying to buy all sandwich companies to own a monopoly on it.
If you order online, Subway always has a coupon to get footlongs for ~$7, which is about $5 from 2010 adjusted for inflation. They have a lot of perpetual coupons that they rotate the codes on about once per month, but there’s always an up-to-date list on the subway subreddit.
If you order at the right time, you can get salmonella from the lettuce. Guess how I know.
Ugh, if I’m gonna get salmonella, it better be from delicious sprouts, not boring lettuce
Fast food was affordable because they paid sweat shop wages. That’s not the case anymore. In any event… I would argue with the “supposed to be” affordable comment. Just because it was doesn’t mean it’s supposed to be. As far as I’m concerned this can only be good for the health of the public- when fast food prices are at least comparable in price to healthy options.
Edit: lol at all the people comparing the US to Nordic countries. Apparently they think US franchise owners are the same as those in countries where making a profit is akin to a sin. Hahaha. They thought by raising wages, owners would cut into their own bottom lines. “Bruh, in countries where mcmansions don’t happen, this isn’t a problem.” Net profits have not gone up at all compared with the rest of the economy.
And apparently people really like their cheap big macs. Eat something else? And I’m sure many of them were arguing for livable wages over the past five years (I was). This outrage is hilarious.
Edit 2: Apparently people don’t know what “gross” means. If my costs go up, then my prices go up… and my gross returns go up to cover both the costs (expenses) and net proceeds. I’m at a complete loss at the nature of these arguments.
McDonald’s NET growth from end of 2009 to 2023 was 4.56 B to 8.47B. A 186% increase. This is roughly a 5% annualized increase. I intentionally sought pre/post COVID numbers for a reason.
In this same time the US GDP grew from 14.47B to 27.35B. Almost the exact same rate of growth at a 189% increase.
Net profits are what you’re concerned with in your arguments when accounting for greed… not gross. If anything, I’ve shown McDonalds is making less money today. But you know, feels are more important than facts.
They thought by raising wages, owners would cut into their own bottom lines.
I don’t think anyone actually thought that.
They’re simply making the point that the problem is not the wages paid to the employees, as you imply, but the obscene salaries paid to executives and franchisees.
That the American execurives and franchisees are not going to take the necessary steps to correct that problem pretty much goes without saying, but that doesn’t in any way change the fact that that is the problem
The profits today aren’t any different than the profits from 15 years ago (when fixing for economic growth). I’ve already done the math. The only significant variable that’s changed here is wages. I.e., expenses.
Why are you complaining that wages are on the increase? Who’s paying you?
Point out that complaint please.
Fast food was affordable because they paid sweat shop wages. That’s not the case anymore.
And you read that as a complaint? That’s your issue if you interpret plain facts as complaints. Feel free to read a little more thoroughly.
Undoubtedly.
And that in no way contradicts, or even really addresses, my point, which is not about overall expenses, but about the distribution of them - the portion that goes to employee wages vs. the portion that goes to executive compensation packages.
Fast food was affordable because they paid sweat shop wages. That’s not the case anymore.
McDonalds gross profits are $14.68B over the last 12 months with over 9% year-over-year growth.
They aren’t struggling and other than covid (which just held steady for a few years at $10B), the trend has been going up, not down, not stagnant for many years.
Remember that’s gross profits. If wages were hitting them hard, then we’d see the trend decrease but that isn’t what happened or is happening.
Yes, you’re comparing COVID lows with today’s returns. That’s perfect. Not that I give a damn about franchise returns. I just don’t eat there.
Remember that’s gross profits.
Do you have any idea what “gross” means? You’re literally including the increase to wages in your argument.
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2023, McDonald’s net income $8.5B on $25B revenue, or 34% net profit margin.
2009 net income $4.5B on $23B revenue. 20% profit margin.Over the time period that you picked, their profits - the money that they don’t pay to either workers or farmers - nearly doubled as revenues barely changed.
Fast food absolutely still pays well below a living wage in most of the US
My guy, it’s cheaper to get a big mac in Norway than in the US and their lowest wages are more than double ours in the US.
Yes but the owners in Norway aren’t making more profits than last year.
The whole problem isn’t that they’re not making good profits, but that it’s not exponentially growing profits.
Greed.
McDonald’s in Europe charges similar prices to America but pays living wages to their employees.
I won’t believe paying fast workers a liveable wage necessitates the rise in cost unless there’s hard data behind that. Sure, it’s likely a necessity to continue profit growth quarter after quarter, but I’d wager they’re able to continue making massive profits even with having to pay their staff like they’re humans.
I agree with you about fast food though. We’ll be better off without them. Fuck em.
Hey, I can edit too: You never said gross prior to your edit, you were talking about consumer costs. I’m still not yet a believer, but I Iove you :)
Since labor is a cost. You just defeated your argument.
If labor goes up, prices will go up. It’s that simple. Fast food is only profitable at high volumes. Their profit margin is only around 10% which is low.
Bruh, McDonald’s exists in other countries…
A big Mac in the Nordic countries costs like a dollar more than America, and their workers get the equivalent of like $20 some an hour, paid vacation time, and the company actually has to pay taxes.
It ain’t the labor that’s expensive.
It’s not the ingredients either.
It’s the profit rate to keep shareholders happy
If that arrow always has to go up, it’s the one thing that’s literally impossible to ever go down.
We got JJ’s a couple weeks ago. 3 sandwiches and 3 cookies was over $50. That was not worth anywhere near that much.
Yikes! On average (as a single dude) it’s around 19 and some change for delivery. In store I end up paying around 13 dollars! For more than one person, it’s better to eat at a proper sit down restaurant.
if base food prices really make the old fast food economics nonviable, I expect the space to die off and be replaced by fast causal. otherwise I expect a lot of them to die on their own greed and the rest to get with it. it seems the fast food space is going all in on drive-thrus so maybe that’s their future niche?
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Ride your quarterly profits and attendant bonuses as long as possible and don’t give a shit about the future because that’s the next CEO’s problem in less than 5 years from now when you golden parachute out
Fast food has been all in on drive thrus since the inception of drive thrus. Most places make about half of their money that way and for some it’s far more.
Yeah, I love my local pizza place and I’m on good terms with the owner, but the prices have gone up enough that I’ve set a hard limit of only going there once a month, and there are some menu items that I explicitly just will not buy because they’re so overpriced.
Cost frankly does define my dietary habits. The number one reason that I don’t decide to grab the odd piece of vegan chicken to put in a bagel is because it costs 50% more than regular chicken.
Local breakfast spot… Used to be $8 for “two eggs any style” with meat and home fries and stuff. Used to be $13.50 for eggs Benedict.
It is now $14 for 2 eggs any style (get fucked), and… $16 for eggs Benedict.
Like ok, I’ll do the eggs Benedict at that robbery rate Jesus.
It cost damn near 40 bucks to get two Jimmy John’s sandwiches delivered. I could make 40 sandwiches for that price.
It’s not just fast food. They’re getting the attention because they’re supposed to be cheap, but the price of eating out in general has jumped over the last 4 years or so.
For example: We often eat at a local barbecue place, usually getting the same order each time. (During the pandemic, we would get take out.) I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but when I looked it up a while back, I think we were paying ~$15 more now for the essentially the same order. Adding $15 on to a ~$30 order is a huge increase, as a percentage.
In general, our dining out expenses have gone way up since the start of the pandemic, but we aren’t eating out more often or ordering more extravagant foods. The prices have just gone up. (When we go out for meals, we go to a mix of fast food and casual dining places, some with counter service.)
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On the flipside it’s forcing people to make healthier choices.
Cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean healthier. I know when I was young, most nights I would make a box of rice a roni and chop up a hot dog to add in. It was about the cheapest meal I could make, but it definitely wasn’t healthy.
I literally had cake for breakfast most days cause you could get discount nearly expired ones from the hidden end cap in Walmarts and that was cheap and gave me some energy for the day and then nothing but hotdogs and hashbrowns.
Yeah, cheap doesn’t mean healthy. We should at least start with making sure people can get all the calories they need each day this country certainly produces enough of them and throws away so much.
I’m tired of malnutrition and starvation being looked at like a good diet for the poor.
What also stinks is that most apartment rentals have a kitchen that has enough cabinets to store:
- food
- plates and glasses
- pots and pans
CHOOSE ONE
so eating take out or fast food is practically required.
Yup. But as a tip you can store cookware in the oven, that lets you get like 1.5 of the options and if you are willing to give up some space thrift stores sometimes have cheap shelving you can use as a makeshift pantry against one of the walls.
I actually use a table I removed 2 legs from and have it using the windowsill instead just so I could have some useable counter space.
My puzzle skills are always getting a workout trying to figure out cooking.
CHOOSE ONE
Sitting in my apartment sobbing while trying to eat my pots and pans.
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It’s currently $13 for a regular hamburger at 5 Guys down in Miami.
Going vegan in the midwest has made avoiding fast food way too easy.
Especially when saying “no cheese” 8 times means you will definitely be getting cheese
My wife and I made a pact never to return to TBell after they messed up 5 consecutive orders. The final straw was them putting meat in her potato+bean crunchwrap…
Re: the comments here I’m not for a moment buying the “too busy to cook, must eat fast food” argument or similar arguments portraying fast food as, why, almost necessary in this busy day and age! If you don’t want to cook (I don’t want to if I can avoid it, but do it anyway occasionally and usually make several days worth of dish X at a time to minimize my cooking time), you can easily go to you nearby Winco/Walmart/Aldi/etc and load up on some interesting frozen dishes for way, way less $ than the prices I’m seeing mentioned here. And I’m not talking about some kind of 1960s “TV dinner” things either - bogus stereotype of the concept. Even Trader Joe’s (where you shouldn’t shop b/c anti-union) is comparatively cheap and has super interesting frozen stuff. No time to cook tonight? Well just pop your frozen dish out of the freezer and into the microwave and five minutes later you’ve got an actual “meal” of sorts in front of you, and likely one with 1/10th the calories of that “meal” you got from McFatsos at 5x the price.
Ah, but it won’t be DEEP FRIED goodness and lots and lots and lots of volume and lots and lots of pure concentrated sugar in that totally mandatory fast food dessert. No, you’ll probably be getting a relatively (to McFatsos) small-ish portion and it probably won’t have started its life being deep-fried and it might just have some interesting veggies … and no dessert unless you explicitly microwave something else.
This Will Not Stand! Must have fat and more fat and more deep fry and more sugar … that’s a “meal” … and must have it because, er, oh yeah, “no time”. Yeah, that’s it, no time.
Americans are simply addicted to garbage food (fat/sugar) and in tremendous quantities and if they don’t get it, well now, the world is going to hell clearly.
Partial source: worked in fast food in HS (McD’s clone) for a few years and did pretty much every task there was to be done in the “kitchen”. The “kitchen” being, in that case, a grill for cooking greasy burgers and prepping greasy bacon and a deep fat fryer for frying up those potatoes in bulk and also the “tots” (same grease as the fries) and also the frozen “pie” concoctions (same grease as the fries).
Eating this crap if you have a grocery store anywhere nearby and a microwave is completely unnecessary but people do it anyway because it tastes soooo good! … because of grease and sugar.
OK if you’re on the road all the time, a trucker or on an extended road trip, you have to figure out something cheap/healthy, but pretty much every motel room I’ve ever rented has come with a fridge and a microwave and I’ve had no problems figuring out a workable solution with the hardware available.
Say “no” to garbage “food” addiction and you’ll save a fortune.
