Americans are choking on surging fast-food prices. "I can't justify the expense," one customer says
Americans are choking on surging fast-food prices. "I can't justify the expense," one customer says
The price of a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal has more than doubled since 2014, data show.
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.
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If you have been eating fast food for anything other than a treat, something is wrong anyways.
It's never really been cheap, and it certainly has never been good for you.
Weird that everyone is suddenly talking about it now.
And 5 guys? Lol it's always been way over priced.
Five guys is a terrible example, they've always been crazy, but even five years ago BK, McDonald's, Wendy's had dollar menus with burgers and other substantial food items that poor people could access.
Those prices are suddenly firmly gone, and it happened earlier then and far outpaced even the rampant inflation in the US.
I agree that people shouldn't be eating that s***** fast food anyway, but a lot of low-income people saw those dollar menus and cheap fast food as lifelines, and within a few years the cheapest items have arbitrarily quadrupled Quinton toppled in price.
There is zero practical reason aside from profit that french fries cost more than they did 5 years ago. Potatoes are just about the easiest thing to grow and there have been no diseases or mitigating circumstances in the past 5 years that explain why someone living on a couple dollars a day can no longer buy a hash brown for a dollar.
You are framing this as an access issue rather than one of predation.
Fast food chains don't make a cheap menu to help poor people experience their food, they do it to milk every bit of money from a populace.
Don't expect social justice from corporate entities.
I specifically said this is a profit driven problem.
You're swimming through self-righteous aggression to vehementally agree with me.
That's a bit harsh. No aggression intended, or apparent.
Are you OK?
I'm good, I dislike half-baked assumptions and lazy springboarding:
"You are framing this as an access issue rather than one of predation"
I specifically say that the problem is profit-driven; in no way is my comment framed as an access issue.
"Fast food chains don't make a cheap menu to help poor people experience their food, they do it to milk every bit of money from a populace."
Nobody said that fast food chains are trying to help people; I noted that the problem of increased fast food prices can only be attributed to corporate greed.
"Don't expect social justice from corporate entities."
No comment here expects or advocates for social justice from corporate entities. It is a fact that many fast food companies very recently used to have substantial dollar menus and no longer have dollar menus.
Your comment is immaterial as a reply and reads as populist posturing at the expense and disregard of the comment you're responding to.
If you agree? Fine. If you disagree? Fine.
Don't agree with what I'm saying by pretending I said something I didn't to drum up false controversy.
It was most certainly cheap. Remember the dollar menu? You could get a McDonald's cheeseburger and fries and drink for about $3 plus tax.
Post said 5 guys has been over priced, not all fast food and not McDs. And that's right, 5 guys I always found to be... "ok" but dreaded when the work guy would select 5 guys as "the lunch place" on his turn. Always about to spend a lot of money for a burger when I don't even feel like a burger that day.