Dude it's insane. I don't understand how the hell these places stay in business anymore when the quality still sucks ass and it's all so expensive now. Like even taco bell, who used to be the king of cheap, costs a fuckton these days.
It’s become a habit for many people. Cooking is a really difficult habit to (re)learn. It’s possible though and good meal prep is very convenient on long days at work.
I just hate cooking. I cannot stand it. It takes so much effort and you have to clean all the mess you made (even cleaning as you go sucks). And then you end up with something that may or may not pan out. And if you're trying to meal prep then you have to eat the same meal for the whole week which I hate also.
If this was the only thing you'd ever have to do, fine. But the majority of the rest of our time is spent at work or sleeping. We have few precious hours where these things aren't the case. I hope this doesn't make me sound too much like an asshole, but I'm fortunate enough to purchase things like pre-prepared foods and get takeout a couple of times per week. So I take advantage of that because I don't want to spend my few moments of free time slaving away over a stove or cleaning the mess of pots and pans and cooking utensils.
Another this about cooking when you live alone...a lot of perishable foods can only be bought in somewhat larger quantities and then they go bad before you use them all up. I tried to make a recipe out of a cookbook several months ago and I was frustrated at how many things I had to buy a large thing of when I only needed a very small amount for the recipe. Ended up with a lot of food waste.
I don’t mind cooking, I just hate coming up with a dinner plan for the whole week. I’ve begun watching cooking videos on instagram to help motivate me. I do wish there was an alternative to instagram, but so far it’s the best.
☁️🌈CORPORATE✨PROFITS🌈☁️
Me, limping my ass into a McDonalds for the first time in forever: "I'll have 20 nuggets, no meal." (expecting 5$, or something close to it since it had legitimately been a while)
"Yeah, that'll be 12.47"
The fuck???
$17.99 for the 20 pc. In Canada. $10.79 for a 10 pc. I about shit when I immigrated here and realized nuggets were off the table. I can't imagine ordering that and picturing one dollar every time I pop one into my mouth. My wife buys me a ten piece for my birthday every year since I won't buy them myself out of protest. Also, my kid is old enough now to finish her 4 pc. Happy Meal, so I don't get to scavenge for uneaten morsels like I did before. It's tragic.
RIP Stalinwolf
Where in Canada are you? Here in BC, the prices are quite different from what you mentioned.
Just eat real chicken at that point...
The fuck
And the lines show it. I remember the single drive-throughs being backed up around the building and them putting in the dual-ordering drive-throughs to handle the traffic. There are never more than 2-3 people in line these days and there's almost no one inside. I get it, they're property banks these days.
Don't forget about the "meat" wafers on the "burger".
I don't go to fast food often, I walked into a McDonalds for the first time in maybe 1yr +? They had the kiosks for self ordering, I looked at the prices and "deals" and decided that the cost/experience ratio was just not worth and just left. I can go to a restaurant or cook myself for those prices (and I did, cooked enchiladas).
It doesn't seem affordable/worth it even for a one-off now
I've officially stopped going to McDonalds. Their prices make zero sense, and their food quality has dropped to incredible lows.
Only desperate, dumb, or wealthy folks eat at this place in 2025.
Learn to cook. Honestly. When you know what you're doing you can make simple and nutritious meals for a fraction of what you'd pay for this junk food.
+ it doesn't need to be complicated. You only need a few ingredients and can buy certain pre-made things like crumbed fish or chicken. If you do it right the first meal takes 30 mins, then eating the same thing again in the next few days should only take 5-10 mins.
Exactly. Take three main ingredients and use that as a base, or keep it like that. For example: rice + tofu + tomatoes. Another: couscous + chickpeas + green beans. Simple, quick, easy, and nutritious. Add some more flavour with herbs, spices, soy sauce, etc
There's little hacks for certain foods too if you can't cook worth much or don't want to bother to. For example I don't want to bother with cooking a chicken, so I'll go get one hot off the rotisserie chicken counter at Walmart or HEB. $6 for a whole ass chicken already hot cooked and ready to go, take it home and shred it. If it's hot the skin and legs taste good as a snack of itself while you're processing it and you can hand shred the breast / thighs / etc and save it for using in meals. It's how I make quesadillas or chicken alfredo really quickly.
People just dont know how to cook. Its an unpopular take these days but with the cost of living I cant help but look at how some of the people I know eat and think "Y'all could use some fucking austerity". Everything is pre-made, pre-prepped, and sometimes pre-cooked.
Forget simple and nutritious. I can make you the filthiest nastiest food coma inducing double bacon cheeseburger in about the time it takes most people to make it to and through the drivethrough, and probably for less than you would spend on fuel. The less said about how much better my fried chicken is the better.
This was my exact thought. If you frequent fast food 2-3 times a week, you can substitute meal kits and have fresh cooked food for the same cost and time it takes to leave the house. Once you’ve mastered kits, everything becomes more apparent in recipes, and the world is your oyster.
my bombass lunch today for ¥616 (~US$3.94)
Looks very soupy.
Well spotted
It's actually rice topped with an omelette, and the with some sauce thing made thick with potato starch. It's called tenshinhan, which is a Japanese reimagination of the food they have in Tianjin, China. As far as I know this dish is just named after that city in China, but it's not actually from there.
3.94? lies /s, at least $30 USD here
Well, university coop cafes are always gonna be comparatively cheap, but yeah, Japan's prepared food is generally cheap on a different level. Stuff in grocery stores for one thing, but I still can't quite figure out how sukiya or yoshinoya puts a beef set meal in front of you in 5 mins for less than 1000 yen
Impressive, you figured out it was a university coop cafe. Maybe I should have edited out the text to avoid doxxing myself haha.
True, the coops are one of the cheapest options. I also eat quite often at one of the beef set meal chains (one of sukiya, yoshinoya, or matsuya). Solid choice too.
That's not gonna work in the US.
Not cheap, not convenient, not fast, and, let's be real: It's barely food.
A while ago, I was charging at a highway stop, so I decided to quickly get something to drink at McDonald's. I just asked ordered a drink, nothing more. One lady started preparing the drink and put it somewhere behind the counter. I was right there, but she didn't hand it to me. I asked if she could give it, as it was the only thing I had ordered. She mentioned she was not allowed to hand over the order to customers, and she was waiting for someone else who was allowed to. It took roughly 10 minutes before I had my drink, it was very frustrating, especially for a "fast" food chain.
Sonic Boom predicted it with Meh Burger
I'll have a double corporate slop with extra gruel please
I got a bacon double cheeseburger, large fry, large drink at a Hardee's this week and it cost damn near $18. It was "okay."
And half the time it's not even that fast anymore either.
Might as well order a burger from an actual restaurant, to go, for the same amount and pick it up on the way. Half the time they'll even bring it to you curbside.
The Burger King closest to me once had a 20 minute line to wait another 15 minutes for the food.
“Fast food” is still relatively cheap in Japan, and me and my son like the taste of Burger King, but that was ridiculous.
And it wasn’t even a staff issue, there were eight people back there running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
double 1/3rd pound burger? off the regular price menu, upsized with curls. ya. that'll be pricey for what you get.
next time do the 'little' double cheese in the 'bag' special. 2 burgers, fries, drink for like six and change.
Now please tip 200% for the garbage
It’s been a long time since fast food was any good. It’s addictive, maybe comfortable, but definitely not good. Break your addiction, especially now that you could save so much money
It's comfortable, but also the salt they sprinkle on there must be a narcotic substance of some kind.
That said, McDonald's vs an OK sit-down restaurant are roughly the same price here. The latter is going to have better food - generally - but Mickey D will be more consistent, have the ability to order without talking to anyone, has a drive-thru, can order home (SOME restaurants don't do it here for some reason, most do luckily)... Basically, the fast food will win in all factors of convenience, but you won't feel as satisfied after eating it.
but you won’t feel as satisfied after eating it.
Talk about an understatement... I cannot recall a time where I ate fast food and did not regret it almost immediately.
Hey now, those poor businesses need to make up for their profit situation! Even though they have all made record profits year after year... After year...
We will be in a recession once they decide it's time for one.The weird this is that generally the once with shit quality make a decent profit and a lot of the once with way better food make almost nothing.
Capitalism at work. Race to the bottom.
Fucking Applebee's is right now cheaper than all of them with $10 for a burger and fries.
Sure, but then the wait staff expects you to tip at least 20% for simply being given one, and if you don't you're an asshole.
Sure, but then the wait staff expects you to tip at least 20% for simply being given one, and if you don’t you’re an asshole.
That's the neat part about affordable food, 20% on $10 only means you tip $2.
They bring you the food, refill your water, and serve you on ceramic plates with metal silverware then take your dirty dishes away, no trash. The burger and the fries are way better than McD.
IMO The only FF place you still can't touch is a $6 Taco Bell with the cravings box. It's a huge amount of shitty food for a total of $6, it is super fast and it runs through you super fast.
So order it to go!
yes but still cheaper
Around these parts we have a couple of more affordable options but most of the big fast food chains have become $10+ meal bullshits. If the meal is over $10 I might as well go pay the same in a non-fast-food restaurant with a pick up order. But Jack's (burger/chicken store) and Taco Bell still have meal deals for $7 or less.
Fountain drinks are a big ripoff, so you can save a bit by not ordering a drink if you have your own already.
Instead of a burger meal for $11 from bullshit fast food places I can buy a large entree of Mexican food for $8 to $9 before tax from a real restaurant. Chinese restaurants locally are similarly priced. I can get Mexican or Chinese takeout to feed the whole family for under $50
Panda Express is actually awesome for this. $10 for huge plates of food with 2 entrees.
It sounds silly, but when I'm on business trips I almost really like the Darden style restaurants for this reason. Think like Olive Garden, Chili's etc. Sure it isn't great food but damn is it a lot for a little. I've gotten a big ass bag of chips dipping sauce on top of burgers fries dessert for about the same as a small meal from Taco bell and a quesadilla from there. It's almost double the amount of food for the same price, and they're almost easier to deal with because they now all have online ordering. Place the order online as I'm about to leave work, go stop on the way and go pick it up, done deal and I got something for the next day too. I almost prefer takeout style restaurants like this now over "fast" food that's anything but in their drive thru line.
Applebees is just as bad as fast food imo. Trash food.
Worse. Applebees fries taste like stale bread.
Honestly, it's been a great help reducing take out. It's such a gamble, I'd rather spent nothing on a sure thing (even if it's boring) than nearly $40 for a meal I may not even finish.
When I can buy like a large 5 top pizza for as much as a single fast food combo, i know which I'll choose.
Pizza is also ridiculously expensive where I live. For something that is comprised of almost entirely dough, cheese, and tomato sauce, it's kind of criminal that some places are charging $20 or more for a large pie. It probably cost them $1.50 worth of ingredients to make when you factor in bulk pricing.
I got a double cheeseburger platter from a BBQ place with 2 sides for $10. Better burger than fast food and I got fries and collards.
That's a great find!
BBQ places in my area have gotten really expensive. Sides are like $5 each now for a small container.
I got a double cheeseburger platter from a BBQ place
Are you even allowed to do that?
In my industry, there's a saying along the lines of "Good, fast, cheap. Pick two."
I think the fast food industry version is "Good, fast, cheap? No, no. And believe it or not, also no."
I don't eat fast food very often, so this is entirely anecdotal. Of the fast food chains I've eaten at in recent history, Taco Bell is by far the worst. Against my better judgment, I even broke down and gave them a second chance at a different location thinking maybe my first terrible experience was a fluke. Didn't work out. Makes me think it's bad everywhere. Wendy's has held up the best of the places I've eaten. It's definitely not cheap anymore, fast depends on the location as well as other factors, and good is relative, but overall it hasn't gone down hill as bad as the others.
taco bell definitely has one of the widest ranges in quality. one near my house is fucking awful and never gets the substitutions right, but the one 20 minutes away is great
The Tacos Bell near me are pretty decent... You just have to put it in its own, separate genre of food. I don't eat at Taco Bell when I'm in the mood for Mexican food. I eat at Taco Bell when I'm in the mood for Taco Bell.
Wendy's is pretty decent, expensive but better if you use their app. I usually still see a code in there somewhere for $2 off or something, and their small frosty's aren't quite at fuck off levels of pricing yet.
Taco bell I feel like every restaurant is different. One near my house used to be bomb AF, then they had a changeover of all their staff and now it's terrible. Even the drive thru is different now they now have an AI taking your order lmao. Another location down the road is better at the food quality, but they fuck up what is supposed to go with your order half the time so at that one I always have to check the bag in the parking lot before I leave.
The older I get the most I just feel like it isn't worth it as much anymore. If I'm going to have to wait a half hour plus in the drive thru line, pay $15 for a meal now or $20+ if I wanted to get dessert or another side item too, and deal with people and the headaches of it, I'd rather just keep driving home and cook something there in about the same time. Plus I can usually get 3 or 4 meals out of that $20 worth if I make it at home so each leftover is faster to make.
Fast food industry is doing a great job making sure that I stay away as best I can and be inconvenient. The sole exception so far has been Little Ceasars, still $6 for a lunch combo and if you order in the app it's great, get notified when it's ready and I literally just park out front walk in grab my order out of the ready bin and off I go. I don't understand why others haven't pivoted that way as well.
their small frosty’s aren’t quite at fuck off levels of pricing yet.
My local Wendy's did a promo where you bought a keychain tag for $3 and can get a Jr Frosty with any purchase until the end of 2025. That certainly helps the Frosty thing, at least.
Politics aside, Chik-Fil-A is consistently one of the better quality fast food places I've been to.
This sums up my experience as well. It's never been healthy, but at least it used to be cheap and tasty. But nowadays mcdonalds is so expensive I almost consider it a luxury, and the plastic-looking sauces and mystery meat are in no way appetizing (tho that might just be me getting older and changing preferences as opposed to the actual food getting worse)
What is your industry? That saying is awesome.
I've heard it in engineering and software both
Pretty common saying in the business world.
Software development. I certainly didn't coin the phrase, but it's well-known and I agree, pretty fitting even outside of the IT industry.
When I was in high school, we'd split a gram of weed four ways and go to Wendy's for the $4.20 meal. For less than ten bucks, you got stoned, a junior bacon cheese, four nuggets, small fry, and a small chocolate frosty. This was in the mid oughts so not that long ago!
The mid oughts was a different world, hundreds of years ago.
Y'all oughtta know the mid oughts were a lit time to behold.
I switched to mostly cooking for myself sometime last year, really just trying to save money, but I feel significantly less fatigued day to day and more focused and don't wake up with random stomach pain anymore.
I've done that most of my adult life and yeah even just pasta with jarred sauce is so much cheaper, better, and healthier than fast food.
Your next big level up may be realizing that exercise doesn't suck nearly as much as the feeling of being out of shape
I lost 20lbs during lockdown because I stopped eating pre-prepared meals and ate more snacks between meals.
I was just lamenting the size of my belly (it's back) this morning. The horror…
I don’t usually eat fast food, but one night I was starving, and there happened to be a drive-thru right next to me. I saw only two cars ahead in line and thought it would be quick. I pulled in and waited. Fifteen minutes passed. Then nearly twenty. By that point, a long line had formed behind me, trapping my car.
At the thirty-minute mark, I started asking the cars around me if they could maneuver to let me out. After almost forty minutes, I finally managed to escape.
Frustrated and still hungry, I drove a little further to a local gyro joint. I walked inside, placed my order, and within five minutes, I was enjoying a fresh, delicious lamb platter.
If this had been an isolated incident, I wouldn’t have thought much of it. But the reality is, experiences like this are all too common. Fast food isn’t fast, and to make matters worse, it’s often not even cheap anymore. Unless you’re scraping the bottom of the so-called “value menu”—which has become scarce and filled with low-quality options—you’re likely paying the same, if not more, than you would at a local spot.
When you stack up the cost, the wait, and the disappointing quality, it’s hard to justify why anyone bothers with fast food at all.
Yeeeess! Gyro is my go to "fast food" too! My favorite gyro place loads plates up enough that I can get a large lamb plate for $15 and split it into two meals. I order on my way there, and it's always ready within 10 minutes of ordering, without fail.
America has too many drive thru’s. Cars waiting all the time because understaffed fast food places are squeezing labour. I’ve started just walking inside to no line up, but even then, drive thru gets priority.
I had that happen at a Taco Bell once.
I really wanted Taco Bell, so I waited 40 minutes in line while the person in front of me was arguing with the employees at the window. I'm not sure if it was someone arguing over expired coupons for 40 minutes, or if it was some annoying shithead trying to do a viral stunt or what the problem was, but I really wanted Taco Bell and I was going to get it.
edit: It was worth the wait, but only just barely.
In my days, you got a week's worth of calories for $3.50
In my days you could buy 420 chickens for $0.69.
Nice.
I have a 2 year old who falls asleep when driving, and we have had troubles with sleeping so I drive the motorway for perhaps two hours. In Norway the only places that do drive through is BK and McD, and yeah I have been one black coffe guy. Or just fries and coke. And nuggets and fries are car friendly. Can be eaten with one hand, and makes little mess
Yeah… I only do fast food using apps and only go if there’s a good enough “discount”(quotes because it’s really what the prices should be anyway, obvs.).
Lmao wtf is a brk bcntr
Wendy's' POS system doesn't use most vowels. Brk Bcntr is hardly the worst one they have lmao
The dude that never went to in-n-out
Behold the superior hamburger, ye mighty, and despair:
Their burgers are bomb AF, I'll admit that, but my two complains from them are 1) they're small, we're used to big Whataburgers here so I practically have to get two of them and 2) their fries, yes it's oversaid but their fries are just different and not always in a good way. Though I will say they do taste better if you get a salt packet and pour it on.
Is there a country that uses the dollar sign that puts it after the number?
Not a country, but Quebec does place the dollar sign after the amount.
That's so stereotypically French.
Hah, that makes sense.
So many lol. There's lots of ways numbers are formatted across locales https://cldr.unicode.org/translation/number-currency-formats/number-and-currency-patterns
If you have a Braum's nearby you can get a bomb-ass burger with two quarter pound patties, crinkle cut fries, and drink or shake for about $9.
But you probably don't have a Braum's around unless you are in the US and in one of like two shithole states.
What's up with the price of Chinese food too?
A no frills takeout for my family of 6 with the 4 kids splitting two entrees, and it was still $100
Everybody being mean to you, but I ate at the same Chinese joint all my life. Chicken lo mein special was 6 bucks for most of my life.
I ordered the same special a few weeks ago and it was nearly 20 bucks.
After covid the restaurant went downhill as far as cleanliness goes too. For a couple years you’d call in your order and grab your food from a table blocking the door. They only take cash and they trusted the public to pay and then reach into a basket to collect their change. That meant a lot to me so I ate there pretty often.
Once they opened back up though, I went in and the floors didn’t look like they’d been mopped the whole time. I thought, “maybe people were excited to come back and that’s why it’s so dirty.”
Nope. Still hasn’t been mopped.
Maybe don't buy seventeen egg rolls
Price of eggs smdh
And yet people keep going. And why? Because those companies hire people with psychology and chemistry degrees to ensure they do. They play every psychological trick in the book to keep people coming back. And as much as anyone here (me included) think a burger from McDonald's is shit, there are people, a lot of people, who feel like they just can't live happily without their regular dose of Big Mac.
And, of course, McDonald's has used those psychological tricks to convince such people that McDonald's cares about them.
The whole thing is sick.
I mean, I can get a double cheeseburger from McDonald's for under $3. It's pretty good for that price range and accessibility. I'm not about to claim they give a fuck about me though lol
$25
What'd he get, a whopper with no drink or side at Burger King?
Oh yeah.
It's become prohibitively expensive, so I only have it occasionally. My parents made the unfortunate choice to raise me on McDonald's, so unfortunately, I happen to like it a fair bit. For me it's just a treat, or if I mess up cooking my dinner I might order some to replace that, but it's pretty rare as I can cook up some delicious chicken and veggies, or if I really want fries/tots, pop some in the air fryer, and it's infinitely cheaper and just as good as ordering fast food. (And healthier.)
Then there's the calories. That alone is enough reason for me to only have it occasionally.
Buy frozen chicken nuggies/pizza and bake it in the oven
We got 2 kids meals at Culver's and ate for $15. We are in 60s and it was enough food for us, and on the plus side it included ice cream!
Small McDouble combo is like $5.80 in Canada right now. Shit's almost cheaper than groceries.
Penn Gillette wisely said eating is mostly habit, and I agree. There are people who actually like McDonalds, etc, but the ones who still buy it even though they think it sucks are just slaves to habit. I personally know somebody with $200 to their name who had Doordash deliver Wendy's to their apartment so they didn't have to go anywhere or figure out how to cook. Ingrained habits and cravings are powerful forces.
The point is the same it ever was. You sacrifice money for time and convenience. What's so hard to understand about that? Some will be more or less expensive than others and no one forced you to choose either option
Looking at you five guys.
Story time. We t to five guys, go up to the country asked for a burger combo. Person behind counter says they don't have combos so I have to say out loud: lemme get a burger fries and a coke.
Like I get it but a combo is a burger fries and a coke.
Aren't combos usually discounted over everything getting billed individually? I would understand that as useful information that I'm not saving anything and might as well deviate if I like.
Yeah. I could see someone ordering a combo and then complain when instead of a combo they have to pay for burger, fries and drink. It's stupid that 5 guys doesn't have a combo option but the person behind the counter did what they're supposed to do, take the order and make sure the person ordering also understands what they're ordering.
One regular fries is $8 at my local five guys. Just fries. $11 if I want a regular drink with that. That's more than I want to pay for a burger combo and it doesn't even have a burger with it.
Double Whopper with medium fries and drink is now $14 and change where I live.
Me when I go to my local hangry chicken and order the chicken + fries nachos only for them to give me dark meat.
Dark meat at least tastes better and is more desirable where I'm at. Now you just get less meat in general for however much you're spending.
Give it five years and the taco bell quesadilla is probably gonna cost $10 and use the small tortilla instead of the big one. They may have won the franchise wars in fiction but reality is stranger.
When I went to Cancun (recently) I decided to eat at Ruben's Hamburgers. Their burgers are VERY GOOD, and that's from someone that normally does not like meat burgers (I like mostly chicken burgers)
$18 of that $25 was delivery fees and tip
So true lol
It’s always been this way. The point is convenience. If you want quality food then go to a restaurant that makes good food, not food that comes from a microwave.
But it hasn’t always been that way.
Yes it has. You have rose tinted glasses on.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
