Yeah I go to the food court inside my local Asian grocery store instead. $12 gets you 2-3 proteins and 1 side. And they put so much food they have a hard time closing the bento takeout containers and you can technically split it into 2 meals. More filling and healthier than a burger and fries at the same price.
I discovered one of these food courts inside what I thought was a medical building. Everyone there was Asian so you know the food is legit. Im in Canada and $15 gets me a packed container of food overflowing. It costs almost $20 with tax to go grab a whopper meal. There’s also an Afghan place near me that will give you a big container filled with rice and salad, a soup container filled with Rajma masala and a side of naan for $8
There’s a burger commercial in my country where a guy is pleasantly shocked to learn his burger is. ONLY $5. $5 for one a la carte burger is somehow supposed to make me say “oh that’s cheap!” All it does is remind me that they used to cost $2 five years ago.
All it does is remind me that they used to cost $2 five years ago
Hey, but at least your pay also went up 150%!
I have a local burger joint at which I can still get a $2 cheeseburger. It’s plain and everything is an up charge but that’s fine. A whopper or Big Mac clone is some $4.50, so like, it’s still pretty cheap.
However, they have no seating, and it’s an old ice cream shop so just a big kitchen and a tiny indoor order/pickup window and 2 benches. And there’s always a massively long line. Takes easily an hour to get fast food there during peak, cuz nobody goes to the local depressed millennial McDonald’s (one of those sad gray ones)
you can technically split it into 2 meals.
The Chinese take-out by me goes for $14-18 dollars but you can easily split it into 3 meals. The only problem is I can’t order my favorite dish because it’s so good I end up eating all those 3 meals at once.
My local one will hook you up too. They throw in extra sides for waiting an insignificant time or give you the last few of something if it’s getting close to closing.
Congrats. You just explained the problem of the West using a food analogy.
There’s one of the problems. I don’t need enough food for a family of four. I need you to give me an appropriate amount of food for one human being for $6.
Asian food is the type of cuisine that somehow tastes just as good when reheated the next day. I don’t force myself to finish everything in one sitting and always take home leftovers. Obviously if you don’t have the means to store and reheat food, this won’t work.
Fast food and major chains have gotten absurd. I used a gift card at Red Robin a couple months back. It was $19 before tip for a dry burger and bland fries. Two bucks more could’ve gotten me a seat and meal at a five-star local place just down the street. The value just isn’t there anymore. Eating local almost always tastes better, feels better, and costs the same or less. Why settle for mediocrity when better is right around the corner?
Thing is, I make more than ever, but yet due to increased (mostly) energy costs, I can afford nothing.
Few years ago I was able to eat a few times a week out, but nowadays I eat at most a few times a month. Base price for döner was 6-7 euros, now they are starting off 12 euros. However my salary has not doubled. Lately, I usually just pick up take away food for the kids, not for us parents.
I was able to upgrade my phone once a year or two, now I’ve been using the same phone (even with screen cracked) for 3,5 years.
Best thing last, I’m a co-founder for a fabrication company. We aren’t turning profit because everything is expensive. Our costs have doubled, and salary costs gone up 75%. It would be easier to just run the business down nowadays than struggle.
Yeah, prices went up and the quality went down. The best thing to do is stop buying there. As multiple people already pointed out, you can get a lot more and better food for 25 bucks.
The fast food chains forgot that they aren’t actual restaurants. The customers have to remind them. Aaaaaaaand that’s the problem.
I bought a single Big Mac in rural nowhere the day before yesterday. I expected to pay about 4.50. Nope. Almost 7 dollars. 6.80 for single, cold, dry, wilted ass lettuce, dry ass cheese, sloppily made burger. I waited outside for nearly half an hour for it. Girl came to my window and said, “what did you order?” I told her and she still handed me a bag with a 4 piece nugget and a small fry. I had to go in and tell them they got it wrong, show my receipt which was stuck on the bag, then wait another 15 minutes for that cold, yucky sandwich.
The person who ordered the nuggets either left without looking or decided to say “fuck it”, because they didn’t come back in with me.
I would have done that, but I paid 7 bucks for the the shit.
That is it for me.
I don’t get mad when people make mistakes, and I wasn’t mad when all that happened. The only thing that made me mad was the price.
McDonald’s can kiss my ass. A few more dollars and a short wait and I could have got a banging ass meal just down the road at the noodle joint.
It’s the Satanic pursuit of endless profit growth that has driven these companies to Hell. For decades, they focused on expanding the number of stores. But eventually you hit a wall. Eventually the country is saturated, and marketing can only convince people to eat so many burgers.
In a sane world, this is when companies would be content with their current size. Congrats. You won capitalism. Good job. Now just maintain your current size and pay out handsome dividends forever. No need to keep trying to grow.
Well, that’s not good enough for Satanic capitalism; the growth needs to come from somewhere. So they have to start slashing quality and raising prices. It’s enshittification/late-stage capitalism. When you max out growth, all that’s left is to raise prices and cut quality. Ultimately this does destroy a business, but Satanic capitalists only care about short-term concerns.
It’s a bummer.
Like, all around.
When I was a kid, going to town was an event. We’d head down to the local hardware store which stocked NES and SNES games for us kids, had a section for toys and everything. Nothing fancy, just water guns and action figures. My mom actually talked the guy into stocking Nintendo games so we didn’t have to travel two towns over to get them. We’d leave there and my mom would take us to Speedy’s for a haircut. (They recently tore his old building down. I hated to see it). Then we’d walk down to the fabric shop so my mom could buy some stuff to make curtains and things. Once we were done there we’d go down to the little grocery store, the owner always gave me and my brother a lollipop and a dollar bill. Then we’d go from place to place browsing and window shopping.
Walmart ended all of that when it came to my town. People fought it for a long time and finally compromised and let them build on the highway.
I liked capitalism before it got like this. When people owned their towns and local businesses.
They thought they tapped out the fast food market and had to attract restaurant goers.
People in comments saying to cook for yourself. I do cook for myself but geez grocery prices aren’t making it easy.
I cook for myself and it’s still not good
Our produce and ingredients suck here in the US. It’s all devoid of nutrition and usually gamed to look better than it actually is. Lots of things taste funny to me, and if it’s not flavorless, it tastes like chemicals or metal. There’s simply no regulation or oversight. Our soil practices also are only viable for approximately 60 more harvests.
When I have food that is grown or produced locally (and ethically) or food that is imported from Europe or even Canada, the difference is stark — I feel like I can actually digest and the flavor is night and day.
I’m not sure what your reasoning is here.
Grocery prices aren’t making it easy, so buy from restaurants that are even more expensive?Three cans of hoppin johns beans, one can of chilli beans, 1 oz can of tomato sauce, 1/2 lb ground beef several onions sliced, garlic. About $20-25 for this and if makes 5-6 meals.
Frozen pizzas are better then fast food. Even the lowest tier.
And the higher end ones are just GOOD.
Its a similar price to fast food, I can just keep a few in the freezer and I can add some little extras to make them more to my taste or chuck some leftover stuff on them to use it up.
Little bit of garlic powder, some cracked pepper and some chilli flakes…
Sometimes I grab a pizza from the refrigerator isle at my local Lidl. They’re definitely not fresh or gourmet quality, but for 2.90€ and 15 minutes in the oven, you really can’t complain
“than”.
I fel sorry for people whondont have an Aldi or a local equivalent
My local burger, taco, and sub shops are half the price of the international chains, plus the food is better and the staff are paid more. Shop locally every time you can
I agree with the people saying that being able to cook for yourself should be considered a key skill. My birthday meal when I was a kid was called a jigs dinner and if my grandma hadn’t taught me how to make it her way then it would have been lost. Having that said. We are talking about eating out, which is a thing that humans have been doing for awhile. I can get a feature meal at McDonald’s for just over $15. Across the street I can get a half pound jalapeno burger with onion rings and a beer for about $20. We need to start giving value to small businesses. Because they do produce quality and value.
Boggles my mind to hear about getting McDonald’s for $15 like it’s a good idea.
And then imagine paying another $10 for Uber Eats to deliver it to you cold.
Yup i got my grandma to teach me her secret recipes, got to spend time with my grandma and I know her amazing food isnt going to be lost
Jigs dinner
The fuck
Are you Newfie too?
Hello fellow Newfoundlander! I was just about to comment the same thing when I saw jigs dinner!
Hell yeah. I love not being alone.
Don’t love it snowing like today…
A lot of people are saying to learn to cook, but things aren’t that simple. Many people know how to cook perfectly well but order out anyway, either because they’re busy or because they have mental health conditions that make cooking incredibly stressful.
We need to change our economic system so that CEO bonuses aren’t inflating the prices of people’s food. This would make it easier for people to eat out more often if they feel they need to. It shouldn’t break the bank to get simple meals at a restaurant.
I have a small, poorly designed and lit kitchen. Next place I buy will have a much better kitchen.
Mcdonalds is pricey and it sucks. Damn it, man.
That’s McDonald’s and Burger King here in Costa Rica.
Hence the only burgers I eat from there are the chicken ones
Are they chicken burgers, or just chicken sandwiches?
Most of the world uses “burger” semi-synonymously with sandwich - basically anything where the main is a big hunk of meat
I’m not going to pretend it’s not wrong.
A burger, short for “hamburger,” has two critical components, to wit: a patty, and a bun.
There are plenty of Germans on Lemmy. Maybe we can just ask if any of them are from Hamburg so they can clear this up.
Where did the ham go?
Go to Mexico. it’s still there.
'twas elided
I mean… at least it’s still fast, right?
Seriously though, I don’t remember the last time I ate fast food. If we don’t count pizza delivery that is.
Lately, instead of picking up a fast food buyer and fries for $13, I’ve been going to Chili’s. They have a $10.99 special that is a REAL bacon cheeseburger, excellent fries, and a drink, and it even includes a salad or a cup of soup. With tax and tip, it’s $15.
The last time I went to 5 Guys, it was $24.50, and it wasn’t nearly as good.
“fast” food? ha! try standing in line while a bunch of dickhead doordashers get to cut you in line. try walking into an empty establishment only to wait 20 minutes for a sandwich because of all the idiots that want to pay twice the price for a fucking meal.
I’ll say I live in a big city and have never once used Doordash/Uber Eats/any other exploitative meal delivery app for that reason. But even then you’re not safe.
I once placed an online order for takeout, ordered on the actual site for the restaurant (not any of those branded online order services hosted by the meal delivery companies), picked the option that said I’d walk over and pick it up, and then was told when I got there that Doordash already came by and grabbed it.
I then get a call on my phone from a Doordash driver asking where I live, because it wasn’t included with the order for some reason (gosh I can’t imagine why that would be). After spending 5 minutes explaining that I would not give them my address because I was at the restaurant and never ordered delivery, they show up 10 minutes later and hand me a cold bag of takeout.
Amazing service.
That sounds like a real outlier. Never had anything like that happen on a pickup order.
Outlier maybe, but definitely something that only happened because of the fact that delivery drivers are allowed to walk right up to wherever prepared orders are kept and take whatever is there with no questions asked.
It’s usually not that messed up, but yes, some restaurants do delivery through DoorDash/Uber. I’ve had that happen at multiple places: get excited that a restaurant offers delivery but then cancel when I find out it’s uber eats.
please tell me you got a refund and ate elsewhere
I’m a fairly nonconfrontational person so I just took my cold food without argument and heated it up again at home. The restaurant at least comped part of the bill by way of apology.
sounds like you might be more of the google review type…
Can’t say I’ve ever left reviews online, either. Not looking to shame or name drop a struggling restaurant, just to commiserate about the flawed and exploitative system of gig labor.
i assumed it was a bigger chain-type restaurant. the owner would probably actually appreciate a kind call to let them know what happened.
edit - like, a call where you say something like ‘sorry, i’m not calling to complain, but something weird happened the other day that might bother some of your other customers if it happened to them’
sounds like they’re just trying to figure out how to slot all the uber-important orders into their workflow.
Sounds fun. Maybe I’m missing something but I wouldn’t expect a local restaurant to have rolled their own takeout backend. Are you actually seeing places that do? The branding might be subtle, but I’d be really surprised if they weren’t using a canned service.
They’re mostly contracted services, but I meant more that it wasn’t the services managed directly by the big food delivery companies like Grubhub/Uber Eats/Doordash etc.
If I don’t order through Doordash, I would expect no involvement from a Doordash driver whatsoever.
Like a plague on places to eat these days. The drive in getting served over people in the restaurant was always bad but now it is a new sort of hell with the lobby filled up with dashers and the like all butting in front and such.
Real sad part is talking to a few of the non chain places, it seems like you don’t really get a say about if you want to use ubereats/doordash/skip etc. they just kinda list your place and then drivers start showing up and unless you want to fight each one it becomes easier to just go along with it. Only place I know of that made a fight out of it was a pizza place (with their own delivery drivers), it was a mess. They even had a large sign on the way in that they will at no time give an order to any delivery app service. But it was was like they could not read and just plowed in anyway, butting in line and doing the yell the order number thing out they do. Last I checked they started trespassing people and are trying to sue skip/doordash/uber.
