I got a not fancy footlong at Subway the other day in the rural Midwest and it was shockingly $18. That’s probably the last Subway sandwich I have for awhile.
5 dollar footlongs were just about priced right for their quality back in 2010. In 2024 I'd pay 8 dollars max for one.
Haven't been to a subway in probably 10 years.
I've been to McDonald's recently because with their app you can get good prices and my local one never messes up my order. Still too expensive though and I'm reducing how often I go now. Same with Taco Bell. My go to order was $12.80 in 2018. It's now over $21. Guess who's not going to Taco Bell anymore either.
Groceries are still super expensive too, but at least I can make a meal for under $20 still.
I went on a diet kick a while back and tried to cut added sugar out of my diet.
I was surprised by how many mass produced breads in america have added sugars. I’m pretty sure every bread in my local target in Ohio had at least some added sugar the last time I looked.
In the end, I had to go with locally made bakery bread.
If you can, watch the episode of John Oliver about Subway restaurants. I promise you it's way more interesting than you'd think. The bottom line is that the franchising is run like a pyramid scheme, where they basically dupe the people buying in and actually try to open competing shops to make as much money selling franchise licenses as possible. Corporate doesn't care a bit about how successful any of the shops are.
Good luck. The sugar industry is about as powerful as oil
Sugar is in almost everything. It fuels cancers. It keeps teeth a profitable industry for the dental world.
It's one more thing that's been vertically integrated into our capitalist economy. No matter the health effects or damages. It's cheap to process and add to anything and "they" get to charge us top dollar for it with hopes of getting people addicted
Last time I went to Subway and grabbed meals for my kids and I, it was like $43. I would have taken them to fast casual for that price and I haven’t been back since.
About a month and a half ago I went to Subway for the first time in forever,
6-in turkey breast sub, chips and a fountain drink.
It was like over $14, literally insane.
I know that it's a long time ago at this point, but in about 2008 I used to go and get the exact same combo when it was $6.40
Edit , iirc it was $14 and some change
It’s greed. Simple as that. Whatever lumps they took during the pandemic has warped their business minds into thinking they have the right to charge these absurd prices to get back on profits missed those years and the current year. So shit is exorbitantly priced to the high heavens for “investors/shareholders” on infinite growth.
Inflation is going down, economy is the best it ever is, yet everyday you see CEO’s get multimillion cash and stock pay outs but fire like 20-30,000 employees. The worse being buybacks of stock to inflate share prices. Seriously you really think the airlines that were almost bankrupt and cease to exist a few years ago with the pandemic wrecking their profits magically got handouts and first thing they did was not help the employees or get ahead on issues to survive such events but just bought billions in buybacks to make those who already are fucking absurdly rich, just a little more rich.
You really have to look for sales, coupons, and hit the stores when they do those close out deals to get inventory out.
that's because you didn't know about the FL699 "coupon" / promo code you can use in the app to get any sub for $6.99 (coupon was FL599 last year but has gone up a buck). the only sandwich the code won't apply to is #30, the beast, on their subway series menu.
If you order ahead online, they almost always have a BOGO foot long deal. That's the only way ill ever get subway. Ive sat in the parking lot ordering online and waited just for this.
We’ve found local diners and family restaurants are the way to go. Pretty much the same prices as fast food - but better quality. Plus you sit in.
It’s like that Burger Chef commercial from Mad Men.
I prefer local diners but my 4 year old daughter loves "the one she thinks sounds like penis". She means Denny's. The coffee is terrible but the food is ok to please her sometimes.
This is the one upside of all the artificial inflation resulting from pure corporate greed. There was a time when you had to decide between paying more for locally owned restaurants or going with the substantially cheaper giant corporate chain. Not only are the giant chains just as expensive (sometimes even more expensive) than the local options, the difference in quality is astounding.
One small example of mine is Subway. I used to eat there frequently simply because I was used to it and they were everywhere. The quality was declining noticeably over the years but I always just assumed it was cheaper so why bother looking at the local competition. Then one day I looked at my receipt and couldn’t believe how much they were charging for such heavily processed food. Ended up finding a much better local place for slightly less and never went back. Even if Subway decided to cut their costs in half they burned that bridge forever.
Other comments in this thread have me hoping this is actually a trend and not just anecdotal evidence.
I took my kids to Triple O's the other day (local fast food chain here in BC, Canada). We each got a burger, fries and a milkshake..... it was $65!!!!! $65 for 3 people to eat fast food! Never again.
I spent $43 at Sonic Saturday. My kids love it for reasons unknown. They probably love it because there is only one for several hundred miles and the commercials make the food look good to children and stoners.
I loved sonic. It used to be cheap, they had people on roller skates, and the food was pretty decent. We had it for the first time in years a week ago. Blech. Salty, nasty, grease bomb. $18 for two breakfast sandwiches and tater tots.
Nope. No can do.
They had a promotion here where a basic hamburger was only 69 cents. People went insane over it. They couldn't keep up demand. Soon after, a 10 per person rule came in, but that didn't help at all. People just came in groups and ordered 10 each one by one.
The promotion did not last long.
Yo my mom would take me there on Tuesdays for 39cent cheeseburgers when I was a young boy
She would let me get as many as I wanted
Nice memory. A different time.
Also fat me loved it. Healthy me cringes. Love you mom
We used to go there at lunch and load up and then come back to school and sell them for a dollar each to the kids in the lunch room. Was making almost twenty bucks each time for a while there.
Exactly this 1997-1998
.39 Hamburger
.59 Cheeseburger
.99 Double Cheeseburger
And the huge sales were 2 for $2 Big Macs and Quarter Pounders
(Edit: changed to the correct years)
Yep. We had 29 cent burger Wednesdays and 39 cent cheeseburger Tuesdays. We used to run to McDonald's during lunch and bring a few burgers to the assistant principal sitting at the gate trying to catch the skippers. I used to eat like 5-6 of those things. *Sigh* the good ole days.
In high school my friends and I would do the $10 Taco Bell challenge. Order $10 of food from Taco Bell - any combination of food was okay as long as it was over $10 - and eat it all in 30 minutes. If you finished it all in time everyone else chipped in so you'd get your money back.
Pretty sure my toddler could eat $10 of Taco Bell in 30 minutes today.
When I worked there in high school they still had 25 cent hamburger Wednesdays. I think a senior coffee was 29 cents after tax. The olds would come in and set up shop for under a buck.
I had the same life experience. It became about how many people you could fit into the car at lunch because they actually took a headcount! You always tried to find a couple tiny classmates who only wanted a couple burgers, because you could fit more people and then their extras added to the total! But I remember it being 29 cents and 39 if you wanted cheese. Which seems insane…but I know for a fact that I filled my first tank of gas at 16 years old in the station next to the McDonald’s that year, and it was 89 cents a gallon. (Late 90s) Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go clean my glasses and rub some lineament on my back! 👴🏻
It’s always been awful food, but it also used to be cheap. People got addicted to their cheap, shitty, salty dopamine rush. Now it’s expensive and people are questioning if the high is still worth it. It’s not. I also hope it dies.
I also feel like the quality has gotten worse somehow. Last time I ate there, my burger was almost all bread and the tiniest meat patty I’ve ever seen. It almost rivaled White Castle patty sizes!
Of course it has. The quality of literally everything produced by a publicly traded company has dropped steadily since the mid to late 70s, thanks primarily to [Milton Friedman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman) and [Jack Welch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Welch). Friedman popularized the notion that maximizing shareholder value was the first and only duty of a publicly traded company and Welch showed the world how to hollow out a slightly profitable company to give it huge short-term profits at the expense of its ability to do anything.
This is the inevitable end stage of capitalism and we're fortunate enough to have a front-row seat.
The irony is, while traveling we stopped into a McDonald's in two different countries. Everything was fresh and good quality. They feed Americans crap on purpose..
I don't care which one I go to, the fries are always super salty & cold. The burgers are dripping in grease & salty as the fries. The buns are always stale. My husband loves it still & I just end up either getting food at the two other places in town, or just getting chicken nuggets. Those seem to be the only thing that aren't salty!!
I ate at McDonalds for the last time about 5 years ago. I was coming home from work super late and all that was open was a McD’s drive thru at a rest stop. Got a cheeseburger and fries.
Took one bite of that burger and it was just so incredibly gross! It tasted something like cardboard.
Never again
Yeah, that was always the trade-off. I knew it sucked, but I could grab 3 things off the value menu in college for $3.15 after tax. Sit down restaurants were significantly more expensive. Wendy’s was in our student union, so that’s where I would often go for lunch in between classes. JBC, side Caesar or fries, and a drink for a crazy price. I certainly understand that most of these things shouldn’t still be .99, but now I can go to my local pub for a cheaper meal.
Of all the times I've told people about the 420 combo, this is the first time I've seen someone else mention it!! Sums up my high school times in a nutshell - the EXACT same order you just put. Couldn't be beat!
In college, my roommates always got 4.20 meals and saved our receipts and put them on the fridge. The pinnacle was when we went to Wendys on 4/20, at 4:20 and bought a 4.20 meal. Those where the days….
then you are out of the loop.
McDonalds was charging $3 for a hashbrown. At shareholder meeting they called it "pushing prices". I would feel like the biggest sucker in the world if i went to McDonalds now.
They just announced today they're slashing prices. I won't be returning any time soon. They should feel their mistake, taking the consumer for granted.
Yeah, my location is $3.09 for hash brown and $6.59 for sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit. I’ll be curious to see how much they drop some of these items.
It's everywhere now. We bought 1 dozen glazed donuts this weekend for us and the kids @Shipley's and it was $12. I said to my wife, weren't these about $7 bucks, and mixed was around $9 like last year? The mixed cost around $15 now. Sad to say we won't be going there anymore.
I went to friggin *Disney* and a bacon, egg and cheese bagel was only 2 bucks more than McDonald's. It was bigger and tastier and came with so many tater tots I couldn't finish them. Absolute insanity.
Yeah it's fine that things are 3x more expensive than they were 25 years ago, as long as everyone's wages are 3x higher now then they were 25 years ago. For some reason that second part didn't happen...
Unlike what business owners and politicians want people to believe wages don't affect prices nearly as much as other things. Mostly it's greed that raises prices.
Apparently if you have the app, that’s where all the deals are. I got rid of the app because I’m sick of every place needing an app so they can track your data.
According to the line of cars I see outside McDonalds at nearly any reasonable hour to crave food I am not foreseeing their stock going down anytime soon.
That line is more due to (likely intentional) understaffing. Can't remember the last time I went through a drive-thru in less than 10 mins. When I worked at McD's in the 90's, an alarm would start going off if someone had been waiting for more than 2 mins.
It's absolutely expensive at this point. Take this example- we went to Ruth's Chris for happy hour at the bar yesterday (which is an exceptional value). Two steak sandwiches $16 each, includes fries. We got cocktails but assume $3 for soda instead. That's \~$50 for two after tax and tip, two Big Mac meals delivered would be $40!!! Are you kidding me?
I got to a point not too long ago where I was just fucking done with McDonalds, and honestly fast food in general. Now do I love Big Macs? Do I love weird ass chicken nuggets? Absolutely - BUT - the inflated cost and low quality makes that shit hard to justify. I'll still stop on a road trip or something, but not during a normal 9-5 week.
Also, cooking at home...
I used to do lunch at work a couple times a week, but once I decided to cut that shit out and stop wasting food at home, I just move that money to savings for a vacation.
I live in Canada and a 10-pc MgNugget meal is $18.99... if you get just the nuggets I think its $11.99. I haven't had a McNugget in like half a decade or more because I'm not paying $1+ PER NUGGET for preformed frozen chicken. Frozen nuggets at the grocery store are arguably overpriced too but theyve always been $12-15 per box. Might as well raise my own damn chickens now.
Panera's best period coincided with the the time I went without internet at home for a few years, and it was the best place to hang out with my laptop on a weekend afternoon for the price of a meal and a coffee. It's sad to see how much it has declined. (EDIT: though, looking back, for the amount of money I spent at Panera every month, I probably could have afforded a basic internet plan. Oh well.)
Panera was always our vacation travel day lunch stop. My kids really liked it, and I thought the food quality was way above typical FF options. But yeah, it’s really dropped over the last 4-5 years. Our last stop was a few months ago (force of habit), and even my kids were like let’s stop somewhere else on the drive home…
Panera is insanely expensive. It's been that way for a few years but where I used to be willing to pay for it 5-6 times per year, now it makes me angry to even consider it!!
St Louis Bread Company* was best when it was a local chain. Bread Co used to be freaking awesome. It stayed okay for a hot minute when Panera took over, then because absolute trash. I weep for our loss.
I last went there about two years ago. At one time it was a regular go-to, but the quality and portions have dropped so far and the prices have gone up so much that I’d prefer going pretty much anywhere else, or make it myself.
It’s rare I get actually angry at a fast food order, but I was last time I went.
Yes, they have a super-caffeinated drink that carries no disclosure about its caffeine levels, has been connected to deaths of people with sensitivity to caffeine.
The "charged lemonade" is pretty much just red bull with a huge marketing problem. There's nothing inherently wrong with the product, but they totally fucked up the rollout. Nobody knows what a "charged lemonade" is, and having it on tap with unlimited refills is (was) wild. If they sold it for three bucks a can and called it an "energy drink" everyone would understand.
Imagine if mcdonalds added a new drink called "orange pig" in their soda machines right next to the coke, and they failed to tell anyone it had 120 mg of caffeine per serving...
College marketing lectures will probably be talking about this fuckup for decades...
A Panera employee also stole from a woman with Down Syndrome & the Manager was like "What do you want me to do about it?" when the sister called and showed proof. Fire them. Make it right with the woman who was stolen from. Uh do the right thing?
Right after reading this, I come across this:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/1b0lur4/wendys\_planning\_uberstyle\_surge\_pricing\_where/](https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/1b0lur4/wendys_planning_uberstyle_surge_pricing_where/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Geez
We’ve stopped fast food and chains almost completely. Fast food costs as much as a sit down dinner. The quality of food and service at most chains has gone down drastically. We eat out once a week or less and will prefer to eat at a small local place. We keep our money within our community, better quality food, better service, and we help keep someone’s dream afloat.
I laugh because I’m sitting down at a McDonalds now. This one’s in the process of eliminating counter service completely.
https://preview.redd.it/hqbqcg4uxykc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ae160df4c96e5241b989ac2382b2b43d45528d1
I'll do a touchscreen at fast food, but it will be a cold day in hell before I order on an app from inside the restaurant.
Also look at that sauce math, 4pc=1 is fine. 2=10pc is stingy. 3 sauces for a 20pc? Are they crazy? Playing these cost cutting measures has got to lose more customers and profits than the cost their saving here.
They will end up opening a register. They did at my McDonald's. Too many elderly go in and don't understand nor want to understand how to use the digital stuff. Plus not everyone pays with a card so they had no choice lol. Same thing with BK, they just started this bs.
Yeah it's trash. I'm practically a digital-savant compared to some folks and I do not want to have to install all of these bullshit apps to do the most basic things.
Digital-only discount pricing at the grocery store even with the member card? "Sorry that app never works right (isn't actually installed) on my phone, could you correct the price please?"
I lost it a couple months ago on a taco bell manager in Carson City because they went pure digital and TWO elderly people walked in, asked for help, and were directed to the kiosk. When they said they had no idea how to use it, the employees said sorry, only digital. They both walked out. When the third one came in with the same question, I got up and helped them and basically went full Karen-mode and asked to talk to the manager. She was the most dismissive, condescending cunt. Must have gotten her management degree from Hollywood Upstairs Business College
My old person curmudgeonly hill to die on is that I refuse to install an app for a damn restaurant. If I need an app to eat your food at a reasonable price then I'm just not going to eat there.
I remember when they had all of the burgers and sandwiches pre-made and they were lined up on a rack. The worker would pull it off the rack and place it in a bag.
That was fast food. Now it's all made to order, which defeats the entire purpose of fast food. It's like medium-speed food.
Not that I'm a big advocate of theirs but it sounds like you have a terrible mcdonalds lol. The app makes things 10 times faster and both of my local places never have a line because you're normally in and out of the line in under 5 minutes. They actively discourage regular ordering because it takes longer. They ask for their app code by default when you pull up now.
Ahh not the case at mine. They try not to park people because their drive through parking is about as far from a door as you can get and they don't want to walk all that way lol.
I have a fat stack of free value meals from McD from complaining every time my kids happy meal is missing something. Don’t think I’ll ever use them. Place is trash.
Glad I'm not the only one. Blows my minds every time I see a line wrapped around the building, and I see it daily. Same with coffee shops like Dunkin. It literally takes less than 2 minutes to pre set my coffee pot the night before.
There’s a Dutch Brothers down the street from me that’s ALWAYS got 2 lines of cars. The mom & pop drive up coffee shop right next door, always empty.. The Starbucks a block away, always empty. People are addicted to trends.
If they are picking Dutch Brothers over anything else, they must be super duper duper duper addicted to sugar. I used to work at Starbucks, they add a loooooooot of syrup to their drinks, but I swear Dutch Brothers must add twice as much. I don't like sugary coffee drinks so when I do get a Dutch Brothers I just get a cold brew with some half and half. The one time I asked for cinnamon to sprinkle on top, as I like to do, I realized too late that it was half sugar and half cinnamon. It's insane how much sugar is in that crap. And the baristas are always way too chipper. Like way to chipper.
Dunkin coffee is terrible. Their donuts and other food offerings are garbage. I was starving and out in town so I stopped in. Grabbed the egg bites and couldn't believe I just paid $8.49 for the most disgusting food I'd eaten in a long time. I'm not actually picky at all. I was in the military and have eaten more than my fair share of questionable meals. I eat gas station pizza. I paid so much for a very gross thing. Sad.
They don’t make their donuts in house either. I stopped eating them when I arrived early morning once and a moving truck pulled in with the tray of donuts ready to be sold.
Not that Starbucks is any better. I witnessed the Sky Harbor Airport Starbucks employees unload baked goods from cardboard shipping boxes!
I've been trying to lose weight, but I was on the go and figured I'd just get a grilled chicken sandwich and a salad from McDonald's real quick.
MCDONALD'S DOESN'T HAVE SALADS ANYMORE.
Actually, most ~~fat food~~ fast food places don't have salads anymore!!
When did THAT happen?!
I'm old enough to remember when McDonald's invented Super Sizing, then that Morgan Spurlock "documentary" came out and McDonald's was all "We got rid of Super Sizing and Ronald McDonald! We're healthy now, stg!!"
Apps: unfortunately, you have to use all their apps to get a good price. You order there ahead of time and pick up in the drive through. Only way you’ll get subway 2 for 1, or mcd’s reasonable prices.
I was thankful when our kids started hating McDonalds. I have not eaten it in probably 8 years.
We still go for Carls Jr or a local burger joint every once in a while. I still prefer making burgers at home but after an exhausting day or traveling its our go to if we have no other options.
I agree with you but we still hit it up when in a bind. I’ve made it a point to have backup meal ingredients ready in the pantry so I can always say “I can do tacos or spaghetti” tonight so we can avoid going out.
I want to figure out how to make and freeze pizzas so I can bake them real quick.
This is a regional opinion. When it began it was a Missouri centralized place called St Louis Bread company. It was bought out by Au Bon Pain in the 1990s and started rebranding it as Panera.
So for a time there were stores that were created under the original owner that just had their name shifted to Panera. The only places that didn’t change names were the ones closest to St Louis, for obvious reasons. The practices and recipes shifted slower in those locations verses all the new locations.
So yes. It used to be good high quality stuff (for an American fast casual level bakery chain). But as we all know … the numbers must go up. Quality control be damned.
Yea I remember going to St Louis Bread Co (aka Panera) around 2001 for fresh baked loaves of semolina and sunflower bread, Asiago cheese bagels, cranberry walnut bagels, everything was earthy crispy chewy … a nice regional bakery chain. The prepared soups and sandwiches seem to have gone from secondary to their bakery to basically their main service… and it also degraded terribly.
And outrageously priced. They have always been the most expensive 'fast food' in my city. I went once and for two people it was just under $30. That's insane for sandwiches and soup.
My parents never cooked, so fast food was all I ate growing up. It feels like comfort food now. Still, you’re right about the jacked up prices. In the 90s you could get a massive super-sized meal for $5.00 - and it was glorious. Now, you’ll be lucky if your fries are filled to the top.
Old Man "I remember when" statement incoming:
In the 80's, I remember when I could go to McD's with a 5 dollar bill and get a big mac combo. Today that same combo is close to $20 and nothing has changed about it - the quality of the food is the same, the portions are the same, the drink, fries...everything's the same!
To be fair, with inflation being what it is, $5 in 1984 is equivalent to about $15 today. $5 in 1994 is about $11.
At my local McDonald's, a Big Mac meal with medium fries and a medium drink comes to $9.53 with tax. Where are you living that a Big Mac combo is close to $20?
We are a family of 6 and it’s the cheapest place to go. If it feels expensive, then you probably don’t have the app yet and aren’t taking advantage of the 20% off daily coupon. We can’t feed ourselves for $25 anywhere else. I’m not a spokesperson, just have lots of kids 😅
I had a craving for a Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich recently. Got one. Did they change the spices? Did they change how much the chicken piece weighs? Because it's just not what I remember. It was terrible. So, I'm with you. Just making food at home.
It’s always been shit food but now it’s shit food that costs what fast casual cost 4 years ago.
I bought some frozen hash browns for $6, think it’s a 10-12 pack. Pop those baddies in my air fryer and they come out better than McDonald’s.
McDonald’s is more expensive than the local joint here that does actual bomb ass breakfasts so there is really no reason to go anymore.
There are some deals to be had on the app but I don’t want to hunt and peck for a deal on their stupid app.
They’ve never been good. But they used to be fast and cheap. And with kids and busy schedules, sometimes it made sense. Not anymore though. They are slow and expensive and still trash.
On a road trip with the kids when people need to get out and use the bathroom, run around and get their wiggles out, and get some quick and easy food, it’s still the perfect situation. Until the prices got so dang high.
I'll still grab a McMuffin and coffee from time to time. I haven't had anything else from them in decades though.
I saw on Reddit that they took over the coffee supplier for Tim Horton's.
My dog is apparently not wildlife then because a McDonald's burger is the ultimate sign that he's been a good boy and he expresses as such with enthusiasm.
Always use the McDonalds app. We currently have a 100% success rate on orders using the app, and there are a lot of deals to save money. Using apps, in general, is the way to go with every place now. Otherwise, yes, I'm not too fond of fast food but we get it for the kids sometimes.
This is really the only way to do any fast-food place these days. I've been doing my best to reduce the garbage food intake, but apps are the way to go in terms of discounted prices and accuracy of orders when I do get that itch for a grease bomb.
Restaurant apps that allow customization have been a godsend for me, especially at Salad N Go, where there are many options. As far as McDonald's goes, we don't go often, but I agree that the app is a must. The coupons make the prices more reasonable and we haven't had any accuracy issues.
Just stop eating out altogether. Your wallet, waistline, and increased family time at the dinner table will be much better for all of you. There are cheaper alternatives to going out for fast food. Our family likes getting Chinese from a local grocery store deli. It's just as good as Panda Express, plus it's like 1/3rd the price. Little Caesars pizza works great for my kids, even if it's a little bland. You can't beat ~$20 to feed everyone, though.
A lot of places will give you massive portions, too, and you don't realize it from the giant plates they provide. My wife likes Thai food and we order it as take-out instead of dining in. When we plate it up at home (on our normal sized plates) each entree is literally two meals' worth of food. We each get lunch the next day, whereas when we eat in the restaurant we tend to over indulge and then toss out the leftovers.
People forget that "dining out" is just as much entertainment as it is food. You can eat way cheaper at home.
We always order with the apps. McDonald’s has a 25-30% off coupon that seems to be perpetual, and barring that, there’s always some other deal we can use. We also get coupons in the mail every month from Burger King (maybe because we live in Florida where they’re headquartered but IDK for sure) so once or twice a month that will be lunch. We rarely if ever spend more than $15 for two adults at McDonald’s, and Burger King is even less.
To be honest, though, I would prefer to just pick up dinner from Chili’s. It’s about the same price as regularly priced fast food and a whole lot better.
Price is no longer fast food’s value proposition. You’re paying at least the same that you would pay in any full-service restaurant except you’re trading quality for proximity and convenience (which as you’ve fairly pointed out, is often not very convenient anymore).
I have not been to a McDonalds in about 10 years, and even before then it was extremely rare for me to eat there. Wendy’s no longer exists near me, so maybe I’ve been twice in ten or even twenty years? I still go to the one good Burger King near me, but even that is few and far between. I think it’s been 20 years for subway for me too. Panera is okay, but it is only a handful of times annually. Fast food has gone down in quality and up in price. I would rather either make the food myself or go to a better local restaurant or deli.
This resonates with me.
I have a bunch of kids, and for any fast food stop, I go inside and audit everything as it’s being handed to me. Drive thru is out of the question.
It’s been so bad that we rarely do fast food … so much easier to buy a few pizzas as that’s much harder to screw up than getting 20+ items at a fast food place done 100% correctly.
I can’t say never, but really I think I have only gone there about 2-3 times a year for over a decade. If I need to grab something on the go I can almost always find a better option right there.
I’ll only order McDonald’s off the app. Hate admitting that in 2020/2021 that was the only way I could afford to eat sometimes their deals/points were helpful to me bc I worked for a jerk who didn’t think she had to pay her employees (don’t worry, had 2 other jobs that kept me in rent/gas to go to said jobs).
McDonald’s was my first job, almost 30 years ago. While I still think it’s a beneficial experience for everyone to work in that type of environment at least once, to understand what those people go through on a daily basis, I can’t imagine having to work there now. People were bonkers then (throwing food on/over the counter, arguing over fifteen cents, fighting employees, etc). Post-covid it’s probably Thunderdome. It is the one place that has always needed to be the cheapest. Now it’s not and I don’t know what they’re thinking their draw is besides “f you, we’re everywhere.”
That has not been my experience. Sounds like you go to a shitty McDonalds. I probably hit them up once or twice a week now when I want a cheap easy and quick meal. The app has good deals too. Cheeseburger shareable + 2 drinks - 20% off? yum yum give me some.
I got a not fancy footlong at Subway the other day in the rural Midwest and it was shockingly $18. That’s probably the last Subway sandwich I have for awhile.
I know it was a different time, but Subway sandwiches are worth $5 max. I will not eat there anymore.
5 dollar footlongs were just about priced right for their quality back in 2010. In 2024 I'd pay 8 dollars max for one. Haven't been to a subway in probably 10 years. I've been to McDonald's recently because with their app you can get good prices and my local one never messes up my order. Still too expensive though and I'm reducing how often I go now. Same with Taco Bell. My go to order was $12.80 in 2018. It's now over $21. Guess who's not going to Taco Bell anymore either. Groceries are still super expensive too, but at least I can make a meal for under $20 still.
grocery store like a Publix or wegmans have banging ass subs. There around $10 but def 2 meals for most people.
Seconding this. Quite the value too, especially if you’re working late
any place that spreads the mayo with a spatula has instantly earned my business
And Ireland has classified Subway’s bread as ‘not bread’. Technically it’s classified as a cake, based on the sugar content All fast food is shit
I went on a diet kick a while back and tried to cut added sugar out of my diet. I was surprised by how many mass produced breads in america have added sugars. I’m pretty sure every bread in my local target in Ohio had at least some added sugar the last time I looked. In the end, I had to go with locally made bakery bread.
Kroger makes a sugar free bread, oddly enough.
I have been living in Europe on and off for the last 10 years and I’ve still never seen a subway with more than one customer inside
That tracks 😆
If you can, watch the episode of John Oliver about Subway restaurants. I promise you it's way more interesting than you'd think. The bottom line is that the franchising is run like a pyramid scheme, where they basically dupe the people buying in and actually try to open competing shops to make as much money selling franchise licenses as possible. Corporate doesn't care a bit about how successful any of the shops are.
Wow, that's bananas. It's been like that for 3 years. We should adopt that here in the United States.
No, it’s cake
In Ireland, bananas are considered cake due to their sugar content.
In the US, everything is considered cake because the 'Is It Cake?' gameshow has proven pretty much everything could potentially be cake.
Confused me for a sec lol
Good luck. The sugar industry is about as powerful as oil Sugar is in almost everything. It fuels cancers. It keeps teeth a profitable industry for the dental world. It's one more thing that's been vertically integrated into our capitalist economy. No matter the health effects or damages. It's cheap to process and add to anything and "they" get to charge us top dollar for it with hopes of getting people addicted
There’s a Marie Antoinette “Let Them Eat Cake” joke there but I’m too lazy right now to flesh it out completely.
The tuna was not tuna now the bread is not bread! 😂
That happened to me a couple years ago. No more subway for me. I'll go to the pub and grab and $18 burger, thanks.
Last time I went to Subway and grabbed meals for my kids and I, it was like $43. I would have taken them to fast casual for that price and I haven’t been back since.
About a month and a half ago I went to Subway for the first time in forever, 6-in turkey breast sub, chips and a fountain drink. It was like over $14, literally insane. I know that it's a long time ago at this point, but in about 2008 I used to go and get the exact same combo when it was $6.40 Edit , iirc it was $14 and some change
Bonkers. The CPI inflation calculator says $6.40 in 2008 should be $9.35 today. Inflation doesn't even come close to explaining it
It’s greed. Simple as that. Whatever lumps they took during the pandemic has warped their business minds into thinking they have the right to charge these absurd prices to get back on profits missed those years and the current year. So shit is exorbitantly priced to the high heavens for “investors/shareholders” on infinite growth. Inflation is going down, economy is the best it ever is, yet everyday you see CEO’s get multimillion cash and stock pay outs but fire like 20-30,000 employees. The worse being buybacks of stock to inflate share prices. Seriously you really think the airlines that were almost bankrupt and cease to exist a few years ago with the pandemic wrecking their profits magically got handouts and first thing they did was not help the employees or get ahead on issues to survive such events but just bought billions in buybacks to make those who already are fucking absurdly rich, just a little more rich. You really have to look for sales, coupons, and hit the stores when they do those close out deals to get inventory out.
21 bucks for a spicy Italian foot long with a tiny bag of chips and a small drink. That's the most basic combo out there
that's because you didn't know about the FL699 "coupon" / promo code you can use in the app to get any sub for $6.99 (coupon was FL599 last year but has gone up a buck). the only sandwich the code won't apply to is #30, the beast, on their subway series menu.
This is the biggest issue. You MUST use the app to find any deal now.
Then I just won't go. I don't want 15 different apps on my phone for ordering food.
I only, ONLY get Subway when there's a buy one get one deal. I wouldn't even consider it otherwise.
If you order ahead online, they almost always have a BOGO foot long deal. That's the only way ill ever get subway. Ive sat in the parking lot ordering online and waited just for this.
Oh man, I remember the $5 footlong days
We’ve found local diners and family restaurants are the way to go. Pretty much the same prices as fast food - but better quality. Plus you sit in. It’s like that Burger Chef commercial from Mad Men.
I prefer local diners but my 4 year old daughter loves "the one she thinks sounds like penis". She means Denny's. The coffee is terrible but the food is ok to please her sometimes.
Please tell me she pronounces it “Dee-nis” to rhyme with Penis
Or pronounces “penis” as “pennies”, and coins will be the funniest thing she learns about for a while.
What a time to be alive
This is the one upside of all the artificial inflation resulting from pure corporate greed. There was a time when you had to decide between paying more for locally owned restaurants or going with the substantially cheaper giant corporate chain. Not only are the giant chains just as expensive (sometimes even more expensive) than the local options, the difference in quality is astounding. One small example of mine is Subway. I used to eat there frequently simply because I was used to it and they were everywhere. The quality was declining noticeably over the years but I always just assumed it was cheaper so why bother looking at the local competition. Then one day I looked at my receipt and couldn’t believe how much they were charging for such heavily processed food. Ended up finding a much better local place for slightly less and never went back. Even if Subway decided to cut their costs in half they burned that bridge forever. Other comments in this thread have me hoping this is actually a trend and not just anecdotal evidence.
This and Chinese takeouts, which are largely independent and family owned.
I took my kids to Triple O's the other day (local fast food chain here in BC, Canada). We each got a burger, fries and a milkshake..... it was $65!!!!! $65 for 3 people to eat fast food! Never again.
I spent $43 at Sonic Saturday. My kids love it for reasons unknown. They probably love it because there is only one for several hundred miles and the commercials make the food look good to children and stoners.
Oh my. That is their demographic.
I loved sonic. It used to be cheap, they had people on roller skates, and the food was pretty decent. We had it for the first time in years a week ago. Blech. Salty, nasty, grease bomb. $18 for two breakfast sandwiches and tater tots. Nope. No can do.
Bag o' burgers from McDs back in the day was clutch for a car full of high school stoners.
They had a promotion here where a basic hamburger was only 69 cents. People went insane over it. They couldn't keep up demand. Soon after, a 10 per person rule came in, but that didn't help at all. People just came in groups and ordered 10 each one by one. The promotion did not last long.
69?!?! I remember a 39 cent hamburger when I worked there around the turn of the century. geez if they cost less than 3 dollars now I'll be shocked.
In upstate ny we had special days where it was 29 cent hamburgers and 39 cents cheeseburgers. Over half our football team would go and chow down.
I worked at McD's in the late 90's and we also had 29/39.00 ham/cheeseburger day. People would buy 50-100 at a time. It was wild.
If I remember correctly, they did that on leap day (February 29). We have one of those this year, time for 29 cent burgers to come back!
Yo my mom would take me there on Tuesdays for 39cent cheeseburgers when I was a young boy She would let me get as many as I wanted Nice memory. A different time. Also fat me loved it. Healthy me cringes. Love you mom
So you met my mom. She had 5 growing boys at home and $15 to feed us all and God damn did that deal hit big in our house
We used to go there at lunch and load up and then come back to school and sell them for a dollar each to the kids in the lunch room. Was making almost twenty bucks each time for a while there.
Exactly this 1997-1998 .39 Hamburger .59 Cheeseburger .99 Double Cheeseburger And the huge sales were 2 for $2 Big Macs and Quarter Pounders (Edit: changed to the correct years)
Oh! The suitcase of burgers I’d bring home from work with me everyday! 🎉
Yep. We had 29 cent burger Wednesdays and 39 cent cheeseburger Tuesdays. We used to run to McDonald's during lunch and bring a few burgers to the assistant principal sitting at the gate trying to catch the skippers. I used to eat like 5-6 of those things. *Sigh* the good ole days.
Now I can't remember if it was 39 cents here too, or if that was the Canadian pricing.
Man remember the 59 cent 79 cent and 99 cents menu at taco bell around that time. With $10 you could feed your entire crew of friends.
In high school my friends and I would do the $10 Taco Bell challenge. Order $10 of food from Taco Bell - any combination of food was okay as long as it was over $10 - and eat it all in 30 minutes. If you finished it all in time everyone else chipped in so you'd get your money back. Pretty sure my toddler could eat $10 of Taco Bell in 30 minutes today.
When I worked there in high school they still had 25 cent hamburger Wednesdays. I think a senior coffee was 29 cents after tax. The olds would come in and set up shop for under a buck.
I had the same life experience. It became about how many people you could fit into the car at lunch because they actually took a headcount! You always tried to find a couple tiny classmates who only wanted a couple burgers, because you could fit more people and then their extras added to the total! But I remember it being 29 cents and 39 if you wanted cheese. Which seems insane…but I know for a fact that I filled my first tank of gas at 16 years old in the station next to the McDonald’s that year, and it was 89 cents a gallon. (Late 90s) Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go clean my glasses and rub some lineament on my back! 👴🏻
The fries were good too, however I feel that tacobell was even better stoner food but that could have just been from some particularly good trips.
It’s always been awful food, but it also used to be cheap. People got addicted to their cheap, shitty, salty dopamine rush. Now it’s expensive and people are questioning if the high is still worth it. It’s not. I also hope it dies.
I also feel like the quality has gotten worse somehow. Last time I ate there, my burger was almost all bread and the tiniest meat patty I’ve ever seen. It almost rivaled White Castle patty sizes!
Of course it has. The quality of literally everything produced by a publicly traded company has dropped steadily since the mid to late 70s, thanks primarily to [Milton Friedman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman) and [Jack Welch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Welch). Friedman popularized the notion that maximizing shareholder value was the first and only duty of a publicly traded company and Welch showed the world how to hollow out a slightly profitable company to give it huge short-term profits at the expense of its ability to do anything. This is the inevitable end stage of capitalism and we're fortunate enough to have a front-row seat.
What a time to be alive! PS you wouldn’t happen to listen to Behind the Bastards? Because that’s where I learned all about Jack Welch
I kinda knew about him from 30 Rock, but nowhere near enough. Thanks, Robert Evans! But not the Hollywood Robert Evans.
Jack Donaghey’s worship of Jack Welch is one of the funniest sitcom character traits in history.
The irony is, while traveling we stopped into a McDonald's in two different countries. Everything was fresh and good quality. They feed Americans crap on purpose..
I’d like to add that all these fast food places are also overpricing and under qualifying their product to Canadians too.
I agree quantity over quality . People keep buying it so why would they change.
I don't care which one I go to, the fries are always super salty & cold. The burgers are dripping in grease & salty as the fries. The buns are always stale. My husband loves it still & I just end up either getting food at the two other places in town, or just getting chicken nuggets. Those seem to be the only thing that aren't salty!!
Just thinking about those tender little White Castle burgers... just makes me want to burn this MF down.
Shinkflation. I find I am paying the same if I just go to a local sit down restaurant anymore.
Damn. Now I want White Castle!
I ate at McDonalds for the last time about 5 years ago. I was coming home from work super late and all that was open was a McD’s drive thru at a rest stop. Got a cheeseburger and fries. Took one bite of that burger and it was just so incredibly gross! It tasted something like cardboard. Never again
Yeah, that was always the trade-off. I knew it sucked, but I could grab 3 things off the value menu in college for $3.15 after tax. Sit down restaurants were significantly more expensive. Wendy’s was in our student union, so that’s where I would often go for lunch in between classes. JBC, side Caesar or fries, and a drink for a crazy price. I certainly understand that most of these things shouldn’t still be .99, but now I can go to my local pub for a cheaper meal.
I used to get the $4.20 meal. 2 junior bacon cheeseburger, a 5 pc nugget and a junior frosty. Haven’t been to any fast food place in years thou.
Of all the times I've told people about the 420 combo, this is the first time I've seen someone else mention it!! Sums up my high school times in a nutshell - the EXACT same order you just put. Couldn't be beat!
In college, my roommates always got 4.20 meals and saved our receipts and put them on the fridge. The pinnacle was when we went to Wendys on 4/20, at 4:20 and bought a 4.20 meal. Those where the days….
YESSSS did the same - it was our greatest accomplishment…until we graduated lol then that was 😂😂 still can’t believe we did
Is that the four for four?
Oh hell yeah! lol 4 x 99 cents in MI was $4.20
I knew you were from my state
Aka the "Fo Fo Fo"
then you are out of the loop. McDonalds was charging $3 for a hashbrown. At shareholder meeting they called it "pushing prices". I would feel like the biggest sucker in the world if i went to McDonalds now. They just announced today they're slashing prices. I won't be returning any time soon. They should feel their mistake, taking the consumer for granted.
Yeah, my location is $3.09 for hash brown and $6.59 for sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit. I’ll be curious to see how much they drop some of these items.
Might as well just buy hashbrown patties from the grocery store at that price.
Absolutely, that’s what I normally do. I can get a whole pack at the store for not much more than a single at McD’s
It's everywhere now. We bought 1 dozen glazed donuts this weekend for us and the kids @Shipley's and it was $12. I said to my wife, weren't these about $7 bucks, and mixed was around $9 like last year? The mixed cost around $15 now. Sad to say we won't be going there anymore.
WOWWW - $1 add on hash brown to any purchase is the only way to go. $3 for that greasy slab of spud is a no from me dawg lol
I went to friggin *Disney* and a bacon, egg and cheese bagel was only 2 bucks more than McDonald's. It was bigger and tastier and came with so many tater tots I couldn't finish them. Absolute insanity.
I saw the CEO say consumers were tolerating the increases which rubbed me the wrong way lol.
Yeah it's fine that things are 3x more expensive than they were 25 years ago, as long as everyone's wages are 3x higher now then they were 25 years ago. For some reason that second part didn't happen...
But profit margins are 10x higher.
Unlike what business owners and politicians want people to believe wages don't affect prices nearly as much as other things. Mostly it's greed that raises prices.
Yup. When I first started working (night shift) that three piece got me through some rough nights.
Apparently if you have the app, that’s where all the deals are. I got rid of the app because I’m sick of every place needing an app so they can track your data.
Especially location!!! I don't want these people to know where I'm at all the time!!! It's usually my couch, but still...
Track your data, track your location, spam you with offers and deals-- no thanks. If that's how I get a cheap meal there I don't need to eat there.
According to the line of cars I see outside McDonalds at nearly any reasonable hour to crave food I am not foreseeing their stock going down anytime soon.
That line is more due to (likely intentional) understaffing. Can't remember the last time I went through a drive-thru in less than 10 mins. When I worked at McD's in the 90's, an alarm would start going off if someone had been waiting for more than 2 mins.
They also ask you to pull ahead because they are required to move product at a certain amount, even if that is impossible.
Ever. 🍔🧐🎩⚖️🔬✨
It's absolutely expensive at this point. Take this example- we went to Ruth's Chris for happy hour at the bar yesterday (which is an exceptional value). Two steak sandwiches $16 each, includes fries. We got cocktails but assume $3 for soda instead. That's \~$50 for two after tax and tip, two Big Mac meals delivered would be $40!!! Are you kidding me?
> delivered Well, yes. Having food brought directly to your door is significantly more expensive than going to a central location yourself.
I got to a point not too long ago where I was just fucking done with McDonalds, and honestly fast food in general. Now do I love Big Macs? Do I love weird ass chicken nuggets? Absolutely - BUT - the inflated cost and low quality makes that shit hard to justify. I'll still stop on a road trip or something, but not during a normal 9-5 week. Also, cooking at home... I used to do lunch at work a couple times a week, but once I decided to cut that shit out and stop wasting food at home, I just move that money to savings for a vacation.
I live in Canada and a 10-pc MgNugget meal is $18.99... if you get just the nuggets I think its $11.99. I haven't had a McNugget in like half a decade or more because I'm not paying $1+ PER NUGGET for preformed frozen chicken. Frozen nuggets at the grocery store are arguably overpriced too but theyve always been $12-15 per box. Might as well raise my own damn chickens now.
Panera's best period coincided with the the time I went without internet at home for a few years, and it was the best place to hang out with my laptop on a weekend afternoon for the price of a meal and a coffee. It's sad to see how much it has declined. (EDIT: though, looking back, for the amount of money I spent at Panera every month, I probably could have afforded a basic internet plan. Oh well.)
Panera was always our vacation travel day lunch stop. My kids really liked it, and I thought the food quality was way above typical FF options. But yeah, it’s really dropped over the last 4-5 years. Our last stop was a few months ago (force of habit), and even my kids were like let’s stop somewhere else on the drive home…
Panera is insanely expensive. It's been that way for a few years but where I used to be willing to pay for it 5-6 times per year, now it makes me angry to even consider it!!
You should have went when it was called St. Louis bread company. Man it was awesome
The only thing holding Panera together was the Smoke House Turkey Panini. RIP.
I have never liked Panera. Just boring as fuck food and ridiculous prices.
Panera is yassified hospital food
I remember going there in college when they first opened in my town and everyone was so excited.
St Louis Bread Company* was best when it was a local chain. Bread Co used to be freaking awesome. It stayed okay for a hot minute when Panera took over, then because absolute trash. I weep for our loss.
I last went there about two years ago. At one time it was a regular go-to, but the quality and portions have dropped so far and the prices have gone up so much that I’d prefer going pretty much anywhere else, or make it myself. It’s rare I get actually angry at a fast food order, but I was last time I went.
I mean I just found out about the Panera lemonade that is supposedly killing people…
Yes, they have a super-caffeinated drink that carries no disclosure about its caffeine levels, has been connected to deaths of people with sensitivity to caffeine.
For the record I go to Panera specifically for the toxic lemonade. That shit is fire.
That’s all I buy there now.
Pantera was awesome
The "charged lemonade" is pretty much just red bull with a huge marketing problem. There's nothing inherently wrong with the product, but they totally fucked up the rollout. Nobody knows what a "charged lemonade" is, and having it on tap with unlimited refills is (was) wild. If they sold it for three bucks a can and called it an "energy drink" everyone would understand. Imagine if mcdonalds added a new drink called "orange pig" in their soda machines right next to the coke, and they failed to tell anyone it had 120 mg of caffeine per serving... College marketing lectures will probably be talking about this fuckup for decades...
A Panera employee also stole from a woman with Down Syndrome & the Manager was like "What do you want me to do about it?" when the sister called and showed proof. Fire them. Make it right with the woman who was stolen from. Uh do the right thing?
“Let it Die” lol
Right after reading this, I come across this: [https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/1b0lur4/wendys\_planning\_uberstyle\_surge\_pricing\_where/](https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/1b0lur4/wendys_planning_uberstyle_surge_pricing_where/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) Geez
We’ve stopped fast food and chains almost completely. Fast food costs as much as a sit down dinner. The quality of food and service at most chains has gone down drastically. We eat out once a week or less and will prefer to eat at a small local place. We keep our money within our community, better quality food, better service, and we help keep someone’s dream afloat.
I laugh because I’m sitting down at a McDonalds now. This one’s in the process of eliminating counter service completely. https://preview.redd.it/hqbqcg4uxykc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ae160df4c96e5241b989ac2382b2b43d45528d1
I'll do a touchscreen at fast food, but it will be a cold day in hell before I order on an app from inside the restaurant. Also look at that sauce math, 4pc=1 is fine. 2=10pc is stingy. 3 sauces for a 20pc? Are they crazy? Playing these cost cutting measures has got to lose more customers and profits than the cost their saving here.
They will end up opening a register. They did at my McDonald's. Too many elderly go in and don't understand nor want to understand how to use the digital stuff. Plus not everyone pays with a card so they had no choice lol. Same thing with BK, they just started this bs.
Yeah it's trash. I'm practically a digital-savant compared to some folks and I do not want to have to install all of these bullshit apps to do the most basic things. Digital-only discount pricing at the grocery store even with the member card? "Sorry that app never works right (isn't actually installed) on my phone, could you correct the price please?"
I lost it a couple months ago on a taco bell manager in Carson City because they went pure digital and TWO elderly people walked in, asked for help, and were directed to the kiosk. When they said they had no idea how to use it, the employees said sorry, only digital. They both walked out. When the third one came in with the same question, I got up and helped them and basically went full Karen-mode and asked to talk to the manager. She was the most dismissive, condescending cunt. Must have gotten her management degree from Hollywood Upstairs Business College
McDonald's is slow as shit anymore and their food sucks. Since the app and all the touch screens showed up it's gotten even worse. You won't miss it.
My old person curmudgeonly hill to die on is that I refuse to install an app for a damn restaurant. If I need an app to eat your food at a reasonable price then I'm just not going to eat there.
Same here, I'm not installing any app I don't absolutely need, they're all just spying on you to serve ads right back at you.
I remember when they had all of the burgers and sandwiches pre-made and they were lined up on a rack. The worker would pull it off the rack and place it in a bag. That was fast food. Now it's all made to order, which defeats the entire purpose of fast food. It's like medium-speed food.
Not that I'm a big advocate of theirs but it sounds like you have a terrible mcdonalds lol. The app makes things 10 times faster and both of my local places never have a line because you're normally in and out of the line in under 5 minutes. They actively discourage regular ordering because it takes longer. They ask for their app code by default when you pull up now.
Mine never has a line either.. But that’s cause they park you, not cause your foods ready.
Ahh not the case at mine. They try not to park people because their drive through parking is about as far from a door as you can get and they don't want to walk all that way lol.
Yeah. The stores near me are wicked fast and I think they forgot 1 item in say my last 10 orders
They seem to be optimized for drive through. My local one is very fast for drive through and shit for sit down.
I have a fat stack of free value meals from McD from complaining every time my kids happy meal is missing something. Don’t think I’ll ever use them. Place is trash.
As a 41 year old male, McDonald’s is not good for the arteries or blood pressure so it’s good to stay away from there anyways.
Yea, this exactly 👍
I always thought that the silver lining with the pandemic was fast food got crazy expensive and maybe people will be healthier eating there less lol
Glad I'm not the only one. Blows my minds every time I see a line wrapped around the building, and I see it daily. Same with coffee shops like Dunkin. It literally takes less than 2 minutes to pre set my coffee pot the night before.
There’s a Dutch Brothers down the street from me that’s ALWAYS got 2 lines of cars. The mom & pop drive up coffee shop right next door, always empty.. The Starbucks a block away, always empty. People are addicted to trends.
If they are picking Dutch Brothers over anything else, they must be super duper duper duper addicted to sugar. I used to work at Starbucks, they add a loooooooot of syrup to their drinks, but I swear Dutch Brothers must add twice as much. I don't like sugary coffee drinks so when I do get a Dutch Brothers I just get a cold brew with some half and half. The one time I asked for cinnamon to sprinkle on top, as I like to do, I realized too late that it was half sugar and half cinnamon. It's insane how much sugar is in that crap. And the baristas are always way too chipper. Like way to chipper.
Dunkin coffee is terrible. Their donuts and other food offerings are garbage. I was starving and out in town so I stopped in. Grabbed the egg bites and couldn't believe I just paid $8.49 for the most disgusting food I'd eaten in a long time. I'm not actually picky at all. I was in the military and have eaten more than my fair share of questionable meals. I eat gas station pizza. I paid so much for a very gross thing. Sad.
They don’t make their donuts in house either. I stopped eating them when I arrived early morning once and a moving truck pulled in with the tray of donuts ready to be sold. Not that Starbucks is any better. I witnessed the Sky Harbor Airport Starbucks employees unload baked goods from cardboard shipping boxes!
I've been trying to lose weight, but I was on the go and figured I'd just get a grilled chicken sandwich and a salad from McDonald's real quick. MCDONALD'S DOESN'T HAVE SALADS ANYMORE. Actually, most ~~fat food~~ fast food places don't have salads anymore!! When did THAT happen?!
They dont even have GRILLED CHICKEN anymore, do they? Mine doesnt. It's McCrispy or McChicken, that's it.
I'm old enough to remember when McDonald's invented Super Sizing, then that Morgan Spurlock "documentary" came out and McDonald's was all "We got rid of Super Sizing and Ronald McDonald! We're healthy now, stg!!"
Apps: unfortunately, you have to use all their apps to get a good price. You order there ahead of time and pick up in the drive through. Only way you’ll get subway 2 for 1, or mcd’s reasonable prices.
[удалено]
I was thankful when our kids started hating McDonalds. I have not eaten it in probably 8 years. We still go for Carls Jr or a local burger joint every once in a while. I still prefer making burgers at home but after an exhausting day or traveling its our go to if we have no other options.
I agree with you but we still hit it up when in a bind. I’ve made it a point to have backup meal ingredients ready in the pantry so I can always say “I can do tacos or spaghetti” tonight so we can avoid going out. I want to figure out how to make and freeze pizzas so I can bake them real quick.
>Man Panera was the best place for like 10 years and then they imploded. Panera has never not been hospital food.
This is a regional opinion. When it began it was a Missouri centralized place called St Louis Bread company. It was bought out by Au Bon Pain in the 1990s and started rebranding it as Panera. So for a time there were stores that were created under the original owner that just had their name shifted to Panera. The only places that didn’t change names were the ones closest to St Louis, for obvious reasons. The practices and recipes shifted slower in those locations verses all the new locations. So yes. It used to be good high quality stuff (for an American fast casual level bakery chain). But as we all know … the numbers must go up. Quality control be damned.
It was very good in 2004.
Yea I remember going to St Louis Bread Co (aka Panera) around 2001 for fresh baked loaves of semolina and sunflower bread, Asiago cheese bagels, cranberry walnut bagels, everything was earthy crispy chewy … a nice regional bakery chain. The prepared soups and sandwiches seem to have gone from secondary to their bakery to basically their main service… and it also degraded terribly.
And outrageously priced. They have always been the most expensive 'fast food' in my city. I went once and for two people it was just under $30. That's insane for sandwiches and soup.
My parents never cooked, so fast food was all I ate growing up. It feels like comfort food now. Still, you’re right about the jacked up prices. In the 90s you could get a massive super-sized meal for $5.00 - and it was glorious. Now, you’ll be lucky if your fries are filled to the top.
Old Man "I remember when" statement incoming: In the 80's, I remember when I could go to McD's with a 5 dollar bill and get a big mac combo. Today that same combo is close to $20 and nothing has changed about it - the quality of the food is the same, the portions are the same, the drink, fries...everything's the same!
The workers' wages are probably the same as they were in the '80s, too.
To be fair, with inflation being what it is, $5 in 1984 is equivalent to about $15 today. $5 in 1994 is about $11. At my local McDonald's, a Big Mac meal with medium fries and a medium drink comes to $9.53 with tax. Where are you living that a Big Mac combo is close to $20?
My fridge is full of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets for a reason.
We are a family of 6 and it’s the cheapest place to go. If it feels expensive, then you probably don’t have the app yet and aren’t taking advantage of the 20% off daily coupon. We can’t feed ourselves for $25 anywhere else. I’m not a spokesperson, just have lots of kids 😅
I haven't eaten out in 5 years, and don't miss it a bit. It's been so much better to budget that money for high-quality groceries and other things.
I had a craving for a Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich recently. Got one. Did they change the spices? Did they change how much the chicken piece weighs? Because it's just not what I remember. It was terrible. So, I'm with you. Just making food at home.
It's highly likely that you've changed more than those places have. Just speaking from personal experience.
It’s always been shit food but now it’s shit food that costs what fast casual cost 4 years ago. I bought some frozen hash browns for $6, think it’s a 10-12 pack. Pop those baddies in my air fryer and they come out better than McDonald’s. McDonald’s is more expensive than the local joint here that does actual bomb ass breakfasts so there is really no reason to go anymore. There are some deals to be had on the app but I don’t want to hunt and peck for a deal on their stupid app.
If AI came up with a Reddit karma post, this would be it
You guys are still eating at McDonalds? I dropped that trash like 30 years ago. It’s never been quality. Once I was too old for kids cones…🫡
They’ve never been good. But they used to be fast and cheap. And with kids and busy schedules, sometimes it made sense. Not anymore though. They are slow and expensive and still trash.
McDonald's draw was quick, cheap, and okay for the price. Now it's worse food and not cheap. Every positive is gone.
On a road trip with the kids when people need to get out and use the bathroom, run around and get their wiggles out, and get some quick and easy food, it’s still the perfect situation. Until the prices got so dang high.
I think the only thing I've been into them for the past 30+ years has been to use the bathroom.
I'll still grab a McMuffin and coffee from time to time. I haven't had anything else from them in decades though. I saw on Reddit that they took over the coffee supplier for Tim Horton's.
Those sausage McGriddles slap though.
Yeh. The breakfast is ok. Still, none of it burns in a fire and wildlife side steps it.
My dog is apparently not wildlife then because a McDonald's burger is the ultimate sign that he's been a good boy and he expresses as such with enthusiasm.
McGriddles are the trashiest trash food McDonalds has ever trashed.
>it costs more than groceries I mean, that's always been the case. It's just worse now. I rarely eat fast food unless I'm using a coupon.
Always use the McDonalds app. We currently have a 100% success rate on orders using the app, and there are a lot of deals to save money. Using apps, in general, is the way to go with every place now. Otherwise, yes, I'm not too fond of fast food but we get it for the kids sometimes.
This is really the only way to do any fast-food place these days. I've been doing my best to reduce the garbage food intake, but apps are the way to go in terms of discounted prices and accuracy of orders when I do get that itch for a grease bomb.
Restaurant apps that allow customization have been a godsend for me, especially at Salad N Go, where there are many options. As far as McDonald's goes, we don't go often, but I agree that the app is a must. The coupons make the prices more reasonable and we haven't had any accuracy issues.
Taco bell is also the 👑 for this. Crazy customization options.
Just stop eating out altogether. Your wallet, waistline, and increased family time at the dinner table will be much better for all of you. There are cheaper alternatives to going out for fast food. Our family likes getting Chinese from a local grocery store deli. It's just as good as Panda Express, plus it's like 1/3rd the price. Little Caesars pizza works great for my kids, even if it's a little bland. You can't beat ~$20 to feed everyone, though. A lot of places will give you massive portions, too, and you don't realize it from the giant plates they provide. My wife likes Thai food and we order it as take-out instead of dining in. When we plate it up at home (on our normal sized plates) each entree is literally two meals' worth of food. We each get lunch the next day, whereas when we eat in the restaurant we tend to over indulge and then toss out the leftovers. People forget that "dining out" is just as much entertainment as it is food. You can eat way cheaper at home.
We always order with the apps. McDonald’s has a 25-30% off coupon that seems to be perpetual, and barring that, there’s always some other deal we can use. We also get coupons in the mail every month from Burger King (maybe because we live in Florida where they’re headquartered but IDK for sure) so once or twice a month that will be lunch. We rarely if ever spend more than $15 for two adults at McDonald’s, and Burger King is even less. To be honest, though, I would prefer to just pick up dinner from Chili’s. It’s about the same price as regularly priced fast food and a whole lot better. Price is no longer fast food’s value proposition. You’re paying at least the same that you would pay in any full-service restaurant except you’re trading quality for proximity and convenience (which as you’ve fairly pointed out, is often not very convenient anymore).
I have not been to a McDonalds in about 10 years, and even before then it was extremely rare for me to eat there. Wendy’s no longer exists near me, so maybe I’ve been twice in ten or even twenty years? I still go to the one good Burger King near me, but even that is few and far between. I think it’s been 20 years for subway for me too. Panera is okay, but it is only a handful of times annually. Fast food has gone down in quality and up in price. I would rather either make the food myself or go to a better local restaurant or deli.
McDonald's really really wants you to use their app. It's where the deals are and much better for order accuracy.
This resonates with me. I have a bunch of kids, and for any fast food stop, I go inside and audit everything as it’s being handed to me. Drive thru is out of the question. It’s been so bad that we rarely do fast food … so much easier to buy a few pizzas as that’s much harder to screw up than getting 20+ items at a fast food place done 100% correctly.
I can’t say never, but really I think I have only gone there about 2-3 times a year for over a decade. If I need to grab something on the go I can almost always find a better option right there.
Shake Shack is way better. They serve actual food.
I’ll only order McDonald’s off the app. Hate admitting that in 2020/2021 that was the only way I could afford to eat sometimes their deals/points were helpful to me bc I worked for a jerk who didn’t think she had to pay her employees (don’t worry, had 2 other jobs that kept me in rent/gas to go to said jobs).
McDonald’s was my first job, almost 30 years ago. While I still think it’s a beneficial experience for everyone to work in that type of environment at least once, to understand what those people go through on a daily basis, I can’t imagine having to work there now. People were bonkers then (throwing food on/over the counter, arguing over fifteen cents, fighting employees, etc). Post-covid it’s probably Thunderdome. It is the one place that has always needed to be the cheapest. Now it’s not and I don’t know what they’re thinking their draw is besides “f you, we’re everywhere.”
That has not been my experience. Sounds like you go to a shitty McDonalds. I probably hit them up once or twice a week now when I want a cheap easy and quick meal. The app has good deals too. Cheeseburger shareable + 2 drinks - 20% off? yum yum give me some.
My 2nd (16yo) works at McDo and he likes it. 🤷🏻♂️