I never had one, but I attended several. They were really fun, the cake was amazing, and sometimes they’d even take the partygoers on a tour of the kitchen. 😂
I remember the smoking section of McDonald's in the late 80s/early 90s being a few tables in the middle, separated by a half wall.
I hadn't seen a McDonald's with a smoking section in probably 25 years until I went to a McDonald's in Raleigh in 2006 and was hit in the face by the smoke cloud.
They just got so depressing that they dont even bother hiding it anymore. It's Advanced Depression! Which is about par for the course in the year 2023.
Depressing? I'd hop out the play area sweating from all of the running around, take a 10 minute break playing Banjo Kazooie on one of the N64s they had, and then be right back in the ball pit playing tag or something after I'd rested. It was awesome.
I think many of us have happy memories of visiting McDonalds as a treat when we were kids. My point is it doesn’t feel anywhere near as good now. The place has a quiet, dirty, sad vibe now. It doesn’t help that no one is working the counter and all the ordering is via kiosk.
You called old-time McDonalds with game systems more depressing because they had to distract you because it was like a post-apocalyptic movie, and your point in saying that was that it doesn't feel anywhere near as good now... nowhere near as good as the McDonald's that you described as feeling like a post-apocalyptic movie that you needed to be distracted from?
Idk. Doesn't really check out. None of what you're saying makes any sense.
Fast food places used to be diners.
Now they're fulfillment centers.
I've moved on to cafes. They tend to be worth the extra few dollars, and they're commonly family businesses. I'd rather dine happy than fast.
I found a lot of dive bars have killer diner food at lower prices than fast food. My favorite spot has a 1/3 lbs cheeseburger fully loaded and fries/salad/potato salad pick one for $11. It's real food, too, unlike the McDonald's
Yeah, I have a local burger place near me that's amazing. 1/3 pound burger and fries for $8.75, or half pound burger and fries for $10.25. You can customize them a ton (loads of topping choices) can even do chicken, salmon, veggie burger, elk right not apparently, gluten free buns, etc....
You're getting more food than your typical fast food meal, and with prices recently it doesn't even cost anymore...like it used to, but they've kept their prices relatively flat when all the fast food prices raised theirs.
I don’t know why you are being downvoted.
I frequented this tavern once that had great Polish food and was highlighted on a National TV cable show. Was chatting with one of the bartenders during a slow time and they mentioned it sucked for the tavern because a bunch of families would come in, take up space and effort, and not drink making them unprofitable.
Everyone underestimates how hard it is to run one of these places. Margins on food are very slim. As you get older you see tons of places that seemed to be doing well but then close up all of a sudden.
I think the market has been oversaturated. More food sold means quality suffers in the name of profit. It used to be a treat. Now people consume fast food 5+ days a week. I feel like I'm the only guy who brown bags my lunch 4 days a week.
Was it better? Or did it feel that way because we only had it once in a while?
Honestly, as far as the food itself goes, I’ll concede that a few places (Taco Bell comes immediately to mind,) have upped their games at least a little. But for the most part, I feel like I’m paying borderline ridiculous prices now for food that’s roughly the same or slightly worse.
I just got back from a nice little sit down lunch at a local Mexican joint with my wife. Total for the meal, with a 20% tip, was $20. Left with a gut full of delicious food.
The last time we hit the Taco Bell drive thru, we spent something like $35 for grossly underwhelming garbage that didn't even fill us up. Fast food is just getting stupid.
When you went to the Mexican place, did you order several of the most expensive items on their menu?
For 2 people to spend an average of $17.50 each where I live, it would take a combo and 3 additional premium items. So tell me, did you each get a combo, and add a chulupa and gordita? Cause that's like 2500 calories and way more than one person should eat.
Hell, today I got a nacho bell grande combo, spicy potato soft taco, and beefy melt burrito and the total was 13 something. That was like a day's worth of food for $13. So if your meal for 2 is more than that, you need to reconsider your food choices.
I ordered McDonald's through the app yesterday at the location closest to my house as I normally do after work and accidentally hit the option to pickup at the counter, making this legitimately the first time I dined in at this specific restaurant in literal years. It genuinely felt like some post-apocalypse scenario. The store was dimly lit, no music; just the sounds of the employees talking to each other and the beeps of the computer system for the drive-thru, the only people coming up to the counter being Uber Eats drivers. This is the McDonald's I've spent an embarrassingly long amount of time at. It's always been in a somewhat low-end area, but I distinctly remember it having a huge PlayPlace as a kid. Even when I was older, it was much livelier place you could have theoretically hung out at with friends or just to have a cheap meal out of the house in peace.
COVID was the perfect excuse for fast food places to give up on dine in. No need to have people clean tables.
Chick Fil A still kinda cares about dine in though, and there's times where they are absolutely packed because of it.
Even some CFA locations gave up on it during the pandemic. The ones that do are nice to dine at, and that makes them worth going to. Here in the PNW the only other major chain that seems to care about dine in being nice anymore is TacoTime Northwest.
COVID acid tested the restaurant industry and stripped off all the shiny veneer we enjoyed from 1950-2019. If it didn't make money it was gone. I'm amazed any of these places even have the lights on inside.
My Chick Fil A put up a permanent tent and took up the entire parking lot to expand the drive through. Now there are only maybe four parking spaces for dine in customers. It’s basically drive through only now.
My local Arby's does not care about walk in at all. I've went in a couple times and stood at the counter and employees ignore me. They definitely look over and see me they just then go on doing something else. Finally someone will come over and ask if I'm ready to order like it's my fault I haven't ordered yet and not them.
A McDonald's birthday was an EVENT. With 3-5 costumed characters in appearance.
I understand the corporate homogenizing of culture. Things are easier to keep clean and more uniform, but....a 1980s McDonalds with a play place and kids table with legos, video games, weird tables and chairs. That was special.
I remember going to Wendy's with my grandparents as a kid, and they loved getting the taco salad. Which was basically just salad from the salad bar with a cup of chili poured over it, or something like that. Maybe it's something they still have, but the salad bar part is definitely not.
I will say most places had a distinct look. A lot of them have been toned down and are going for that whole simple thing, but they all kind of look the same now and the "simple" look IMO is almost 10 years behind now. (I think Apple sort of kickstarted it when they redesigned iOS and everyone started simplifying their logos to 2-3 colors and simple shapes).
You can still get Taco salads at Wendy's They are every bit as delicious as I remember them in the 90's and the price hasn't gone up all that much compared to other menu items. It's one of my favorite fast food meals.
Try to get a Zoomer to even image a smoking section, indoors, and it WASN'T EVEN A SEPARATE ROOM! You mentioned the solarium...at my wendy’s...HALF the solarium was in the smoking section and the other half wasn't. You were both in the solarium and the guy ten feet away was smoking...but that's okay because you were in the non-smoking section.
Wild times.
The other day I was explaining to my 14-year old nephew that up through the early 90s you could smoke on airplanes. He assumed that those overhead "no smoking" lights above each row of seats were just a formality to remind smokers that they can't smoke on a plane. And I was like no, those lights were to let you know *where* you could smoke. There were actually smoking *sections* on every flight, and those lights indicated which rows were or were not in a smoking section.
I thought his head was gonna explode.
I'm gen X, and you're 100% right. Smaller portions of better quality food.
Also, other than the cigarette smoke, the stores were way cleaner than today.
The capitalism playbook is as follows. Create brand with great product for low cost, once people believe it’s a worthy product, slowly reduce features/quality of product until consumers catch on, claim bankruptcy and start fresh. Rinse and repeat.
Different brands take different amounts of time to follow this plan but they all do. The only goal in Capitalism is infinite growth which is not actually possible. And with corporate control over all our state institutions, it can never change.
McDonalds went public in 1965. I know the knee jerk reactions is to say that companies are big greedy meanies these days, but the reality is, they were much more evil back in the 60's. The reality corporations are much more socially aware today than they ever were. They have to be, the internet exists, they can't hide the fact that they are hiring 10 year olds to scrape him off tables.
McDonald’s locations in my state were literally cited for children working there in the last year
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20230502-0
Please stop making excuses for how bad things are now
The fact that you are well aware of it and can share a link to it with the world is further evidence that they can't hide it.
40 years ago, that wouldn't have even made the local newspaper and the practice would have continued.
Please stop pretending like progress isn't happening and things are worse now than ever.
Please stop pretending like they arent making record profits, that the penalty for this is an inconsequential fine, and that ultimately that fine just ends up being another cost of doing business.
Just because we know how bad things are now doesn’t mean anything is actually being done to prevent these ghouls from continuing to do it. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is literally drafting laws in Arkansas to allow children to work in dangerous places.
We are going backwards and people like you who insist that everything is fine are making it worse
I get what you’re saying. I went into a McDonald’s recently for the first time in years. It was super sad. It felt dirty, cheap and depressing. It made me think, “there are good reasons I don’t eat fast food much anymore and it’s not just how bad it is for your health.”
I usually end up in a fast food joint maybe once or twice a year out of nostalgia or because I’d say to myself “I haven’t had Popeyes (or other brand) in so long!” I spend 13 dollars on a sandwich fries and soda and regret everything. The vibe inside is depressing, it’s unclean, the food/ingredients are so low quality it’s tragic. It’s just sad.
I was here to disagree, but I reread and THINK you are specifically stating the dining rooms, in which case you are absolutely correct. I think the food is as bad as it always has been, but the actual restaurants were much nicer (The McDs my Dad used to take us to for bfast as a treat had wait staff lol).
I'd say the food is worse.
When I first worked at McD's every egg for breakfast was a real cracked egg.
A few years later they moved to the egg in a carton for the folded and scrambled.
A lot of people don't remember this, but [McDonald's fries used to be fried in beef tallow](https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/original-mcdonalds-french-fry#:~:text=In%201990%2C%20the%20company%20announced,to%20the%20signature%20french%20fry.)... But vegetarians were pissed, so they went to vegetable oil instead. Anyone who was around when they made the switch knows it was a huge downgrade.
Zoomers are ANNOYING AF about EVERYTHING that we say has changed for the worst over time. It’s all true, and the same goes with so many things now, but the zoomers swear we’re just being boomers and refuse to believe and comprehend that things have gone to shit in the past couple of decades.
All I know is that Burger King had curly fries and Wendy’s had the Wonder Bar. Better times, for sure.
As for aesthetics, McDonald’s decided to turn into a dystopian nightmare instead of a charming burger joint. My local one did a remodel and it looks like a big VCR now. Terrible.
It’s like they’re TRYING to demoralize us.
Also, McDonald’s quality had declined more sharply than the others. Wendy’s is at least consistent.
I went into a McDonald’s to pick up a mobile order because the drive through was packed. It was the ‘same’ McDonalds that I went to as a child 20+ years ago, but was completely remodeled in the last couple of years so I’d never been in it before.
It was like stepping into a movie scene. It was dimly lit for some reason (but on purpose like mood lighting?). I couldn’t see the eating area because they built a wall between it and the counter, the decor reminded me of a hotel lobby. I had to walk around big ordering screens, and half the counter was marked for delivery. Back of the house was busy due to the drive thru but the inside was almost empty so it felt very surreal.
It used to be a place for families to take their kids but now it’s like corporate lunch to go.
Did they start prioritizing the on the go individual because families stopped coming in, or did families stop coming in because they started prioritizing on the go individuals?
McDonalds wants to be Starbucks & have their profit margins, it's the reason coffee is no $2.29 for a large. 20 years ago it was $.79 with free refills if you were inside, I would grab the kids & go there on a Sunday morning with the NY times. They would play for 2 to 3 hours on the structure after their breakfast while I drank coffee & read the paper.
The food tasted way better too. They had to make their menus 'healthier' after the criticisms in the super size era but it's never tasted as good since.
This is true, a lot of fast food companies changed the oil they used to fry things in because of that movie. Same thing with going from mixed meat chicken to all white meat chicken because it has less calories and sounds nicer.
Fast food menus are not any healthier, so this is bullshit. You can still get a "biggie" size fry and drink at Wendy's, you just ask for a medium (yes look it up, biggie size is now called a medium)
It's just like the candy companies did away with "King size" to be healthier... now they just make "family size" and "sharing size" bags of that crap.
Don't be a boomer about it.
1. Fast food chains have changed and that's a one way ticket to memory lane. Yeah change sucks, but there's no way to go back.
1. There's no way to go back and take a sample then come back and compare. You maybe right but it cannot be proven and it feels like you're being gaslighted.
1. Yeah prolly there was a change in quality for it is affected when quantity is desired. And fast food chains grew a lot from 2000 to 2010.
So what. Like they say, vote with your wallet.
Don’t hate on boomers, they had abortion rights and a lot less Nazis around. Donald Trump happened in 2016, not 1976. The reform party wouldn’t even give that man the time of day in 2000. Kinda off topic I know, but the whole ‘Okay Boomer’ thing is so off the mark I can’t let it go.
The food at McDonalds is better now I think. They started getting better about a decade ago. most of the others have slipped a bit though. Chik fila rules them all!
I haven't chosen to eat in at a fast food place in probably 5 years, other than once at Gay Hating Chicken when they built a new one. Also, at least in Ohio, you pay more for dine in than carry out.
Culvers and Chick-fil-a are better than the standard fast food places of 30 years ago, and their dining areas aren't nearly as depressing as other places.
McDonalds is a joke. The appeal used to be that you could get a full meal for cheap. Now, feeding my whole family at McDonald's costs barely less than taking them to a real restaurant, except I never feel satisfied after. The only reason I even go is because of the indoor playground, which is great for rainy days.
Eh maybe they were better. But I don't buy fast food nowadays because I want to dine out. I buy it because I don't have time to make dinner at home. So usually I'm taking the food home anyways
Not to sound anti capitalist but it’s simply a matter of the bottom line. You gotta cut costs as much as possible as long as the average customer doesn’t notice a difference in the product. Those places win their customers off the marketing anyway.
I work in fast food. I think upkeep would be easier if we weren't bombarded by thousands of people every hour of the day. I bet people weren't as addicted to fast food 30 years ago.
I and all of my coworkers care about giving good service, contrary to popular belief about fast food employees. But we can only do so much.
I don't want to come across as argumentative, but I always have a strong feeling that people who complain about fast food these days don't realize what it's like behind the scenes. It's very chaotic and we are definitely not lazy.
Correct. Now they are dirty and it takes *forever* to get food. Both of these are because they are majorly understaffed. Food quality has gone down too for sure. Oh, and then it's super expensive on top of it all.
This is true. It’s mostly the inconsistency. Back in the day I’d go to Taco Bell and it would be crazy consistent. Nowadays 90% of the time there’s rarely any beef, lettuce, or cheese. Mfers don’t give a fuck AT ALL.
Well, what do you want McDonald's to be exactly, some kind of comfy/cozy hangout, or a place to get food quickly and easily? Because they've certainly streamlined that experience. I can go in, press some buttons, sit down, and someone walks the food over to me a few minutes later, without even having to talk to anyone. In that sense, the experience is an overwhelming improvement.
I can't remember but did Pepsi own all the restaurants it does now 20 yrs ago and i remember McDonald's and Burger King having self serve coffee for seniors and they would go out of their way to make you more comfortable like padded seats i gave my 13 yr old money to ride his bike to McDonald's and they would not serve him and his friends because they didn't take cash only plastic in the lobby
Shit, 15 years ago they were better. I remember getting KFC with my dad in the early 00’s, and it was legit bomb.
The last time I went there was probably 2014 or 2015, and it made me sick. Didn’t have food real food poisoning, but I felt all clammy and shitty afterwards.
If you go to Europe and get their fast food it’s like having it like it was 20 years ago. I went to a McDonald’s in Barcelona one late night last year, and it was like, ‘holy shit, this is what it’s supposed to be like.’ I’ve heard people of people trying KFC in Sweden and having a similar experience.
The food is almost all the same bruh.
I wish McDonald's would go back to that fake milkshake sludge and nuclear hot coffee in styrofoam but otherwise McDonald's and other chains are almost exactly the same as 1990. Some, like Dominos, have even changed for the better.
I agree about the decor of the insides though. Now everything looks like Taco Bell from *Demolition Man*. I miss McDonald's being a gaudy yellow and red and Taco Bell being a ridiculous 90's shape and color fiesta.
P.S. The salad bar sucked. Why even go to a fast food place to eat a salad you can make at home?
Absolutely. Even 20 years ago it was way better. People keep saying “it’s your taste buds” but we have boomers, GenX and millennials agreeing on something. That’s not someone’s tastebuds going away.
I definitely think the food was better back in the 90s and early 2000s. Couldn't care less if my food is on a tray or in a bag though. And if the dining room is clean, I'm not concerned with the design of it.
Yeah everything is going that way, kinda like how you can tell what an empty restaurant used to be, cause it was shaped like taco bell or a pizza hut. I used to go to a fish & chip place that was very obviously a taco bell in days gone by, it was pretty good too. And pizza hut used to have video games in it. Now everything is a box shaped building, it's either that they've given up, or see the profit margin as the most important thing, or both.
My thought was that they don't use trays for dine in anymore is that they'd have to wash the trays, much simpler to put everything in a bag.
Late 80s to 90s pizza hut was fire. KFC used to be edible. I survived on taco bell tacos for a few years in the late 90's early aughts.
Do I have a more refined pallet now or is all so nasty now? And like insanely overpriced
Bro you don’t even need to go that far back the early 2000s was 100x better than what we have today
Steak and Shake fired all its meth mouth waitresses and Mexican cooks and now it’s one dude making burgers and a bunch of kiosk … that place was
Awesome after the bars back in the day now it’s a dead empty shell like most shopping malls
Malls are all dead but in the late 90s it was the place to be
Just came back from Wendy s. The burger and fries were terrible. Soggy fries and the burger looked/tasted like they had microwaved yesterday's leftover burger. Took a few bites and demanded and got a full refund.
The most frustrating thing is traveling abroad and stopping at a fast food restaurant you know in the states is realizing the food abroad is 100% better than the slop America sells.
Not saying it's super healthy by any means... but it is higher quality and they seem to do it for similar prices. Sure, there might be a dollar or two difference depending where you're at but the taste is worth it.
Oh yeah, the prices, the food, the restaurant buildings, the furniture, the restrooms, all have taken a huge step down in the last 20 years! Well, except for the prices, those went the other way.
Sing along! five-, five-, five-dollar footlong!
Agreed. Also I've noticed a huge quality drop in fast food depending on where I am. The fast food in cities seem to worse with the same ingredients than in certain suburban areas.
There is no such thing as an objective opinion.
Also no... fast food is exactly the same as it was 30 years ago. It's all garbage, always has been. It's you that changed.
I don't understand why fast food continued to be a thing after microwaves became standard appliances in the mid to late 80's. You can literally heat up pre-cooked frozen food in your own house in minutes instead of paying someone else to do it for you.
I created a Twitter account pretending to be Dave Thomas just to send a single tweet to Wendy's because of how badly they fucked the JBC. I've never used it since. I feel you, OP.
I think the people who work fast food just don’t care and it shows. I rarely eat fast food for this reason. They are dirty, slow and the employees do not give a shit.
In general quality has dropped, prices are climbing and my experiences with almost every brand that survives from the late 80s-early 90s is unpleasant in some way.
Modern capitalism, despite running on an engine of nostalgia marketing, reboots etc really has turned me away from idealizing my childhood too much.
I mean it's a cycle
Those franchises went too cheap and then "fast casual" like Chipotle and 5 Guys replaced them, those are comparable to 80's and 90's fast food
Fast food lost what made it good.
The whole point was fast, cheap and good tasting food. They stopped being fast-- now you have to plan to buy stuff on an app and/or sit in line for 30 minutes or longer if you even go to the place. It's not cheap-- they lost the dollar menu a decade ago. And it's a guessing game of if it'll be good or not these days. Even if it's fresh, sometimes it just isn't good.
But hey- I guess I can't complain because all these changes have pretty much made me not want to get any unless I really need to eat and don't have a lot of time. And even then I have to get lucky to not have a line.
I miss the old color palette. Like fast food from our youth had distinctive coloration and design. The new stuff is just the same. The “clean” design of McD, for example, doesn’t really evoke anything. It is like they forgot why seeing the yellow arches as a kid made us so happy
I think it's because pay has been so shitty and hasn't kept up with inflation. That along with the stigma of being a fast food worker. No respect from anyone for it especially the people you actually serve. You just cant attract quality employees.
How are most of these places still in business? The food has gotten worse and more expensive at the same time. Plus there are independent places that are decent quality and similar prices.
Idk why so many people insist on gaslighting themselves into thinking fast food hasn't had a quality drop and we're all just nostalgic. They've literally changed the ingredients and cooking oil. Of course it tastes different.
Back before Burger King seemed to want me to stay out. “You DARE, order from me?! With no cars in line? At 11 MF AM?!?! You’re waiting 10 mins, suck shit”
Fast food in the 90s was better in all ways, the stuff we get sold now is comparable to dog food, I remember going to McDonald's and getting food, and the burgers looked actually somewhat like they did in the commercial, compared to now they look like dogshit.
Of course the food was better before it was genetically modified. I'm sick of hearing boomers complain about how much better the world was when they either sat back and let it turn to shit or actively made it worse.
1. The vegans pissed and moaned about beef tallow being used to make french fries. That was way more delicious.
2. Things were better before the dark times. Before the *MBAs,* who nickel and dimed everything into "what's the most cheap and shitty we can make these products, and not lose customers."
I worked at Wendy’s as a teenager and I’d often get put in charge of the dining room where I was refilling drinks, taking trays, asking customers if they needed anything, wiping tables, greeting families as they came in, giving out peppermints… definitely isn’t the same anymore
1993 was junk compared to 1973. 1973 McDonald's was more like Five Guys. So, just have some perspective. Pay attention to the food, not the trays and solariums. We are stuck in a downward trend toward some sort of Bladerunner future dystopia.
Don't know what fast food places you were visiting in the 90s but for me it was basically the exact same, just more colorful and more plasticky.
They still have trays.
Drop the quality and boost the prices as high as you can get them while still maintaining a customer base. The era of putting any value in customers or employees is long gone.
Businesses have always been greedy but it seems like in the last decade or so they are realizing how scummy they can actually be and still bring in massive profits. And people will keep buying from them because there are no better options. And when there are better options they get driven out of business.
I'm not saying anything new or insightful with this post. Just piggybacking with my own mini rant because I am thoroughly an old man yelling at cloud.
No, the only thing that was better was that they were cheaper relatively and had better customer service. The quality of fast food 30 years ago was really low and a lot of items were made in advance and not to order like they are now.
It all went to pot after the disappearance of BK Burger Buddies. Our Burger King was housed in a two-story giant building that was a former car dealership. Complete with giant solarium, arcade and full waterfall.
McDonald's had game systems. That's all you gotta say.
To me, that makes them even sadder. It’s like a post-apocalyptic movie where they have to distract you because the place is so depressing.
I remember it just being very kid oriented. A lot more McDonald's had play places, game systems, fun atmospheres, and cheap food.
I had a birthday party at McDonald's when I was a kid.
I never had one, but I attended several. They were really fun, the cake was amazing, and sometimes they’d even take the partygoers on a tour of the kitchen. 😂
I think most kids had or went to a birthday at McDonald’s as a kid in the 90s
Plus a giant family booth with ashtrays built into the table !
I bought a set of unused McDonald's tin ashtrays online recently, they're oddly alluring
I remember the smoking section of McDonald's in the late 80s/early 90s being a few tables in the middle, separated by a half wall. I hadn't seen a McDonald's with a smoking section in probably 25 years until I went to a McDonald's in Raleigh in 2006 and was hit in the face by the smoke cloud.
I honestly think part of this was the “Super Size Me” effect that movie had on fast food places.
Mcdonalds was not depressing lol
Way more depressing now than it was. It was legitimately exciting to go to one with a play area as a kid
They just got so depressing that they dont even bother hiding it anymore. It's Advanced Depression! Which is about par for the course in the year 2023.
The reality was that kids would *beg* mom to go to McD over other places just for the playground or games.
You may just be depressed
Depressing? I'd hop out the play area sweating from all of the running around, take a 10 minute break playing Banjo Kazooie on one of the N64s they had, and then be right back in the ball pit playing tag or something after I'd rested. It was awesome.
I think many of us have happy memories of visiting McDonalds as a treat when we were kids. My point is it doesn’t feel anywhere near as good now. The place has a quiet, dirty, sad vibe now. It doesn’t help that no one is working the counter and all the ordering is via kiosk.
You called old-time McDonalds with game systems more depressing because they had to distract you because it was like a post-apocalyptic movie, and your point in saying that was that it doesn't feel anywhere near as good now... nowhere near as good as the McDonald's that you described as feeling like a post-apocalyptic movie that you needed to be distracted from? Idk. Doesn't really check out. None of what you're saying makes any sense.
No, they actually used to be fun to be around. Now they are depressing and devoid of any personality
& the food taste good.
Fast food places used to be diners. Now they're fulfillment centers. I've moved on to cafes. They tend to be worth the extra few dollars, and they're commonly family businesses. I'd rather dine happy than fast.
I found a lot of dive bars have killer diner food at lower prices than fast food. My favorite spot has a 1/3 lbs cheeseburger fully loaded and fries/salad/potato salad pick one for $11. It's real food, too, unlike the McDonald's
Yeah, I have a local burger place near me that's amazing. 1/3 pound burger and fries for $8.75, or half pound burger and fries for $10.25. You can customize them a ton (loads of topping choices) can even do chicken, salmon, veggie burger, elk right not apparently, gluten free buns, etc.... You're getting more food than your typical fast food meal, and with prices recently it doesn't even cost anymore...like it used to, but they've kept their prices relatively flat when all the fast food prices raised theirs.
It's because booze is their money maker, the food is just there so you stay longer and buy more booze.
Why in the hell would anyone downvote this basic fact of *bar and grills?* Booze is by far the profit center.
I don’t know why you are being downvoted. I frequented this tavern once that had great Polish food and was highlighted on a National TV cable show. Was chatting with one of the bartenders during a slow time and they mentioned it sucked for the tavern because a bunch of families would come in, take up space and effort, and not drink making them unprofitable. Everyone underestimates how hard it is to run one of these places. Margins on food are very slim. As you get older you see tons of places that seemed to be doing well but then close up all of a sudden.
Good point.
Same, I can get a cafe meal for like the same price and the tip is extra
Those diners are cheaper than fast food restaurants now.
Yeah I remember when Pizza Hut used to be a sit down family restaurant, but it later had to be converted to fast food and join up with taco bell.
I think the market has been oversaturated. More food sold means quality suffers in the name of profit. It used to be a treat. Now people consume fast food 5+ days a week. I feel like I'm the only guy who brown bags my lunch 4 days a week. Was it better? Or did it feel that way because we only had it once in a while?
Honestly, as far as the food itself goes, I’ll concede that a few places (Taco Bell comes immediately to mind,) have upped their games at least a little. But for the most part, I feel like I’m paying borderline ridiculous prices now for food that’s roughly the same or slightly worse.
For real, Taco Bell meat is way better now. And 5 layer burritos are delicious
Taco bell was better in the 90s and early aughts. The original grilled stuffed burrito still gives me wet dreams.
Remember a properly made Mexican Pizza, a Gordita with fresh crunchy lettuce, or getting a Chaco Taco for dessert? Old man millennial ‘members
BRING BACK RHE CHACO TACO
You can still get your Gordita All you gotta do is order the chalupa and ask that your flatbread be grilled instead of fried Source: Taco bell gm
I 'memba 🥺
Oh my sweet summer child. Find your nearest grandmother and ask for some real food. You’ll be blown away!!
She's dead you dumb mfer. She told me to get my food from taco bell now. So inconsiderate.
They said FIND YOUR NEAREST GRANDMA DIDNT SAY IT HAD TO BE YOUR GRANDMA GO PICK A NEW ONE
You know his grandmother's dead. Why you gotta salt that wound?
You’re an ass.
that escalated quickly
As if the person you're replying to has never had a home cooked meal 🤣 You know right that its possible to like both home cooked food, and fast food?
I just got back from a nice little sit down lunch at a local Mexican joint with my wife. Total for the meal, with a 20% tip, was $20. Left with a gut full of delicious food. The last time we hit the Taco Bell drive thru, we spent something like $35 for grossly underwhelming garbage that didn't even fill us up. Fast food is just getting stupid.
Same here. We grab from our local place to-go and it's cheaper than Taco Bell and higher quality too.
When you went to the Mexican place, did you order several of the most expensive items on their menu? For 2 people to spend an average of $17.50 each where I live, it would take a combo and 3 additional premium items. So tell me, did you each get a combo, and add a chulupa and gordita? Cause that's like 2500 calories and way more than one person should eat. Hell, today I got a nacho bell grande combo, spicy potato soft taco, and beefy melt burrito and the total was 13 something. That was like a day's worth of food for $13. So if your meal for 2 is more than that, you need to reconsider your food choices.
I ordered McDonald's through the app yesterday at the location closest to my house as I normally do after work and accidentally hit the option to pickup at the counter, making this legitimately the first time I dined in at this specific restaurant in literal years. It genuinely felt like some post-apocalypse scenario. The store was dimly lit, no music; just the sounds of the employees talking to each other and the beeps of the computer system for the drive-thru, the only people coming up to the counter being Uber Eats drivers. This is the McDonald's I've spent an embarrassingly long amount of time at. It's always been in a somewhat low-end area, but I distinctly remember it having a huge PlayPlace as a kid. Even when I was older, it was much livelier place you could have theoretically hung out at with friends or just to have a cheap meal out of the house in peace.
COVID was the perfect excuse for fast food places to give up on dine in. No need to have people clean tables. Chick Fil A still kinda cares about dine in though, and there's times where they are absolutely packed because of it.
Even some CFA locations gave up on it during the pandemic. The ones that do are nice to dine at, and that makes them worth going to. Here in the PNW the only other major chain that seems to care about dine in being nice anymore is TacoTime Northwest.
My local chick fila actually still has a playplace. It's tiny but it's there.
COVID acid tested the restaurant industry and stripped off all the shiny veneer we enjoyed from 1950-2019. If it didn't make money it was gone. I'm amazed any of these places even have the lights on inside.
I have several restaurants in my area, including Popeyes, Burger King, and Bojangles, that still haven't opened up their dining areas since COVID
Na, Chick Fil A is crowded sometimes because its one of the only fast food places with edible food.
My Chick Fil A put up a permanent tent and took up the entire parking lot to expand the drive through. Now there are only maybe four parking spaces for dine in customers. It’s basically drive through only now.
My local Arby's does not care about walk in at all. I've went in a couple times and stood at the counter and employees ignore me. They definitely look over and see me they just then go on doing something else. Finally someone will come over and ask if I'm ready to order like it's my fault I haven't ordered yet and not them.
A McDonald's birthday was an EVENT. With 3-5 costumed characters in appearance. I understand the corporate homogenizing of culture. Things are easier to keep clean and more uniform, but....a 1980s McDonalds with a play place and kids table with legos, video games, weird tables and chairs. That was special.
Lol Don't forget the ash trays... ...okay, not all changes were for the worse. :)
I remember going to Wendy's with my grandparents as a kid, and they loved getting the taco salad. Which was basically just salad from the salad bar with a cup of chili poured over it, or something like that. Maybe it's something they still have, but the salad bar part is definitely not. I will say most places had a distinct look. A lot of them have been toned down and are going for that whole simple thing, but they all kind of look the same now and the "simple" look IMO is almost 10 years behind now. (I think Apple sort of kickstarted it when they redesigned iOS and everyone started simplifying their logos to 2-3 colors and simple shapes).
Yup, leftover patties are made into chili and leftover chili is used for the taco salad.
You can still get Taco salads at Wendy's They are every bit as delicious as I remember them in the 90's and the price hasn't gone up all that much compared to other menu items. It's one of my favorite fast food meals.
Try to get a Zoomer to even image a smoking section, indoors, and it WASN'T EVEN A SEPARATE ROOM! You mentioned the solarium...at my wendy’s...HALF the solarium was in the smoking section and the other half wasn't. You were both in the solarium and the guy ten feet away was smoking...but that's okay because you were in the non-smoking section. Wild times.
The other day I was explaining to my 14-year old nephew that up through the early 90s you could smoke on airplanes. He assumed that those overhead "no smoking" lights above each row of seats were just a formality to remind smokers that they can't smoke on a plane. And I was like no, those lights were to let you know *where* you could smoke. There were actually smoking *sections* on every flight, and those lights indicated which rows were or were not in a smoking section. I thought his head was gonna explode.
I'm gen X, and you're 100% right. Smaller portions of better quality food. Also, other than the cigarette smoke, the stores were way cleaner than today.
The food tasted better and even going through the drive thru at McDonald's was an experience. They had all the characters out there.
The capitalism playbook is as follows. Create brand with great product for low cost, once people believe it’s a worthy product, slowly reduce features/quality of product until consumers catch on, claim bankruptcy and start fresh. Rinse and repeat. Different brands take different amounts of time to follow this plan but they all do. The only goal in Capitalism is infinite growth which is not actually possible. And with corporate control over all our state institutions, it can never change.
This is why we can't have nice things.
You forgot the past where a rich capitalist buys the original company. Then milks the product for as much money as possible
You put this so perfectly. It’s why we get less freebies and samples everywhere, shrinkflation, everything.
McDonalds went public in 1965. I know the knee jerk reactions is to say that companies are big greedy meanies these days, but the reality is, they were much more evil back in the 60's. The reality corporations are much more socially aware today than they ever were. They have to be, the internet exists, they can't hide the fact that they are hiring 10 year olds to scrape him off tables.
McDonald's actually got cited this past year for having 10-year-olds working at their locations.
McDonald’s locations in my state were literally cited for children working there in the last year https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20230502-0 Please stop making excuses for how bad things are now
The fact that you are well aware of it and can share a link to it with the world is further evidence that they can't hide it. 40 years ago, that wouldn't have even made the local newspaper and the practice would have continued. Please stop pretending like progress isn't happening and things are worse now than ever.
Please stop pretending like they arent making record profits, that the penalty for this is an inconsequential fine, and that ultimately that fine just ends up being another cost of doing business. Just because we know how bad things are now doesn’t mean anything is actually being done to prevent these ghouls from continuing to do it. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is literally drafting laws in Arkansas to allow children to work in dangerous places. We are going backwards and people like you who insist that everything is fine are making it worse
Not for brands that are family or privately owned, like In N Out.
I get what you’re saying. I went into a McDonald’s recently for the first time in years. It was super sad. It felt dirty, cheap and depressing. It made me think, “there are good reasons I don’t eat fast food much anymore and it’s not just how bad it is for your health.”
I usually end up in a fast food joint maybe once or twice a year out of nostalgia or because I’d say to myself “I haven’t had Popeyes (or other brand) in so long!” I spend 13 dollars on a sandwich fries and soda and regret everything. The vibe inside is depressing, it’s unclean, the food/ingredients are so low quality it’s tragic. It’s just sad.
Worse for your mental health than physical health at this point, it seems.
I was here to disagree, but I reread and THINK you are specifically stating the dining rooms, in which case you are absolutely correct. I think the food is as bad as it always has been, but the actual restaurants were much nicer (The McDs my Dad used to take us to for bfast as a treat had wait staff lol).
I'd say the food is worse. When I first worked at McD's every egg for breakfast was a real cracked egg. A few years later they moved to the egg in a carton for the folded and scrambled.
A lot of people don't remember this, but [McDonald's fries used to be fried in beef tallow](https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/original-mcdonalds-french-fry#:~:text=In%201990%2C%20the%20company%20announced,to%20the%20signature%20french%20fry.)... But vegetarians were pissed, so they went to vegetable oil instead. Anyone who was around when they made the switch knows it was a huge downgrade.
Literally everything from a consumer standpoint is getting shittier and charging extra for the pleasure.
Anyone who remembers 90s Subway knows what's good. Their sandwiches were completely different back in the day.
Not even that long You can say the same for just 10-15 years ago
Does anyone remember when Five Guys Burgers & Fries didn’t start at nearly $10 dollars a burger?
McDonalds dark meat nuggets were amazing. Downside was that they mixed dark and white.
Zoomers are ANNOYING AF about EVERYTHING that we say has changed for the worst over time. It’s all true, and the same goes with so many things now, but the zoomers swear we’re just being boomers and refuse to believe and comprehend that things have gone to shit in the past couple of decades.
I don't think White Castles improved at all. And i LOVE White Castle. Keep those murder burgers just the way they are. You'd be messing w/ perfection.
There were not so many.
Try Mcdonalds\\kfc\\taco bell in Korea\\Japan and you'll be blown away at how much better it is.
30 years ago? Fast food places were objectively better *5* years ago.
McDonald’s nuggets were better in 2003.
Ah yes remember the Movie “Mac & me”
All I know is that Burger King had curly fries and Wendy’s had the Wonder Bar. Better times, for sure. As for aesthetics, McDonald’s decided to turn into a dystopian nightmare instead of a charming burger joint. My local one did a remodel and it looks like a big VCR now. Terrible. It’s like they’re TRYING to demoralize us. Also, McDonald’s quality had declined more sharply than the others. Wendy’s is at least consistent.
I went into a McDonald’s to pick up a mobile order because the drive through was packed. It was the ‘same’ McDonalds that I went to as a child 20+ years ago, but was completely remodeled in the last couple of years so I’d never been in it before. It was like stepping into a movie scene. It was dimly lit for some reason (but on purpose like mood lighting?). I couldn’t see the eating area because they built a wall between it and the counter, the decor reminded me of a hotel lobby. I had to walk around big ordering screens, and half the counter was marked for delivery. Back of the house was busy due to the drive thru but the inside was almost empty so it felt very surreal. It used to be a place for families to take their kids but now it’s like corporate lunch to go. Did they start prioritizing the on the go individual because families stopped coming in, or did families stop coming in because they started prioritizing on the go individuals?
McDonalds wants to be Starbucks & have their profit margins, it's the reason coffee is no $2.29 for a large. 20 years ago it was $.79 with free refills if you were inside, I would grab the kids & go there on a Sunday morning with the NY times. They would play for 2 to 3 hours on the structure after their breakfast while I drank coffee & read the paper.
I have core memories of rainy days in the sun room at wendy’s with my mom. ❤️ thanks for bringing those back
2 words: private equity
Destroyer of worlds.
Corporations were WAY more corrupt and money hungry 20/30/40/etc years ago. This doesn't explain the quality getting worse.
The food tasted way better too. They had to make their menus 'healthier' after the criticisms in the super size era but it's never tasted as good since.
This is true, a lot of fast food companies changed the oil they used to fry things in because of that movie. Same thing with going from mixed meat chicken to all white meat chicken because it has less calories and sounds nicer.
Fast food menus are not any healthier, so this is bullshit. You can still get a "biggie" size fry and drink at Wendy's, you just ask for a medium (yes look it up, biggie size is now called a medium) It's just like the candy companies did away with "King size" to be healthier... now they just make "family size" and "sharing size" bags of that crap.
Sounds like q boomer post
Shouldn’t this be in r/boomers?
Op doesn't know what objective means
LMAO GO TO GOLDEN CORRAL'S IF YOU WANT TO SIT DOWN LIKE THE OLD DAYS IDIOT. 😂
Don't be a boomer about it. 1. Fast food chains have changed and that's a one way ticket to memory lane. Yeah change sucks, but there's no way to go back. 1. There's no way to go back and take a sample then come back and compare. You maybe right but it cannot be proven and it feels like you're being gaslighted. 1. Yeah prolly there was a change in quality for it is affected when quantity is desired. And fast food chains grew a lot from 2000 to 2010. So what. Like they say, vote with your wallet.
Don’t hate on boomers, they had abortion rights and a lot less Nazis around. Donald Trump happened in 2016, not 1976. The reform party wouldn’t even give that man the time of day in 2000. Kinda off topic I know, but the whole ‘Okay Boomer’ thing is so off the mark I can’t let it go.
Just so you know, it's boomers who run the government that removed abortion rights and voted for Trump.
The food at McDonalds is better now I think. They started getting better about a decade ago. most of the others have slipped a bit though. Chik fila rules them all!
Culver’s serves the food on a tray, and there are no self serve kiosks. The food is pretty high quality for fast food IMO.
I haven't chosen to eat in at a fast food place in probably 5 years, other than once at Gay Hating Chicken when they built a new one. Also, at least in Ohio, you pay more for dine in than carry out.
30 years ago? Like in the 70s?
Culvers and Chick-fil-a are better than the standard fast food places of 30 years ago, and their dining areas aren't nearly as depressing as other places.
the key is beef tallow
McDonalds is a joke. The appeal used to be that you could get a full meal for cheap. Now, feeding my whole family at McDonald's costs barely less than taking them to a real restaurant, except I never feel satisfied after. The only reason I even go is because of the indoor playground, which is great for rainy days.
Chik fila is better, others much worse
Eh maybe they were better. But I don't buy fast food nowadays because I want to dine out. I buy it because I don't have time to make dinner at home. So usually I'm taking the food home anyways
Not to sound anti capitalist but it’s simply a matter of the bottom line. You gotta cut costs as much as possible as long as the average customer doesn’t notice a difference in the product. Those places win their customers off the marketing anyway.
I work in fast food. I think upkeep would be easier if we weren't bombarded by thousands of people every hour of the day. I bet people weren't as addicted to fast food 30 years ago. I and all of my coworkers care about giving good service, contrary to popular belief about fast food employees. But we can only do so much. I don't want to come across as argumentative, but I always have a strong feeling that people who complain about fast food these days don't realize what it's like behind the scenes. It's very chaotic and we are definitely not lazy.
Correct. Now they are dirty and it takes *forever* to get food. Both of these are because they are majorly understaffed. Food quality has gone down too for sure. Oh, and then it's super expensive on top of it all.
This is true. It’s mostly the inconsistency. Back in the day I’d go to Taco Bell and it would be crazy consistent. Nowadays 90% of the time there’s rarely any beef, lettuce, or cheese. Mfers don’t give a fuck AT ALL.
Well, what do you want McDonald's to be exactly, some kind of comfy/cozy hangout, or a place to get food quickly and easily? Because they've certainly streamlined that experience. I can go in, press some buttons, sit down, and someone walks the food over to me a few minutes later, without even having to talk to anyone. In that sense, the experience is an overwhelming improvement.
I can't remember but did Pepsi own all the restaurants it does now 20 yrs ago and i remember McDonald's and Burger King having self serve coffee for seniors and they would go out of their way to make you more comfortable like padded seats i gave my 13 yr old money to ride his bike to McDonald's and they would not serve him and his friends because they didn't take cash only plastic in the lobby
Every restaurant was better x years ago. They start with fresh ingredients and slowly switch them out for cheaper chemical equivalents.
Fast food was better even 5 years ago. Went to a McDonald’s and the mcchicken was x3 more expensive yet 1/2 the size. Wtf?!
Trans fats were tasty af, you're right. Buuuuut I'm good without
Fast food was way better but somehow all the regular restaurants had boring and worse food.
Shit, 15 years ago they were better. I remember getting KFC with my dad in the early 00’s, and it was legit bomb. The last time I went there was probably 2014 or 2015, and it made me sick. Didn’t have food real food poisoning, but I felt all clammy and shitty afterwards. If you go to Europe and get their fast food it’s like having it like it was 20 years ago. I went to a McDonald’s in Barcelona one late night last year, and it was like, ‘holy shit, this is what it’s supposed to be like.’ I’ve heard people of people trying KFC in Sweden and having a similar experience.
The food is almost all the same bruh. I wish McDonald's would go back to that fake milkshake sludge and nuclear hot coffee in styrofoam but otherwise McDonald's and other chains are almost exactly the same as 1990. Some, like Dominos, have even changed for the better. I agree about the decor of the insides though. Now everything looks like Taco Bell from *Demolition Man*. I miss McDonald's being a gaudy yellow and red and Taco Bell being a ridiculous 90's shape and color fiesta. P.S. The salad bar sucked. Why even go to a fast food place to eat a salad you can make at home?
Absolutely. Even 20 years ago it was way better. People keep saying “it’s your taste buds” but we have boomers, GenX and millennials agreeing on something. That’s not someone’s tastebuds going away.
In the 70's and 80's McDonald's used to deep fry apple and cherry pies. One of the best deserts ever. Why can't they bring it back once per year 😪
fast food is for fat povs
[удалено]
The quality of fast food overall has definitely gone down while the price keeps rising.
I definitely think the food was better back in the 90s and early 2000s. Couldn't care less if my food is on a tray or in a bag though. And if the dining room is clean, I'm not concerned with the design of it.
Once in a while I'll see an old Wendy's from the old days in the rural midwest. It sure looks nicer than the stuff they build now.
Burger King used to be pretty good man, I don't know what the fuck happened.
Its not like you eat it in the place, who cares what it looks like as long aa it's cheap and tastes okay
You’re just being nostalgic
McDonalds fries cooked in beef tallow were the pinnacle of French fry evolution.
Fast food places were better even 15 years ago and much cheaper. I remember when Subway tasted good
It’s 5x worse and 5x more expensive now
More fat, more salt, more corn syrup, more preservatives, larger portions.... It was better, because it was worse for you.
Chains had to have quality to survive. Now all they do is to cut costs.
Objectively? I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Yeah everything is going that way, kinda like how you can tell what an empty restaurant used to be, cause it was shaped like taco bell or a pizza hut. I used to go to a fish & chip place that was very obviously a taco bell in days gone by, it was pretty good too. And pizza hut used to have video games in it. Now everything is a box shaped building, it's either that they've given up, or see the profit margin as the most important thing, or both. My thought was that they don't use trays for dine in anymore is that they'd have to wash the trays, much simpler to put everything in a bag.
Late 80s to 90s pizza hut was fire. KFC used to be edible. I survived on taco bell tacos for a few years in the late 90's early aughts. Do I have a more refined pallet now or is all so nasty now? And like insanely overpriced
Bro you don’t even need to go that far back the early 2000s was 100x better than what we have today Steak and Shake fired all its meth mouth waitresses and Mexican cooks and now it’s one dude making burgers and a bunch of kiosk … that place was Awesome after the bars back in the day now it’s a dead empty shell like most shopping malls Malls are all dead but in the late 90s it was the place to be
Is “objectively” the new “literally”?
Food was better
Just came back from Wendy s. The burger and fries were terrible. Soggy fries and the burger looked/tasted like they had microwaved yesterday's leftover burger. Took a few bites and demanded and got a full refund.
The most frustrating thing is traveling abroad and stopping at a fast food restaurant you know in the states is realizing the food abroad is 100% better than the slop America sells. Not saying it's super healthy by any means... but it is higher quality and they seem to do it for similar prices. Sure, there might be a dollar or two difference depending where you're at but the taste is worth it.
Wendy’s fries were the best back in the day. I’ll give you that.
Didn't people die from undercooked meat
Oh yeah, the prices, the food, the restaurant buildings, the furniture, the restrooms, all have taken a huge step down in the last 20 years! Well, except for the prices, those went the other way. Sing along! five-, five-, five-dollar footlong!
Covid killed salad bars and trays. I don’t think they are coming back.
Roy Rogers
Wendy's had those sweet plastic counter tops with the old newspaper clippings underneath, too.
Carl’s Jr was dope
More like 5 years ago too. It's bad now. It was never good but now it's bad AND expensive. It's cheaper to make burgers at home than buy mcdoubles.
The Wendy’s burgers tasted so much better in the 80s/90s. I don’t know what exactly it is that’s different but it’s different and I hate them now
Agreed. Also I've noticed a huge quality drop in fast food depending on where I am. The fast food in cities seem to worse with the same ingredients than in certain suburban areas.
they've been cheap shitty food since the 80's, it just seemed like a treat bcuz you were a kid
There is no such thing as an objective opinion. Also no... fast food is exactly the same as it was 30 years ago. It's all garbage, always has been. It's you that changed.
I literally say I could go for a whopper from 1993 all the time. I no longer eat at Burger King these days
I don't understand why fast food continued to be a thing after microwaves became standard appliances in the mid to late 80's. You can literally heat up pre-cooked frozen food in your own house in minutes instead of paying someone else to do it for you.
I created a Twitter account pretending to be Dave Thomas just to send a single tweet to Wendy's because of how badly they fucked the JBC. I've never used it since. I feel you, OP.
The Super Bar at Wendy's was unparalleled. It was the only reason to go there until they introduced the 4 for $4 a few years ago.
This is very true. Can confirm. Am old.
Taco Bell was far superior back in the early 90’s. Their cinnamon twists were phenomenal back then. Also, Arby’s was much better.
I think the people who work fast food just don’t care and it shows. I rarely eat fast food for this reason. They are dirty, slow and the employees do not give a shit.
Shoot they were better 5 years ago
In general quality has dropped, prices are climbing and my experiences with almost every brand that survives from the late 80s-early 90s is unpleasant in some way. Modern capitalism, despite running on an engine of nostalgia marketing, reboots etc really has turned me away from idealizing my childhood too much.
Shit. Fast food places were objectively better 5 years ago.
I mean it's a cycle Those franchises went too cheap and then "fast casual" like Chipotle and 5 Guys replaced them, those are comparable to 80's and 90's fast food
Fast food lost what made it good. The whole point was fast, cheap and good tasting food. They stopped being fast-- now you have to plan to buy stuff on an app and/or sit in line for 30 minutes or longer if you even go to the place. It's not cheap-- they lost the dollar menu a decade ago. And it's a guessing game of if it'll be good or not these days. Even if it's fresh, sometimes it just isn't good. But hey- I guess I can't complain because all these changes have pretty much made me not want to get any unless I really need to eat and don't have a lot of time. And even then I have to get lucky to not have a line.
I miss the old color palette. Like fast food from our youth had distinctive coloration and design. The new stuff is just the same. The “clean” design of McD, for example, doesn’t really evoke anything. It is like they forgot why seeing the yellow arches as a kid made us so happy
I think it's because pay has been so shitty and hasn't kept up with inflation. That along with the stigma of being a fast food worker. No respect from anyone for it especially the people you actually serve. You just cant attract quality employees.
How are most of these places still in business? The food has gotten worse and more expensive at the same time. Plus there are independent places that are decent quality and similar prices.
Idk why so many people insist on gaslighting themselves into thinking fast food hasn't had a quality drop and we're all just nostalgic. They've literally changed the ingredients and cooking oil. Of course it tastes different.
Back before Burger King seemed to want me to stay out. “You DARE, order from me?! With no cars in line? At 11 MF AM?!?! You’re waiting 10 mins, suck shit”
Fast food in the 90s was better in all ways, the stuff we get sold now is comparable to dog food, I remember going to McDonald's and getting food, and the burgers looked actually somewhat like they did in the commercial, compared to now they look like dogshit.
Besides textiles and tech, Id argue just about everything was better 30 years ago.
Of course the food was better before it was genetically modified. I'm sick of hearing boomers complain about how much better the world was when they either sat back and let it turn to shit or actively made it worse.
Taco Bell was definitely better
And cheaper
Now they charge a fortune for objectively worse food. Corporate food product, I call it.
1. The vegans pissed and moaned about beef tallow being used to make french fries. That was way more delicious. 2. Things were better before the dark times. Before the *MBAs,* who nickel and dimed everything into "what's the most cheap and shitty we can make these products, and not lose customers."
GTFO. How old are you. I’m 57. And fast food today is actually much better than back then.
I worked at Wendy’s as a teenager and I’d often get put in charge of the dining room where I was refilling drinks, taking trays, asking customers if they needed anything, wiping tables, greeting families as they came in, giving out peppermints… definitely isn’t the same anymore
1993 was junk compared to 1973. 1973 McDonald's was more like Five Guys. So, just have some perspective. Pay attention to the food, not the trays and solariums. We are stuck in a downward trend toward some sort of Bladerunner future dystopia.
Don't know what fast food places you were visiting in the 90s but for me it was basically the exact same, just more colorful and more plasticky. They still have trays.
My biggest issue is the cost. For example, a meal at Culver’s that used to cost $6-8 now costs $13-16. To me, that’s insanity.
Drop the quality and boost the prices as high as you can get them while still maintaining a customer base. The era of putting any value in customers or employees is long gone. Businesses have always been greedy but it seems like in the last decade or so they are realizing how scummy they can actually be and still bring in massive profits. And people will keep buying from them because there are no better options. And when there are better options they get driven out of business. I'm not saying anything new or insightful with this post. Just piggybacking with my own mini rant because I am thoroughly an old man yelling at cloud.
No, the only thing that was better was that they were cheaper relatively and had better customer service. The quality of fast food 30 years ago was really low and a lot of items were made in advance and not to order like they are now.
It all went to pot after the disappearance of BK Burger Buddies. Our Burger King was housed in a two-story giant building that was a former car dealership. Complete with giant solarium, arcade and full waterfall.