With the meteoric rise in fast food prices post-COVID, has it affected your eating habits?

[WalterSlovotsky]

Dating myself, here, but I remember when McDonald's (I live in America) had a pretty flush dollar menu. At least six or seven items to choose from. Wendy's always had their 5-piece nugget or a bowl of chili or a baked potato for a buck. Burger King had their chicky nuggs, a bacon cheeseburger or a double cheeseburger, fries and even mozzarrella sticks for only one dorrah each. And Taco Bell was the king of kings. Tacos for 59 or 79 cents. A chili cheese burrito or a Double Decker taco for a dollar. You could feed a household of six for under twenty dollars.

Now, you can't get ANYTHING on most of their menus for a dollar. As in, nothing. Adding an item to another item to GET it for a dollar is not the same.

When I worked at McDonald's (as most people have at some point in their lives) in the late 90's, the most expensive meal was a Double Quarter Pounder with bacon, Supersized, and that was still less than seven dollars. For fuck's sake, Hardee's, back in the 90's, had a burger they sold for four dollars, calling it the Six-Dollar Burger. Six bucks at Hardee's now will get you three of their small cheeseburgers.

I'm a guy who preferred to grab a small, cheap meal instead of having to cook. Now, I maybe go out to get fast food once or twice a month, because it's simply not worth it anymore. The only places who still have a decent cheap meal are Wendy's with their 4 for $4, and Taco Bell's online-order-only $5 meal.

Have you changed your eating habits based on the enormous price increases of fast food?

 

[VinsCool]

Sure did, cut a lot of trash out of my diet just for the fact that it became way too expensive to be worth it.

I hate how everything is expensive, and not just the junk food, that makes it even more insulting to eat "healthier" out of necessity.

But hey, I eat less garbage because I'm broke, that's still an improvement.

 

[Taleweaver]

Hmm... I'm not a fan of junk food, but I'm going the other way. My little one's a toddler now, and she's a picky eater. Just yesterday she insisted on having a donut... Except she only wanted to nibble one percent of the topping for half an hour. I admit i can't bring myself to throw it away, so I'm eating more junk.

But this is Belgium. Food prices have risen but not drastic, and certainly not compared to less urgent things. I'm more wondering: how is the cost vs non junk food? Because from my view, it'd be great if healthy food becomes more attractive price wise.

 

[Ryccardo]

Obligatory: https://cockeyed.com/drivethru/mcdonalds_drive_thru_menu_comparison.html

I believe McDonalds was far ahead of every other fast food restaurant with their Extra Value meals. By 2020 they have been renamed to the "combo meals", and the menu has a disclaimer that the combo meals might not be the best value.

That's of course because they have been sued in the USA for that (and luckily, a word I rarely use in the favor of megacorps, they - and, more importantly, transparency + common sense - won): https://www.eater.com/2018/4/10/17220540/mcdonalds-extra-value-meal-lawsuit

The filing was originally made on behalf of customer Kelly Killeen who said they had purchased a sausage burrito breakfast Extra Value Meal at a location in Chicago for $5.08. The “value meal” name and pricing was deceptive to consumers, Killeen claimed, because those same items — two sausage burritos, hash browns, and a coffee — could be ordered individually for $4.97.

United States District Court judge Elaine E. Bucklo, however, wasn’t buying the plaintiff’s argument. In an opinion issued with the case’s dismissal on April 6, Bucklo admits that the use of the term “value” does signal to consumers that there should be some savings from purchasing the deal. However, the prices of the individual pieces of the meal were readily available to Killeen and other McDonald’s customers. “Here, a straightforward, price-to-price comparison based on information available at the point of purchase would unequivocally dispel any misleading inference that could be drawn from the name ‘Extra Value Meal,’” Bucklo concluded.

See also the 2nd post on https://everything2.com/?node=cheeseburger+without+cheese (one of the best topics on that site, btw)

Anyway, start of 2016 vs late 2017:

we can see prices climbed a little well before the usual excuses for price hikes of the 2020s
(not pictured: all the various specials they had in those years, they still happen but are... ehhh not the same variety and audacity, apparently they got burned quite hard with the McLobster or whatever)

Yes, nowadays it's quite worse, especially sodas...

Post automatically merged: Sep 26, 2023

I use the app and find deals.

Screw that, it's almost as spyware permission happy as facebook and as anti-freedom (anti-root and play services dependency) as many banks

 

[crimson826]

It hasn't changed my eating habits in any way. People paying for expensive junk food might want to consider learning how to cook. I got a $100 air fryer that I've made all sorts of delicious food with, so even people in very small apartments or a dorm could cook with an air fryer.

I still find good deals at the grocery store for various cuts of meat. I always check what's marked down, and I commonly find chicken, pork, salmon, and hamburger meat, and even occasionally steaks. There's always some kind of pork marked down. It's like people in my area don't really like pork very much, which suits me just fine as it's one of my favorite meats. I got a big slab of pork butt a few weeks back for like $8. I got enough shredded pork out of it to feed 20 people.

 

[mrdude]

It hasn't changed my eating habits in any way. People paying for expensive junk food might want to consider learning how to cook. I got a $100 air fryer that I've made all sorts of delicious food with, so even people in very small apartments or a dorm could cook with an air fryer.

It's literally just a small fan assisted oven. Try putting an entire chicken in an air fryer - nope it's not going to fit. I have an air fryer and it's got it's uses and does speed up cooking for some stuff though. Kitchen stuff though - I love my bread maker, I would never consider buying bread from a shop ever again as it tastes like crap compared to home made bread.

 

[crimson826]

It's literally just a small fan assisted oven. Try putting an entire chicken in an air fryer - nope it's not going to fit. I have an air fryer and it's got it's uses and does speed up cooking for some stuff though. Kitchen stuff though - I love my bread maker, I would never consider buying bread from a shop ever again as it tastes like crap compared to home made bread.

A whole chicken? No. A big tray of chicken thighs I got marked down for 79 cents a pound? Yes.

Some air fryers do have rotisserie attachments in them, but they cost more than $100. I could certainly see the value for someone who has a large family to feed, they could put a ton of wings/thighs/breasts on a rotisserie rack and feed 5-6 people pretty quickly.

 

[Spring_Spring]

Yes, I eat much healthier and even a bit cheaper now. Cut down a lot on fast food and meat, completely got rid of alcohol. Next I will try getting rid of candy and fizzy drinks, but those I find much harder to resist . . .

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Over here in Norway, any semblance of a "dollar menu" went away before covid, when McD raised the prices of the standard hamburger and cheeseburger. They've since raised them more. They weren't even that good, so the only reason I bought them was the low price, needless to say I don't buy those anymore.

I didn't buy fast food very often to begin with (tbh it was never cheap here) and I still don't buy it very often, so not much has changed there.

 

[Spring_Spring]

Over here in Norway, any semblance of a "dollar menu" went away before covid, when McD raised the prices of the standard hamburger and cheeseburger. They've since raised them more. They weren't even that good, so the only reason I bought them was the low price, needless to say I don't buy those anymore.

I didn't buy fast food very often to begin with (tbh it was never cheap here) and I still don't buy it very often, so not much has changed there.

Oh, you are from norway, how nice :3
I think I can almost understand norwegian. But you're right, no food is cheap there.

 

[chrisrlink]

it's not only fast food here,it's all food call me a tinfoil hat but i think the US government (more likely republicans) are using these higher prices to starve off the lower/poverty line my SNAP benifets are only $23 a month (and my rent increased 8X's as much) that doesn't even get you a week of food

 

[FluffyLunamoth]

Yep. McDonalds and the like have forgotten their place in the world, cheap food. It's faster and easier to just buy at the grocery store now, for how much it costs for a single meal. Husband and I eat out very rarely, now.

 

[DJPlace]

this local fast food joint in buffalo NY called rachel's mediterranean grill has a burrtio with steak for 17 dollars. i'm like what the hell. also 3 dollars for extra meat. at least there greek fries are 7 dollars... don't forget the drink for 3 dollars and right there is 30 mother fucking dollars... this type of shit pisses me off. what happen to the dollar menu stuff. jesus were like in the 1930's right now with this going on. (sorry i'm in a bad mood) yeah covid screwed people over.

 

[The Catboy]

Most fast food tends to be meat-based or use meat products for their cooking (where I live,) I already avoided them for my own health. So the rising prices really don't affect me.

 

[SylverReZ]

It has affected our family as a whole. My parents are struggling financially to pay the bills and food despite COVID hitting us super hard.