• WHYAREWEALLCAPS@fedia.io
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    4 months ago

    Saw an article recently, can’t remember where, that basically said that the sole reason fast food was doing so poorly was pricing. That McDonald’s was charging Texas Roadhouse prices, so people were choosing to skip McDonald’s and go to Texas Roadhouse.

      • Farid@startrek.website
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        4 months ago

        As a european, fast food is just like a category of food, and more of an occasional treat for me. Normally, I just eat my own homemade food, which is even cheaper. So I guess I see it a little differently, and fast food is allowed to be not cheap if it’s “good”.

        Hell yeah, gimme that cancer patty and those artery clogging fries, baby! But make the obesity water size “for kids”.

        • samus12345@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          “Fast and cheap” as in cheaper than buying precooked food somewhere else. Of course stuff you make at home will be cheaper.

          • boonhet@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            The thing is that at least in my corner of Europe, fast food costs about the same as a filling meal in a sit down restaurant that doesn’t deep fry or microwave everything.

            There is an exception but they only have 3 locations in one single town. They’ve barely raised their prices in the last decade, they’re actually pretty fast, and there’s nearly always a bunch of people queued up.

        • dudinax@programming.dev
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          4 months ago

          For many Americans it’s just lunch. If McD’s costs $5 they’re buying. If it costs $15 they’re packing.

    • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      Unless you get the promoted deals it’s starting to be like that everywhere. Near me if im getting two burgers and two fries, I spend less at five guys than I do at burger king. Why would I ever go to BK?

      • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Even FG is unreasonable.

        My wife and 6YO kid went to FG last week and spent $27 on a meal for two and they split the fries.

        A few ounces of meat, 50 cents of soda, a couple potatoes and an arguably 2 nice quality rolls. That meal cost them $5. Even with inflated labor it should be more like $15.

          • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I would kill for an in-and-out burger on the East Coast. You can get a burger, fries, and drink for less than an Five Guys cheeseburger.

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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            4 months ago

            Five Guys at least has better food than most fast food and the portions are so massive you basically have to share

        • Thwompthwomp@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Five guys has been bad for a while. Super expensive for a really greasy burger. I had to stop eating there several years ago.

    • VolumetricShitCompressor@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      That happens when you just think of a bigger number and forget the customer somewhere down the line.

      Also publicly traded companies and shareholder value. Everything could be much cheaper if not for shareholders draining every penny from companies. Edit: and CEOs/ managers of course.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      4 months ago

      This is exactly what subway is doing.

      “A regular deli charges $16 for a sub/hero/grinder/hoagie/pickafuckingnameforalongsandwitch so we’re charging $14! It’s less they’ll still come the econ 101 book says they will! I’ll take my multimillion dollar bonus now tyvm.”

      • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Except a regular deli actually puts meat on their subs instead of lightly rubbing the sub with a piece of turkey then filling it with lettuce.

      • Crismus@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It’s sad that Taco Bell thinks it is gourmet Mexican Food now. Any local taco shop with Mexicans working in the kitchens will give you huge burritos for cheap. Without adding tofu to the ground beef.

    • Aniki 🌱🌿@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 months ago

      I very rarely eat out but if I am going to end up blowing on 30 on two meals I may as well blow 45 on a local spot with a seat and a hefty tip to the waiter.

      • FutileRecipe@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        and a hefty tip to the waiter.

        And I detest tipping culture, though I of course don’t fault the wait staff. I’d rather go to a local joint that pays its people appropriately…which are hard to find, admittedly.

    • paddirn@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I just stopped eating fast food altogether and started using our company cafe, prices at the drive-thru got absolutely ridiculous and the service got worse. I just eat a small salad and a drink, still costs around $6–7/day, but it’s way better than fast food prices. I could probably get it down cheaper if I prepped at home, but fruit and vegetables go bad so frequently and our cafe’s rates are ok-ish, so I just make due with that.

      • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        prices at the drive-thru got absolutely ridiculous and the service got worse

        And in the case of McDonald’s, the burgers and fries both taste like compressed napkins now. Idk WTF they’ve done to their burgers, but that’s not beef.

        • Crismus@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          They added some food-grade sawdust filler and cut out the majority of beef with their latest round of shrinkflation. Their regular patties are so small and thin that they’re impossible to stay moist in th burger. There’s no more fat left.

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I haven’t even considered McDonald’s because their pricing skyrocketed post pandemic when inflation was high. They saw other businesses justifying large price increases by blaming inflation and the idiot consumers accepting the lie, and just ignored the niche their product is in, cheap shit.

      Before the pandemic to be able to get a McDouble, Spicy McChicken and Fries for $4 with tax. Granted, the fries were only $1 with a digital coupon, but that coupon was always there. It was like the 2 tacos for 99¢ deal at Jack in the Box, you just gotta use the app.

      Now that same group of food is $9 and the coupons available are dogshit. 15% off my $10 meal is not a good deal when sales tax is $12%. I’m not really saving much compared to things like BOGO offers and $1 items like it used to be constantly.

    • Lookorex@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Might as well, I’ve only eaten at two Roadhouses, but they were damn good for a chain steakhouse

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    4 months ago

    The best local sandwich shop in my town sells really good ones for $8-11. If Subway were still $5 they might be competitive. At $14 it sounds like the company no longer understands its product.

    • scops@reddthat.com
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      4 months ago

      The best sandwich shop in my town is the deli at the grocery store. They are less concerned about skimping on ingredients because it’s more important to entice you in and get you spending money in the aisles.

      For $8 or $9 they will stuff a footlong sub so full they can barely fold it over. And it’s generally fresher ingredients than you’d find in a Subway

        • scops@reddthat.com
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          4 months ago

          Harris Teeter where I live. We do have Publix locations around now though. I still need to check them out and see if they live up to the hype.

          • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            HARRIS TEETER GANG HARRIS TEETER GANG Better than Publix, Harris Teeter gang for life. When Sheron is on shift you know you’re in for a delicious fully loaded sub

          • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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            4 months ago

            Nah don’t let Publix consume your town.

            Trust me it’s not as good as wanting that monopoly.

    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      There’s a Jewish deli near me that gives me a full meal for ~15USD and the sandwich they give you is PACKED with meat and incredible bread. It’s glorious. There’s no chance I’d go to Subway over that.

      • nbailey@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        Local options are always better. The Mexican joint sells you a massive breakfast burrito for $6. Nepalese takeout will feed you for days for $16. Hot dog truck will fill you up with delicious processed meat for $4.

        Subway? Subpar lunch made out of cardboard and ground up yoga mats for almost $20.

    • Carrot@lemmy.today
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      4 months ago

      Yep. No one is going to McDonalds for a delicious burger, just a cheap and fast one. Now that prices are above $10 if you want a meal, and the restaurants are understaffed so even the drive through takes > 15 minutes, there’s really no reason to eat there

      • bountygiver [any]@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        drive through just have very low throughput in general, if it takes you 15 minutes to order from drive through, it would be likely to be faster to park your car and walk in for a take out

        or some mcdonalds even let you mobile order and pick up on designated spots, they added that because it gets better throughput than drive through.

        • Halosheep@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          As someone who worked in an understaffed fast food restaurant for like 3 years… No, going inside doesn’t make your order faster. From my experience, orders get made in chronological order of when they were placed. You may be able to place your order quicker (if you’re lucky there’s enough staff to take an in-store order while there’s people in the drive through) but you will probably still wait about the same since the food can only be made so fast, and the few people have to splits their attention even more.

          If it’s a normally staffed restaurant then you might have luck, but usually long wait times in the drive through aren’t because the drive through itself is slow… Excluding the random people who pull up with the good ol’, “can I get a uuuuuhhhhhhh…”

          • bountygiver [any]@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            that’s when the app shines. You basically cut the ordering queue, which drive through users cannot avoid at all.

            Also even if stuffs are prepared in chronological order, they don’t literally need to fulfill everything in earlier orders before starting to work on the next one. In drive through if someone order something that takes longer to prepare it would clog up the queue that someone might not be able to even start ordering. The lack of parallelism is very visible especially when you do a walk in order and order very few items right after someone who orders a lot, you will often get your order first, despite their orders’ preparation started before yours.

            • Halosheep@lemm.ee
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              4 months ago

              That depends on a lot of factors as well, a lot of fast food isn’t made to order and some can be created ahead of time if you’re expecting a lot of orders to come in. Fries, burger patties, some other fried goods like chicken fingers can be held for a little while without them going bad. There’s always the chance that the people working the kitchen may have had the smaller order on hand but needed to make some fresh things for the larger order.

    • Willie@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I mean, the primary benefit of fast food is that you can swing by and get a prepared meal on your lunch break. You can’t really do that at a sit down place unless you order in advance. They lost the ‘fast’ part too, since they don’t want to pay the amount of people it takes to run their stores though. Now the only benefit they have going for them is their hours, and they’re slipping there for the most part, since most places are still running on reduced hours because COVID gave them the excuse to never bring their old hours back.

      • logos@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        Also people really like that you know exactly what you’re getting no matter where you are if you need a quick bite.

      • Lad@reddthat.com
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        4 months ago

        It’s not greed, it’s just ““international factors”” that are causing them to put prices up. Russia invaded Ukraine so they have to charge extra for a sandwich of course!

        • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Okay perhaps you’re joking, but this is something that people across the world are not aware of or don’t want to acknowledge. Ukraine is a major agricultural exporter, and a lot of their produce go to farmers across the world. The supply of many Ukrainian produce, especially grain, had been restricted which increased global food price and has not gone down to pre-war level. Fewer supply but more demand leads to higher price. Including in the link I gave, it mentioned that if the war is sustained for long, it could further worsen food crisis in many developing countries. There is a reason why Africa sent delegates to try to mediate on the conflict. But they won’t tell you that it is because they rely on stable global food price to feed their people, and much of chicken feeds used by African farmers are imported from Ukraine! People don’t see the full picture at how integrally interconnected we all are.

          When a country sneeze, we all catch cold.

          • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            While that all sounds sane and rational, it’s a sad fact the price trend does not appear to go both ways. Do you believe that food prices will go back down after supply goes up?

            The rational part of me thinks “yes, of course”. The cynical part of me thinks, “no, of course not, aritificially limiting supplies would be too profitable.”

            • addictedtochaos@lemm.ee
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              4 months ago

              its like selling us renewable energy technology via the argument: “why not use the energy of the sun and the wind, its free!” yet energy gets more and more expensive. inflation is a great tool to extract more and more money out of you. its very subtle and slow. but its a scaling effect that really pays out for someone on the receiving end.

            • Spaceinv8er@sh.itjust.works
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              4 months ago

              Macroeconomics 101 would tell you no, prices won’t go down because prices are sticky. Like your salary for example, just because a business is doing poorly your wage won’t go down.

              I won’t get into the weeds about it, but if Ukraine was magically restored tomorrow, prices wouldn’t go down but it would help prices from going up faster.

              If we see prices go down that’s a bad thing, and we are in for a rough time.

            • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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              4 months ago

              I have never in my life witnessed a price going down, so no they won’t.

              They are not “competitively” pricing their shit anyway. The only competition the megacorporations hold is on who can be the bigger, greedier asshole and get away with it.

          • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            While that’s definitely a factor in global food trends, I don’t see that impacting the US price of food as drastically as companies thinking they can get away with raising prices.

            My reasoning is the web of tarrifs and subsidies that the US uses to stabilize domestic markets, prop up farmers, and generally ensure the US is the key grain player. Shortly after the war started the US and Canada also saw a better than average harvest of the grains that Ukraine typically exports.

            https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WPU02120301 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCU3112113112111 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIUFDSL

            The domestic prices paid for wheat and flour both started to fall shortly after the Ukraine invasion, while food prices maintained a rocketing trajectory without much if any changes, with only a slight decrease in the rate of increase about a year after.

            While protectionist US food policies are chock full of horrible problems, in this case they should have insulated people from radical changes in the availability and price of wheat.
            That consumer prices have risen despite falling costs paid to producers is a big indicator that the cost increases are due to something else in the US.

            None of this applies to countries that are dependent on grain imports who have to rely on the global markets instead of adjusting export profitability to stabilize things.

          • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            Bread costs are a tiny % of prepared food. You are mostly paying for rent and labor of the employees.

            Who, thanks to COVID, realized they were all getting fucked and did a silent rebellion and now make about half of what a professional office worker makes. Those dastardly socialists! 😠😠😠

          • a Kendrick fan@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            Trying to spin this into Africa doesn’t care about Ukraine except for the uptick in the cost of food price is crazy

            i imagine if your country and the western world wanted to end the war, it could but they have no interest due to how profitable war is, so here we are

            • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Well lookie here, a lemmy.ml account trying to spin a faux concern.

              The only way for the war in Ukraine to end is if Russia pulls out from a conflict they started unprovoked, and which the UN General Assembly have overwhelmingly declared illegal. Will you advocate then for Russia to pull out?

      • Draces@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        That is not the definition of greed, what are you taking about? I agree that irrational greed is driving it though

  • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Quit buying from giant corporations.

    I can go to my local family owned Banh Mi joint and get a sandwich made with real meat and fresh bread for $6. For $12, I could add a boba tea and a side of fried dumplings.

    • WarlockLawyer@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      A lot of smaller places only have like two options for going out to eat and one is a subway attached to a gas station

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Food deserts are real, and they show how onerous overregulation is.

          All of the identical “I live in a food desert” comments here should be opportunities for entrepreneurship, but the costs of legally operating a food business are too damned high.

            • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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              4 months ago

              How is a monopoly gonna make it more expensive to start a business? That doesn’t make any sense?

              • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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                4 months ago

                Agreed! The Person you Responded to is NONSENSE. It’s ABSURD that the ONE Company that owns everything you need to get Started would make it Expensive for you to Start!

          • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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            4 months ago

            You are right to a degree.

            I actually think it’s insane that to get started with a business these days you have to jump through so many hoops you need your own legal department or to do it illegally and hope the slap on the wrist is gentle.

            Its in line with the monopolies using regulation and the idea that society will just be better with the restrictions to protect everyone that misses the point.

            Advanced food storage and practices and tools will do a lot of making things better and OSHA should absolutely exist and be staffed but walls need to be shorter to inspire new entries into the marketplace without them being rich enough to jump it but without inspiration or hope to be competitive. Its why post war rebuilda are so popular for startups in the worst way.

            But food deserts won’t just be fixed by a new sandwich shop if there still isn’t cheap ingredients.

    • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Only works when you have local joints. That being said, I’m from Jersey, and I think we kinda pride ourselves on all things bread: pizza, bagels, and sandwiches. So when I hear motherfuckers getting Dunkin Donuts in the morning, Subway for lunch, and Dominos for dinner, it disturbs me.

      Now, is there a time for Dominos? Absolutely. Is there a time for Subway? I guess you can be drunk on the afternoon, sure.

      • DpZer0126@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        From jersey too and it blows my mind how anyone around here will choose to go to jersey Mike’s or subway over their local deli

        • rockandsock@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          We don’t have a local deli here in small town mid America unless you count the deli counter at the supermarket.

          • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Honestly, I think grocery store subs are really the best bang for your buck. Makes sense, they want to get you in the door and buy groceries there.

          • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I’ll actually use ShopRite in a pinch. I just know they’re slicing up fresh ingredients there. Anywhere that opens up a container and pulls out meat is a no go for me. But we are spoiled here in the greatest goddamn state on the world, our taxes getting us fresh meats and soft breads with flaky crusts, and a peach iced tea.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        4 months ago

        Not sure if this is a local thing or not, but Dominoes has been consistently giving me a free medium pizza coupon after every pizza I’ve got from them for the last 12 months or so. So that’s like 3 or 4 times they’ve done that

    • frostysauce@lemmy.world
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      Well, good for you. The town I live in has a Sonic, a McDonald’s, a Mazzio’s pizza, two local Tex Mex restaurants, and… a Subway.

    • Baguette@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Milk tea where I am is 6 usd by itself (not incl tax)

      Please bring me back to the 3 dollar milk tea timeline

      • zeekaran@sopuli.xyz
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        4 months ago

        I can get an entree and a Thai tea for under $10 as a lunch special at a small restaurant within walking distance. I live in the second largest city in my state which happens to be one giant sprawling suburb.

    • Byoomf@lemmy.world
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      And if you don’t have any local places nearby you can either break yourself financially by moving somewhere else or just go fuck yourself. I never realized how much shit was jacked up in the small country town I lived in until I moved somewhere with a ton of competition. Suddenly the prices were way better, it was surreal. Food was cheaper and tastes better. Hell my Internet was twice as fast for half the price!

      My apartment, however, is twice the price for a third of the space.

      It still took me a decade before I could move without fucking myself.

      This comment was written in the early wee hours of the AM and I’m not entirely sure what I’m rambling about.

      • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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        4 months ago

        Nah I get it. Competition for our dollars creates a marketplace that’s actually thriving and competitive costs.

        Its actually why I shop in rich neighborhoods. Seriously the prices are never better.

        But housing isn’t a competitive marketplace it’s still mostly owned by a few rich who all agree to raise their price lest they lose out.

        Sigh… This backwards shit hole.

  • gearheart@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    I went to a BBQ joint here in Texas a week ago. Got 3/4 lb of brisket and some potato salad for the missus and me.

    To my surprise… It costed the same thing as 2 menu items at McDonald’s. Like seriously?..

    What’s the point of going to subway and McDonald’s if I can just get some BBQ at a restaurant.

    (Didn’t name the restaurant since I’m concerned this will make them realize they can charge more)

      • HollowNaught@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The more you see a product advertised, the less of their earnings are going towards making a better product

        • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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          4 months ago

          Which is honestly a great point to consider when the advertising parts of a company are the most well paid and all we keep hearing about is how to add more ads into our daily lives.

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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      Yes. And fancy burgers around here cost between $11-16. We’re talking super fancy burgers, mouth watering medium-rare locally grown beef, crazy sauces you’re never heard of, actual fucking grilled onions, etc etc. and beer, they serve beer.

      Meanwhile the fast food burger joint is basically the same price, but you get overcooked pink slime.

  • Technoguyfication@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    That and they fucked up the menu so they’re pushing premade sandwiches over the “build your own” model they’ve had for years. I used to go to subway because I knew exactly what I wanted and asked for it, now their menu is unrecognizable.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 months ago

      Plus they keep the staffing low as hell and pay dogshit, so if there’s 4 people in line it means you have two employees (if one didn’t call in sick that day) that look like meth addicts doing what most would consider an extremely mind-numbing job for low pay and you’ll be in line for 25 minutes waiting to get your sandwiches.

  • Ticklemytip@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I tried to actually go to one about 2 weeks ago. 5 workers, and they said - “oh he’ll help you” and pointed to another worker. While the 4 of them stood next to the till gossiping about home life, and the poor dude just kept making Sandwichs for the online orders coming in. Only said hi to me once, after the 5th sandwich, I just told them I’m out of time and I’ll go. They thanked me for coming in. They’re just awful top to bottom. Bad corporate culture

    • Soleos@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Not defending Subway overall, the price increases are nuts. However that experience of yours is definitely an individual franchise problem, not a “corporate culture” problem.

    • Alenalda@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Never in my life have I seen a subway with more than 3 working people in it. I haven’t ate it in years but more often than not it’s just 1 guy.

      • Ticklemytip@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Ya I just figured it was shift change or some bs. I don’t know, I left anyways and won’t be back either way.

  • SSTF@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    THEY WHAT?

    I don’t even eat at Subway, but nearly tripling the price in one go? My gawd.

    • redhorsejacket@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I go to Subway with an upsetting degree of regularity, but it’s the only place where I can get fresh vegetables as part of my meal in under 30 minutes. The cheapest footlong on the menu is the Spicy Italian (or whatrver their latest menu refresh is calling it) for $10.99. Any other sub is $11.99 and up.

      • Stegget@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Five years ago I could get a foot long spicy italian combo with chips and a drink for less than $10.

      • KombatWombat@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        You can get more reasonable prices per sandwich with coupon codes. For the ones near me, they almost always have a “FLBOGO” or “BOGOFTL” or “FTL1299” or similar variation to get two for the price of one. But YMMV and you have to be ok with leftovers if you’re eating alone.

    • BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      about 10 years ago subway replaced the ice cream shop at the local amusement park. the prices they had there were insane, and they didnt even have all the regular menu options. 20 something dollars for HALF a footlong. what a joke

  • BigBenis@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Do these companies not realize their whole business model is cheap food for broke people? I lived off of $5 footlongs when I was a student. There’s no way I could have afforded that with the prices they’re charging now. And now that I do have disposable income and could afford their food I wouldn’t go there anyway because there are way better options for the same price.

    • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Taco Bell used to be a goto, then they tried to get too creative and half their stuff became a sloppy greasy mess. Now you can’t go and simply get 3 soft tacos and a drink for under $10 and they seem to change the menu every other week.

      BRING BACK THE 2 MENUS AT THE DRIVE THRU SO I CAN DECIDE ON MY ORDER WHILE THE DOLT IN THE MINIVAN IN FRONT OF ME IS ORDERING FOR 12 PEOPLE!

      • BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I really really want to be on your side, Taco bell has gone crazy on the prices and I hate it.

        But, on the other hand, it sounds like you haven’t even had the crispy cantina taco meal and that’s not a life I’d wish on anybody.

          • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Yep. Tried to add points with my receipt the other day, and it refused to access the camera to scan the barcode, and refused to give me a keyboard so I could manually input the code.

            The only saving grace they have right now is that they brought back a $7 cravings box meal. Filling and only $7.54 with tax.

            • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Yep. Tried to add points with my receipt the other day, and it refused to access the camera to scan the barcode, and refused to give me a keyboard so I could manually input the code.

              But at least it ignores your preferences and makes the stupid “bong” sound when you tell it not to.

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I guess I’m thinking more of fast food places: After they got cheap food market, they had to keep growing so they tried to be semi fancy to convince people to go there instead of restaurants. It was back when people had more money / lower cost of living. They got too optimistic. Now we’re back to wanting cheap cheap cheap.

      • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Back in high school, which coincidentally were my weed days, the state tax in NJ allowed us to do the 4.20 meal: JBC, small nuggets, small fries, small frostee. They were all off the dollar menu (which I understand isn’t a thing anymore), and came to 3.96, with 24¢ tax. It was a beautiful thing and honestly sold itself. If Wendy’s, or any fast burger joint, were to bring back a 4.20 meal, I have to imagine some young stoners having a giggle and ordering it. And then, the ingredients and their ability to tug on people’s addiction centers, do the rest of the work.

        • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          Back in highschool, actually before my stoner days but I still hung out with that crowd, Dairy Queen had burgers, 2 for $4; with a 5% GST and no PST, I giggled a bit every time I ordered them, which was 3 or 4 days a week

    • BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I think they’ve realized that they’ve successfully trained poor people to not know how to cook and then there aren’t any options left if they all band together.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        I wonder if there’s software that makes pricing cartels easier to form now.

        Banding together is supposed to be economically unstable because anyone who undercuts on price is supposed to capture the market.

        Drug cartels can punish defectors with violence. Is there some new mechanism legal businesses are using to punish pricing cartel defectors? Maybe it’s lawsuits?

  • Morcyphr@lemmy.one
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    4 months ago

    I quit going to Subway when they changed their whole menu. I went and asked for a spicy italian, blank stare from the employee, “uh, that’s not on the menu”. I said “Okay” and left. The menu wasn’t structured to “make your own” thing not on the menu. Subway was never spectacular food but serviceable, quick, and fairly inexpensive. Not the case anymore, and the weird shit they’ve advertised lately looks awful. FFS, ad are supposed to make things look better than they are, so if these ads look better than the real thing, it must be dreadful irl.

    • Zoot@reddthat.com
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      4 months ago

      I still get Italian BMT and the spicy… I think the guy you ran into was just new

      • Zorg@lemmings.world
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        4 months ago

        No, they were (presumably instructed to be) really weird about orders, after they changed the menu. There’s a subway at work, I go 1-2/week, had been the same staff for long over a year when it happened. I asked for some chicken sub with a different cheese than the one on the menu, or something to that effect; was told I needed to get the ‘build your own’ to substitute.
        After that silly nonsense, I realized you could do whatever customizations you want when ordering in the app +use coupon codes repeatedly.

  • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I’m not gonna look it up, but who recently bought Subway and is now cashing in on tanking it so they can sell the corpse?

    • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      If you ever watch CompanyMan on youtube, it’s like 90% of all “The Fall of [Company]” involves either going public and then rapidly expanding, or “acquired by private equity firm then died in 5 years”

      • Shard@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Its like the saying, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

        By far the worst one is always the private equity/leveraged buyout. It always ends in failure for the company.

        • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          What happens to the company doesn’t matter. What matters is what happens to the people making the buyout decision. If they can pad their wallets then who cares about what happens to the company?

        • bluewing@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          It’s supposed to end in failure due to having all the money squeezed and sucked out of the company.

        • orphiebaby@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          I hate that cliche’d, untrue, glurgey phrase with a passion. But your point is good.

  • NutWrench@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    “Why are our sales plummeting?”

    Because you didn’t spend any part of that price hike on improving the quality of your food.