Not cheap, not convenient, not fast, and, let’s be real: It’s barely food.
A while ago, I was charging at a highway stop, so I decided to quickly get something to drink at McDonald’s. I just asked ordered a drink, nothing more. One lady started preparing the drink and put it somewhere behind the counter. I was right there, but she didn’t hand it to me. I asked if she could give it, as it was the only thing I had ordered. She mentioned she was not allowed to hand over the order to customers, and she was waiting for someone else who was allowed to. It took roughly 10 minutes before I had my drink, it was very frustrating, especially for a “fast” food chain.
I’ll have a double corporate slop with extra gruel please
Sonic Boom predicted it with Meh Burger
I don’t usually eat fast food, but one night I was starving, and there happened to be a drive-thru right next to me. I saw only two cars ahead in line and thought it would be quick. I pulled in and waited. Fifteen minutes passed. Then nearly twenty. By that point, a long line had formed behind me, trapping my car.
At the thirty-minute mark, I started asking the cars around me if they could maneuver to let me out. After almost forty minutes, I finally managed to escape.
Frustrated and still hungry, I drove a little further to a local gyro joint. I walked inside, placed my order, and within five minutes, I was enjoying a fresh, delicious lamb platter.
If this had been an isolated incident, I wouldn’t have thought much of it. But the reality is, experiences like this are all too common. Fast food isn’t fast, and to make matters worse, it’s often not even cheap anymore. Unless you’re scraping the bottom of the so-called “value menu”—which has become scarce and filled with low-quality options—you’re likely paying the same, if not more, than you would at a local spot.
When you stack up the cost, the wait, and the disappointing quality, it’s hard to justify why anyone bothers with fast food at all.
America has too many drive thru’s. Cars waiting all the time because understaffed fast food places are squeezing labour. I’ve started just walking inside to no line up, but even then, drive thru gets priority.
Yeeeess! Gyro is my go to “fast food” too! My favorite gyro place loads plates up enough that I can get a large lamb plate for $15 and split it into two meals. I order on my way there, and it’s always ready within 10 minutes of ordering, without fail.
Same… And the food is so goddamn good.
It’s a real bummer that half of Americans seem to want to get rid of all of the fucking people willing to make all of these delicious varieties of food. What a boring fucking place that would be.
Right!? They have no idea what culture is, or what they’re missing out on. :/
I had that happen at a Taco Bell once.
I really wanted Taco Bell, so I waited 40 minutes in line while the person in front of me was arguing with the employees at the window. I’m not sure if it was someone arguing over expired coupons for 40 minutes, or if it was some annoying shithead trying to do a viral stunt or what the problem was, but I really wanted Taco Bell and I was going to get it.
edit: It was worth the wait, but only just barely.
my bombass lunch today for ¥616 (~US$3.94)
Japan is a cheat code for healthy cheap meals.
I wish I could move to Japan…
If you have a college degree it’s pretty easy to move to Japan. You just have to enjoy working for peanuts and singing songs to classes of little kids.
Looks very soupy.
It’s actually rice topped with an omelette, and the with some sauce thing made thick with potato starch. It’s called tenshinhan, which is a Japanese reimagination of the food they have in Tianjin, China. As far as I know this dish is just named after that city in China, but it’s not actually from there.
Yeah so like I said, soup.
In the west this was first invented by Baron von Suppenstein, who first put proteins and starches into bowls of warm water. Truly a revolutionary. Sadly he died of dysentery at an early age.
Hmm I see. Interesting.
Well spotted
Well, university coop cafes are always gonna be comparatively cheap, but yeah, Japan’s prepared food is generally cheap on a different level. Stuff in grocery stores for one thing, but I still can’t quite figure out how sukiya or yoshinoya puts a beef set meal in front of you in 5 mins for less than 1000 yen
Impressive, you figured out it was a university coop cafe. Maybe I should have edited out the text to avoid doxxing myself haha.
True, the coops are one of the cheapest options. I also eat quite often at one of the beef set meal chains (one of sukiya, yoshinoya, or matsuya). Solid choice too.
3.94? lies /s, at least $30 USD here
That’s not gonna work in the US.
It’s been a long time since fast food was any good. It’s addictive, maybe comfortable, but definitely not good. Break your addiction, especially now that you could save so much money
It’s comfortable, but also the salt they sprinkle on there must be a narcotic substance of some kind.
That said, McDonald’s vs an OK sit-down restaurant are roughly the same price here. The latter is going to have better food - generally - but Mickey D will be more consistent, have the ability to order without talking to anyone, has a drive-thru, can order home (SOME restaurants don’t do it here for some reason, most do luckily)… Basically, the fast food will win in all factors of convenience, but you won’t feel as satisfied after eating it.
but you won’t feel as satisfied after eating it.
Talk about an understatement… I cannot recall a time where I ate fast food and did not regret it almost immediately.
“What’s the deal with fast food? It isn’t fast, and it isn’t food!”
Get this person a ten-year sitcom deal!
Sorry, I’m more of a Michael Richards type myself
So a detective show that gets cancelled after eight episodes?
Hopefully less racist.
When I was in high school, we’d split a gram of weed four ways and go to Wendy’s for the $4.20 meal. For less than ten bucks, you got stoned, a junior bacon cheese, four nuggets, small fry, and a small chocolate frosty. This was in the mid oughts so not that long ago!
The mid oughts was a different world, hundreds of years ago.
Y’all oughtta know the mid oughts were a lit time to behold.
Honestly, it’s been a great help reducing take out. It’s such a gamble, I’d rather spent nothing on a sure thing (even if it’s boring) than nearly $40 for a meal I may not even finish.
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I’m trying to get myself together too (though not nearly as impressive as your method). I’m writing down everything I spend, from a soda, or groceries, to rent. I quickly saw I was spending, like, to the penny of my check, and saw I wasted a good $200 on just bullshit. I’m trying to put on my big girl panties and get it together. Whenever I saw no to something, I’ve been putting it in a savings account. Like, “eh, I can make dinner at home.” Okay, then that $15 for the cheeseburger that you were okay with is now going into savings.
My goal is to end this year without debt. School, credit card, all of it. Tired of it lol
That’s an impressive level of financial responsibility, nice job
- Bump up your employer’s withholding by 5%
- Get that overpayment back from the IRS
- Immediately dump that into a retirement thing that reduces taxable income; like, same-day
- Next year you have another 5% windfall and a little more back from the retirement contribution. Put both back into same deal
- Repeat forever
- Slow win
Why would I give the IRS an interest free loan? Taking that same 5% from your paycheck directly and setting up an automatic transfer to a high-yield savings account or an IRA each month would give you better dividends over the same period of time.
When I can buy like a large 5 top pizza for as much as a single fast food combo, i know which I’ll choose.
Pizza is also ridiculously expensive where I live. For something that is comprised of almost entirely dough, cheese, and tomato sauce, it’s kind of criminal that some places are charging $20 or more for a large pie. It probably cost them $1.50 worth of ingredients to make when you factor in bulk pricing.
Yeah the rise in pizza prices has been disappointing in my area. Unless you’re getting just a plain pie, you’re gonna spend at least $20 for like a medium pizza.
There are so many goddamn places around here too, that there has to be like a pizza cartel or something, setting the price lol…
Where I’m at it’s definitely very restaurant dependent. Papa Racist’s (Papa John’s) and Pizza Butt (Pizza Hut) I avoid like the plague because their decisions have been jack up the price and nosedive the quality. Meanwhile Little Ceasar’s is doing a $6 lunch combo and most pies I get there are usually $6-10.
I get it it’s Little Ceasar’s, but I got one thing to say to the LC haters
lmao true, I think Little Ceasars is actually good for the value. The $5 hot and ready box was an almost unbeatable deal.
I really prefer Domino’s, but their prices are outrageous so I don’t go there anymore. If I’m going to pay a shitload of money for pizza, I get a whole New York Style pizza so I can really enjoy it. Might start making my own now though, tbh. How hard could it be?
Really it’s not that hard, I’ve started making it myself. Hardest part is getting ingredients together and following recipe for the dough. Literally just flour, a packet of yeast, water, oil, a few other common items most kitchens should already have if you cook other stuff. Then the pizza sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni which I already buy made from the grocery store.
Check chatgpt for recipe suggestions, figure out how much dough you need and scale the recipe accordingly, make it and go. Compared to LC I’m barely breaking even though, their deal is just too good lol. But outside of that it’s fun to make at home and I prefer that now over frozen pizzas.
Hey now, those poor businesses need to make up for their profit situation! Even though they have all made record profits year after year… After year…
We will be in a recession once they decide it’s time for one.The weird this is that generally the once with shit quality make a decent profit and a lot of the once with way better food make almost nothing.
Capitalism at work. Race to the bottom.
Now please tip 200% for the garbage
Fucking Applebee’s is right now cheaper than all of them with $10 for a burger and fries.
Sure, but then the wait staff expects you to tip at least 20% for simply being given one, and if you don’t you’re an asshole.
Sure, but then the wait staff expects you to tip at least 20% for simply being given one, and if you don’t you’re an asshole.
That’s the neat part about affordable food, 20% on $10 only means you tip $2.
They bring you the food, refill your water, and serve you on ceramic plates with metal silverware then take your dirty dishes away, no trash. The burger and the fries are way better than McD.
IMO The only FF place you still can’t touch is a $6 Taco Bell with the cravings box. It’s a huge amount of shitty food for a total of $6, it is super fast and it runs through you super fast.
I have a Taco Bell addiction. Its my comfort food. I can’t even feel guilty about it anymore, its so cheap.
yes but still cheaper
So order it to go!
Applebees is just as bad as fast food imo. Trash food.
Worse. Applebees fries taste like stale bread.
Around these parts we have a couple of more affordable options but most of the big fast food chains have become $10+ meal bullshits. If the meal is over $10 I might as well go pay the same in a non-fast-food restaurant with a pick up order. But Jack’s (burger/chicken store) and Taco Bell still have meal deals for $7 or less.
Fountain drinks are a big ripoff, so you can save a bit by not ordering a drink if you have your own already.
Instead of a burger meal for $11 from bullshit fast food places I can buy a large entree of Mexican food for $8 to $9 before tax from a real restaurant. Chinese restaurants locally are similarly priced. I can get Mexican or Chinese takeout to feed the whole family for under $50
Panda Express is actually awesome for this. $10 for huge plates of food with 2 entrees.
It sounds silly, but when I’m on business trips I almost really like the Darden style restaurants for this reason. Think like Olive Garden, Chili’s etc. Sure it isn’t great food but damn is it a lot for a little. I’ve gotten a big ass bag of chips dipping sauce on top of burgers fries dessert for about the same as a small meal from Taco bell and a quesadilla from there. It’s almost double the amount of food for the same price, and they’re almost easier to deal with because they now all have online ordering. Place the order online as I’m about to leave work, go stop on the way and go pick it up, done deal and I got something for the next day too. I almost prefer takeout style restaurants like this now over “fast” food that’s anything but in their drive thru line.
In my industry, there’s a saying along the lines of “Good, fast, cheap. Pick two.”
I think the fast food industry version is “Good, fast, cheap? No, no. And believe it or not, also no.”
I don’t eat fast food very often, so this is entirely anecdotal. Of the fast food chains I’ve eaten at in recent history, Taco Bell is by far the worst. Against my better judgment, I even broke down and gave them a second chance at a different location thinking maybe my first terrible experience was a fluke. Didn’t work out. Makes me think it’s bad everywhere. Wendy’s has held up the best of the places I’ve eaten. It’s definitely not cheap anymore, fast depends on the location as well as other factors, and good is relative, but overall it hasn’t gone down hill as bad as the others.
taco bell definitely has one of the widest ranges in quality. one near my house is fucking awful and never gets the substitutions right, but the one 20 minutes away is great
To me it’s McDonalds, how something using the exact same ingredients and prep can taste so different and have vastly different delivery times in everyone you go to boggles the mind
Honestly I don’t think I’ve ate at Mcdonald’s in the last six months now that I think about it. The enshittification of their app deals, price hikes, quality going down, the whole disease outbreak thing, just really turned me off of them. I know they had a bad quarter recently I hope they have another bad one 🤣
Which is wild when you realize the original idea behind McDonalds was to apply engineering and mass production ideas to food to maximize speed and consistency, and now a lot of the time they fail at both.
The Tacos Bell near me are pretty decent… You just have to put it in its own, separate genre of food. I don’t eat at Taco Bell when I’m in the mood for Mexican food. I eat at Taco Bell when I’m in the mood for Taco Bell.
Wendy’s is pretty decent, expensive but better if you use their app. I usually still see a code in there somewhere for $2 off or something, and their small frosty’s aren’t quite at fuck off levels of pricing yet.
Taco bell I feel like every restaurant is different. One near my house used to be bomb AF, then they had a changeover of all their staff and now it’s terrible. Even the drive thru is different now they now have an AI taking your order lmao. Another location down the road is better at the food quality, but they fuck up what is supposed to go with your order half the time so at that one I always have to check the bag in the parking lot before I leave.
The older I get the most I just feel like it isn’t worth it as much anymore. If I’m going to have to wait a half hour plus in the drive thru line, pay $15 for a meal now or $20+ if I wanted to get dessert or another side item too, and deal with people and the headaches of it, I’d rather just keep driving home and cook something there in about the same time. Plus I can usually get 3 or 4 meals out of that $20 worth if I make it at home so each leftover is faster to make.
Fast food industry is doing a great job making sure that I stay away as best I can and be inconvenient. The sole exception so far has been Little Ceasars, still $6 for a lunch combo and if you order in the app it’s great, get notified when it’s ready and I literally just park out front walk in grab my order out of the ready bin and off I go. I don’t understand why others haven’t pivoted that way as well.
their small frosty’s aren’t quite at fuck off levels of pricing yet.
My local Wendy’s did a promo where you bought a keychain tag for $3 and can get a Jr Frosty with any purchase until the end of 2025. That certainly helps the Frosty thing, at least.
Politics aside, Chik-Fil-A is consistently one of the better quality fast food places I’ve been to.
Man I wish the frosty tag thing was a thing at mine. It is but it basically isn’t. If you order online and order a physical keychain they won’t give you one then try to argue about it when you ask where is my keychain I paid for it. Ask me how I know 😂
They did offer an in-app version too, but then you’re stuck choosing between app coupons so you’re basically either already using the $2 off a combo like I was or getting the frosty that costs about the same. So in my case it didn’t save me any money :/
At least they aren’t five freaking bucks like other fast food places are doing with cold treats.
What is your industry? That saying is awesome.
I’ve heard it in engineering and software both
Pretty common saying in the business world.
Software development. I certainly didn’t coin the phrase, but it’s well-known and I agree, pretty fitting even outside of the IT industry.
This sums up my experience as well. It’s never been healthy, but at least it used to be cheap and tasty. But nowadays mcdonalds is so expensive I almost consider it a luxury, and the plastic-looking sauces and mystery meat are in no way appetizing (tho that might just be me getting older and changing preferences as opposed to the actual food getting worse)
I got a double cheeseburger platter from a BBQ place with 2 sides for $10. Better burger than fast food and I got fries and collards.
That’s a great find!
BBQ places in my area have gotten really expensive. Sides are like $5 each now for a small container.
I got a double cheeseburger platter from a BBQ place
Are you even allowed to do that?
We got 2 kids meals at Culver’s and ate for $15. We are in 60s and it was enough food for us, and on the plus side it included ice cream!
Small McDouble combo is like $5.80 in Canada right now. Shit’s almost cheaper than groceries.
I switched to mostly cooking for myself sometime last year, really just trying to save money, but I feel significantly less fatigued day to day and more focused and don’t wake up with random stomach pain anymore.
I’ve done that most of my adult life and yeah even just pasta with jarred sauce is so much cheaper, better, and healthier than fast food.
Your next big level up may be realizing that exercise doesn’t suck nearly as much as the feeling of being out of shape
I lost 20lbs during lockdown because I stopped eating pre-prepared meals and ate more snacks between meals.
I was just lamenting the size of my belly (it’s back) this morning. The horror…
And yet people keep going. And why? Because those companies hire people with psychology and chemistry degrees to ensure they do. They play every psychological trick in the book to keep people coming back. And as much as anyone here (me included) think a burger from McDonald’s is shit, there are people, a lot of people, who feel like they just can’t live happily without their regular dose of Big Mac.
And, of course, McDonald’s has used those psychological tricks to convince such people that McDonald’s cares about them.
The whole thing is sick.
I mean, I can get a double cheeseburger from McDonald’s for under $3. It’s pretty good for that price range and accessibility. I’m not about to claim they give a fuck about me though lol
