this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
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Kevin Roberts remembers when he could get a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a drink from Five Guys for $10. But that was years ago. When the Virginia high school teacher recently visited the fast-food chain, the food alone without a beverage cost double that amount.

Roberts, 38, now only gets fast food "as a rare treat," he told CBS MoneyWatch. "Nothing has made me cook at home more than fast-food prices."

Roberts is hardly alone. Many consumers are expressing frustration at the surge in fast-food prices, which are starting to scare off budget-conscious customers.

A January poll by consulting firm Revenue Management Solutions found that about 25% of people who make under $50,000 were cutting back on fast food, pointing to cost as a concern.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago (5 children)

I probably am gonna get a lot of hate for this. Isn't that a good thing? Afterall processed food is the leading cause of most diseases today, most notably cancer. It's about time organic food is promoted heavily and incorporated in the policy making.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I was thinking the same thing, the only good thing about it was the price. I can get a nice rump steak dinner and a pint at the pub for just a bit more than a trip to maccies these days.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

In isolation, maybe a good thing. Problem is that it's a bit of a sign of a broader trend of crazy expensive dining out.

The stuff a fast food customer is likely to eat at home is likely even worse than the fast food. Also, groceries are also pretty expensive, though not quite as bonkers as restaurant pricing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I can't fathom what I have at home that's worse for me than a 1200 calorie value meal.

I'd really have to go out of my way to make something that calorie dense and still edible.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Your 1200 calorie figure is about right for a "combo" with large drink and fries and a quarter pounder at McD.

That's about the same as half a fairly modest frozen pizza and a soda. Which would be a plausible "cooking at home" solution that I've seen people do, and that's assuming they stop at half the pizza. Similar story for a lot of frozen "air fryer" fare, they pour from the bag until they have "about a bowl's worth" and that's usually about the same calories as the food part of the fast food. They read the "nutrition facts" and see "200 calories" and miss the part where there's "20 servings a bag" and eat what the packager counted as 6 servings.

Also, that's only the calorie counting, a TV dinner will have even more added sugars and sodium than the fast food meal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Soda…whoever drinks Soda over 17 probably has bigger issues than counting calories.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Whatever people like doing at 16 is likely going to persist to what they like at 32 or 64.

To the extent people should be discouraged from soda (and other added sugar drinks), it needs to pretty much be the case from the onset, not just a fact of "growing up".

I've seen children raised on relatively healthy food and drink from the onset and it's much less of an uphill battle for them to happily eat healthy as they grow up. They actually like the healthy stuff rather than forcing themselves to eat unhappily because they know it's the right thing.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

That’s about the same as half a fairly modest frozen pizza and a soda.

Had to look that up. So...Totino's party pizza (which I eat every once in a while if I'm being a total slob)...It's 700 calories for the whole thing, plus throw in a 16oz pepsi and you're still at only 900 calories. (Which I only drink diet these days)

It doesn't sound like a big difference, but that's still usually 100-300 calories less than fast food. They're both shit for you, but if you get to the brass tacks, those 100-200 calories per meal add up quickly.

That's 20 extra minutes of light exercise per meal.

(The other thing...I looked up the cheap frozen dinners...they're surprisingly not bad. Banquet, which you can get for 1-2$ usually, is only 400 calories. The higher priced ones ("Big Man") things are only 600-700. Again, terrible food, but still healthier and cheaper than McDonald's)

Anyway...the point...It'd be hard for me to make something as unhealthy as McDonald's at home. I've done it (Eggs Benedict for example), but it took a lot of work.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I used a Digorno's pizza as reference. On Totino's, I was looking more toward how I've seen family members eat Pizza Rolls, where they have a cereal bowl full and that's fast food territory.

As I said on some of the TV Dinners, they may eek by with fewer calories than a McD meal if you get large fries (small fries bring it down to "comparable"), but the added sugars and sodium make them in some select ways worse.

I'd suggest that the sort of person to be selective about their home diet when faced with fast food is likely to get the better options. I think the "biggie size everything" crowd will have bad at home eating habits, and more careful are likely to do things like skip fries and drink and maybe have a smaller sandwich.

I just have the general impression that people think the choices are:

  • Grab an unhealthy fast food meal
  • If they can't do that, folks will be breaking out fresh vegetables and fish or poultry and making a reasonably healthy dish from scratch

When I'm reasonably sure the people that go all in on unhealthy fast food are filling bowls of pizza rolls and pouring from the 2 liter soda bottles, which is hardly better.

Undoubtedly it is easier to eat healthy at home (portion control, having the right ingredients), but just not sure "once they can't afford fast food they'll be on the road to healthier eating" will work out, as has been commonly expressed in this thread.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago

It's a reasonable assumption. But hell...I think even a bucket of pizza rolls is still slightly healthier for you than a super sized value meal.

I don't disagree with you. But I think even the the most unholy compulsive eater will do a little better if they can get away from fast foods.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago

It would be a good thing, but there are a few problems.
Fast food has always been of soggy cardboard quality so when prices increase it kind of feels unjustified. Fast food workers are also being paid dick compared to how difficult their job is. And then it’s the fact that not only a fast food prices getting more expensive, it’s all foods. There is no cheap alternative anymore only expensive food you have to cook yourself or expensive food being delivered to you. Bottom line, I guess, It’s good we’re getting people off of fast food, but this isn’t the way to do it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I see it as good too (took the kids (2) to burger king, I just took a burger + their menus, 44€ ... WTF), but the downside is (where I live) ordinary food prices are also skyrocketing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Bk is still my go to for lunch when I work in the office. 2 whopper jrs or 2 double cheeseburgers is like 6 bucks. The combo meals are definitely ridiculous though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So, a rare treat, then ;-) ?

Or are you at the office five days a week?

What's a whopper jr BTW, like the db cheeseburger in size? Seems very very cheap for sure 😅

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

couple times a week. there's not a lot around me food options wise. Whopper jr. is just the same thing as a whopper but with the regular burger patty instead of the whopper one so it's smaller.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The reason for the hate is... You offer no alternative.

I'm coeliac, I don't get to eat outside at fast food places. But people got to eat and they might need something quick on the go... What's your alternative? What cheap healthy meal do you offer?

I don't get to have stuff, I can't even buy a sandwich from a shop if I wanted to. But I can see how people rely on it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Celiac disease kinda runs in my family. I am gluten intolerant myself. I'm aware of the struggle. All I'm saying is we need a paradigm shift as far as food is concerned. If there are no alternatives, create one for yourself. It's about time we take control of food and where it comes from. Not everything that's convenient is healthy for the long run.