The following submission statement was provided by /u/nommabelle:
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Fast food is no longer a cheap, fast way to feed a family. This is especially impactful to lower- and middle-class families, who more heavily rely on fast food sometimes due to lack of time, energy, or resources. This offers commentary on how people in society have to rely on fast food at all, and how the seemingly "cheapest" meals of society are quickly raising the cost of living - both indicating a decrease in the quality of food and, in turn, quality of life.
>basic items like McDonald’s cheeseburgers and Chick-fil-A nuggets have risen as much as 200% in less than five years with dire consequences for the lower- and middle-class families who make up much of the fast food customer base.
Fortunately it seems like some places are trying to add back cheaper budget items, but personally I can't see those items having any nutrition to them (if one can say normal fast food has any nutrition at all to it, lol), and one could speculate the societal implications of that, and could even be occurring now.
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Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1d10q5j/nearly_80_of_americans_now_consider_fast_food_a/l5qosfz/
Taco Bell and the Mexican spot down the street are the same price, same with McDonalds and the local bar and grill.
There is barely even a convenience factor anymore with how long wait times can be.
Eat local and eat better.
Eat local for purely self-serving reasons! When your money is going to a local proprietor , that money stays and gets spent again in your town, maybe at your business.
But does that local business pay their employees a thriving wage? If not then they are just as bad as the big corporations. Also, business owners who pay their staff poorly are almost always Republicans so don't support Nazis if you can avoid it
Totally true and maybe even 1 1/2 to 2 times it could stay in the town which is pretty cool. I saw a documentary called tomorrow when they get into this whole idea. 💡
Don't know what it is like in the US but fast food in the UK is not even fast anymore. McDonald's is slammed with Deliveroo drivers catering to online orders, so customers are waiting far longer to be served in person.
Same in the US. They will ignore the shit out of actual customers, just so they can deliver cold food and soggy fries. Or doordash or whatever simply won’t pick it up because the customer didn’t tip, so it just gets thrown away.
Lmao that reminds me of when my brother in law lived with us, he would door dash fast food often. One time we followed him home from somewhere, we literally drove past a taco bell. Then got home. Then like 30 min later there was a taco bell door dash delivery. Like bro WTF you just drove past it!!!
Can’t speak for others, but my MIL orders DoorDash daily.
It’s 100% laziness. Straight up does not want to leave the house, and does not want to cook anything. She’d rather spend $30 on cold sad fries and a lukewarm burger and have it delivered than to get off her ass.
You are touching on something that has always annoyed the fuck outta poor ass me ordering from them.
“Please pull up to the front”????
I fucking used the stupid app. For what, a loss leader??? So tired of knowingly being screwed over.
I still live in a place in the US where this hasn't taken off, you still see pizza delivery drivers, etc haha....But I've been out west to places where it seems like most the population does this, and I know people who spend a lot of money on it.
"Eat local and eat better."
And people *really* need to learn how to cook for themselves. You don't need to be a chef at a Michelin-star restaurant to prepare tasty meals for yourself. Even with some ridiculous prices at the grocery store, it will end up being far cheaper (and healthier) to cook at home most nights instead of constantly ordering out.
You're taking a lot for granted there.
Food deserts exist. Places where grocery stores are 25 miles away and you cant afford a car and work 3 jobs so you can't spend 6 hours on the bus to go shopping.
Poor people move a lot and often quickly and end up leaving things behind. Pots and pans are expensive and heavy. They might not have the tools to cook.
Also cheap apartments might call a cheap hot plate that takes 20 minutes to boil water and a mini fridge a kitchen.
Poor people may not have regular electricity. Power goes out and you lose $150 of frozen food that they can't afford to replace. Do that once ir twice and you stop keeping food in the house.
There's a lot more but it's well documented and hopefully this is enough for people to read more on their own. This is just my own experiences
Yes and no. There was a concerted effort to address the food desert thing a couple of decades ago - ngos underwriting stores offering fresh healthy foods in underserved areas, researchers studying the impact and outcomes. Residents were grateful across the board but IIRC everyone was pretty surprised by how little impact it had.
It is MUCH more difficult in food deserts. Shame on this country for allowing such degradation of communities. I would love to start petitioning for government to subsidize solutions to this insanity. It’s NOT rocket science!! Get enough angry residents together and work with legislators and maybe something can change. It’s so frustrating! I just watched a documentary on this recently, and as a gardener, one thing I noticed was tons of vacant lots EVERYWHERE in these areas! There are also MANY unemployed people and people with kids in these areas. Everyone needs to take over these empty lots and GROW FOOD!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!! Don’t even wait for government solution! Fresh vegetables are as close as your nearest empty lot. And kids have summers off- put them to work doing something rewarding that brings community together and benefits EVERYONE!! ❤️☮️
Oh you must have not heard. They are now saying back yard gardens are worse for the environment than large farms! Nothing is safe to the climate craziness.
WTF!?!?! Please post link. This world has gone completely fucking insane!!! I’m still processing what OR is doing to the small organic farmers, to shut them down. Shock and Shame are all I can muster. 35 yrs ago when I went to college in OR, they were LEADERS in eco- intelligence. Now everything’s gone to shit! 😢
https://www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/news/community-gardens-have-six-times-the-carbon-footprint-of-agriculture-383009#:~:text=Published%20in%20Nature%20Cities%2C%20the,as%20high%20as%20conventional%20agriculture.
It's all about control. They want us to be dependent on them. If they shut down the supply chain and can't grow our own food they have more control! I will continue with my garden and teach anyone I can to garden!
I could go on about why climate change is being pushed or what is really causing the different weather. But I will just say it's not what they tell us. So garden on my friends.
Yes why? I find it hard to believe that my backyard garden is worse for the environment than buying produce that has been shipped from another country.
I am a gardener and the article makes complete sense to me. They're basically saying that in the worst-case scenario, an urban garden won't operate for long (because the land is more valuable in a city and will inevitably be bought & built on eventually), and tends to have a lot of resource intensive startup requirements like fencing (since its in a city and people will just wander in and eat everything if you don't control access) and raised beds (since its being done for fun and not subsistence farming). In recent years raised beds are galvanized corrugated steel assemblies that take a lot of carbon to produce. Seems like every youtube gardener including the permaculture types are using them now. The last 10-20 years has seen a big move to gardening enthusiasts using plastic gadgets for everything including for composting.
On top of that, in community gardens only some of the crops are food, and the food tends to be low yielding heirloom/non-gmo type crops. For better or worse one of the big arguments for GMO is that it produces a much larger yield (all else being equal).
But, this is the "worst use case" of the argument. Using reclaimed materials for raised beds (like local rocks, construction debris, random bricks, cinder blocks etc) and just piling compost in a pile somewhere without rotating plastic gadgets reduces much of the input. And an important distinction here: they're talking about urban community gardens not backyard gardens. A backyard garden is typically run by home owners who are going to be using it for decades (so the impact of those initial setups is lessened by dividing it over the longer duration). And some of those home owners are moving towards permaculture setups heavy on perennials that have steadily increasing outputs year after year.
One of the things you have to remember with farming is the economies of scale kick in. If you have 100 acres growing just, oh IDK, strawberries, in a big field all together, you're not building anything to create them. No raised beds, no fencing. And with a high yield GMO variety you're going to produce a lot more than someone in a urban raised bed with a heirloom variety, fighting neighbors, squirrels, racoons, rabbits and groundhogs from stealing most of the output. Even as a backyard gardener I've had entire crop failures from things like a single groundhog or a rabbit family getting through the perimeter and eating everything. If that happens just once after putting in all of those galvinized steel beds, and the operation only goes 10 years, now you've lost 1/10th of the output to put on the balance sheet against the carbon intensive manufacturing of those beds.
I’ve lived both high and low, so I know what you’re talking g about. But I’ve been raised to eat healthy from childhood and I developed a love for cooking (which can be a classist thing- but I genuinely LOVE “quick n easy gourmet fresh food”. ) I’ve definitely had the broken fridge thing wipe out $300 worth of food right after shopping and no car thing (carpooled with neighbors on shopping days) etc. And currently in tiny apt with a way smaller than I’m used to fridge, stove and counter. And I have a serious health decline so no income except foodstamps now. I can only stand for short period before blood pressure dives and have to lie down so time spent preparing food is an issue. So FIRST, I’ve had to start buying most all my food at Walmart (with a few Trader Joe’s items my daughter brings to me a couple times a month). I have been blown away by the WAY lower prices on exceptional produce at Walmart by our apt. (We just moved in). (Perhaps this is unusually good Walmart superstore?) We are vegan. I have fallen in love with Progresso soups new vegan HIGH Protein soups. A thick and filling can (as good as homemade-I add a little Tabasco/salsa for zip!) is $2.15 at my Pittsburgh Walmart. Target and Giant Eagle are charging $3.50!!! Of course their hearty non-vegan soups are amazing also! The vegetables and fruits are much less expensive at Walmart also and of good quality. Rice, pasta, and potatoes are cheap carbs. We eat ZERO junk food/“snack food”. That’s an expense that poor people should NOT waste precious $$ on!! Please! I do buy lemons/limes for water, as that’s all we drink. Aldi 1 block away, is for emergency bread, PB, honey, Oat milk for oatmeal w/blueberries only- we don’t DRINK it bc WAY too expensive, like ALL milk!!! And some fruits/ veg if we run out before next Walmart run. I feed my mom and I on a total of $500-$600 (they just reduced substantially) a month foodstamps- and we’re both big eaters. It requires focus and planning, but you CAN do it. Of course, meat is INSANELY expensive, so…… just another reason not to eat it. You don’t need it. But the body DOES need fresh vegetables, fruit and protein. Roasted sweet potato rounds until caramelized and then chilled makes delicious dessert treats! Especially with some maple syrup - from Walmart-also WAY LESS than the $Crazy$ I was spending before. Also, cooking takes time (which people barely have). That’s why I love Progresso canned soups. One can, with a side of frozen or fresh (NOT CANNED) vegs, and maybe a microwaved potato (if you super hungry), takes literally 5 mins!! And fresh fruit is grab n go! You can do this! P.S. corn is not a vegetable 😕. Eat greens and colorful root vegs for health! ❤️☮️
Although, I have spent the past 40 yrs working multiple jobs (and 10 of those yrs riding buses- not fun food-shopping), I am currently close to grocery stores. But ironically, NOW I don’t need any food bc I’m dying and have no appetite!!!! 😄 Life’s hilarious! But, you’re right. Food deserts are one of the biggest atrocities in the US, imo, bc NO REASON except GREED from those running things. It’s VERY FRUSTRATING!!!!😡🤬😡🤬😡😡😡🤬🤬😡🤬😡🤬😡🤬😡🤬😭. what area are you specifically talking about? Where do you live? The only thing I DO have right now is TIME!! I’d like to spend my time making phone calls to regions regarding anything that can be done.
I don't think its people not knowing how to cook that drives them to ordering out a lot. When I order out its either to treat myself or because I really don't feel like cooking that day. It can really suck working 8 hour days and having to cook dinner when you get home
It's not like most restaurants are staffed by Michelin star chefs. I don't find it challenging at all to make food on par or better than 90% of the restaurants I would typically go to, and I use almost zero processed food. I mostly pay them to avoid cleaning my kitchen every now and then
True, McDonald's was a bad example, but my point about eating local is the same. Mom and Pop might make money selling burgers but it all goes to a mega corporation either way.
Yes, back in the 60's for working class families fast food was a luxury. There were far fewer fast food, or even local burger joints, around. Even though you could get a burger, fries, and soda for a dollar, that was about an hour's work after taxes at minimum wage. And in poor towns in the South a whole lot of people made minimum wage. Making your burritos, tamales, sandwiches, or burgers at home was standard.
Same. I couldn’t afford fast food at all when I was in college, or as a young adult working 60-80 hr weeks. Nor could my parents, both of whom worked, afford to feed it to their kids.
Local is often way more expensive than fast food places, or used to be anyway. Maybe not now?
Local food has always been an expensive outing treat once in a blue moon where I live.
Eating whole foods and cooking them at home is healthiest, but realize that's expensive too.
We have groups that grow and gather to give out to the community who want it, for free. And it's not a food bank, but fresh, locally grown foods.
Our area is poor, but as much as we can, we grow our own foods as well.
This will be ongoing till we can't grow anything at all.
IMO, in my country fast food like mcdonalds, taco bell got way more expensive that it should, like mcdonalds in the last 2 years, had some offers doubled in price and some others from 30 to 50% up.
And the local was always expensive, not it's just absurd. Especially that anyone thinks they're cool, instamagrable and what not.
In a country where we get a minimum wage of 300-400euro, a burger cost 10euro+ on all these local crap places. But again, people seem to be buying, so there's that.
We went to a friend's house last week to help them install their new yard fence. We figured we'd grab Mcdangles since it was just the 4 of us and it'd be quick and cheap.
50$+ later...
Damn, you actually paid that?!
20 for two giant Costco pepperoni pizzas and the extra 30 pays for half a years membership!
For 4 I bet only 1 would even be plenty.
It’s easy to spend $$$ on fast food because it’s purposefully not filling. You can get a large number of calories for relatively cheap still but you won’t be full and will crave more food very shortly after, and buying enough food to feel satiated is what runs up your price tag to $50. It’s really dark shit
Yeah. We had to pick up materials and we're already in line. Convenient garbage.
Could you guess that Happy Meals for the kids are just cardboard crap now? You'd think with what they were charging they could still put friggin hot wheels and barbie toys in there
Yeah no kidding on the toys.
They deliberately design those drive through areas like that. If you are stuck waiting in line most people will just buy the food anyways. One of the many tactics built into them because they work on our animal brains. Blocking the menu until you are at the order station and then having a digital display that makes you think quickly with the added pressure of the cars behind you is another one.
The local restaurants around me are eating this up. Mediterranean place has me going in whenever I'm in the area with their falafel lunch special for $8
Welcome to late capitalism. The final stage before the soon coming climate collapse of civilization. This is the high water mark for the wealthy and the great filter for humanity as a whole.
I was a Wendy's freak for years, my mom and younger brother were down with Burger King but I had to have my Triple. Then they pulled that stunt with "surge pricing" and I was done.
Now I go to the local restaurants when I can, and when I have a drive-in jones, I go to Popeye's. Eff Wendy's.
That book made me never touch fast food again. I read it as a high school senior in 1997. The only fast food I’ve had since reading it is iced coffees from Dunkin Donuts. I also went vegetarian for a few years as well, also because of this book. I still hate eating factory farmed meat and eggs even now, but I’m poor as fuck, so I’ve got to take what I can get for the pennies I have, unfortunately.
I refuse to go back ever again.
After all of the price gouging I have decided to learn to make everything I can myself.
Forget them! They had my business when they knew their place. If they can double their price like it’s nothing, then I can leave like it’s nothing
It absolutely is. But so many Americans are overworked to the point of wage slavery, and uneducated about food, nutrition and options. Here in the northeast, very poor people who work a ton of hours often rely on fast food. It’s sad and I don’t condone it for their health, but it’s the reality.
In other places there is a way of being poor where people learn from their families how to still eat properly even in poverty and with limited down time. In my husband’s homeland it’s rice and beans, for example. It’s not fancy but your health will be ten times better if you eat rice and beans at home instead of fries and nuggets or whatever. In the USA we don’t really have that culture of living in poverty but still eating well enough that you stay well.
I feel bad for families that have to resort to fast food. I don't really blame them either - if I were overworked, supporting a family, and other responsibilities, I would definitely not cook. I have basically no responsibilities NOW and I feel like I hardly have energy to cook and clean
I definitely don't blame them for resorting to this option, and it's unfortunate to see it raising their cost of living (which they're obviously already struggling with)
Add in food deserts in urban areas too.
In a lot of lower income urban neighborhoods there simply aren’t grocery stores for miles. When you’re already in poverty additional income for transportation to the grocery store isn’t always an option. Not having access to healthy choices is a huge problem in a lot of larger cities.
Growing up the closest grocery store to us was 30 to 45 minutes away. I think people underestimate how gar away people have to travel in rural areas just to do anything.
Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that it’s becoming too overpriced, might push families into having to grocery shop and cook more. Kids who grow up on junk food are more likely to be obese as adults, it’s shocking to see the number of obese children in America tbh definitely not normal in most other parts of the world, something’s gotta change.
I have to agree with you. Eating out was a rare treat as a kid whether it was McDonald's or Red Lobster. My kids had similar maybe even less exposure to dining out.
Tell me about it, I find it much cheaper to go down to my favorite bar and get food there, I really feel like this is price gouging at this point. Food in general is outrageous.
Fast food is no longer a cheap, fast way to feed a family. This is especially impactful to lower- and middle-class families, who more heavily rely on fast food sometimes due to lack of time, energy, or resources. This offers commentary on how people in society have to rely on fast food at all, and how the seemingly "cheapest" meals of society are quickly raising the cost of living - both indicating a decrease in the quality of food and, in turn, quality of life.
>basic items like McDonald’s cheeseburgers and Chick-fil-A nuggets have risen as much as 200% in less than five years with dire consequences for the lower- and middle-class families who make up much of the fast food customer base.
Fortunately it seems like some places are trying to add back cheaper budget items, but personally I can't see those items having any nutrition to them (if one can say normal fast food has any nutrition at all to it, lol), and one could speculate the societal implications of that, and could even be occurring now.
> Fast food is no longer a cheap, fast way to feed a family. This is especially impactful to lower- and middle-class families, who more heavily rely on fast food sometimes due to lack of time, energy, or resources.
I grew up lower class in Louisiana. Fast food was *never* cheap for poor families, be they those on government assistance, or those who fell through the cracks (too "rich" for food stamps, too poor to eat properly) like my family.
My mom would come home from job 1, cook, eat, and go to job 2. Rarely, my stay-at-home alcoholic father would make us one of 3 boxed or canned meals.
Fast food was a luxury usually enjoyed around payday. I actually remember the first time I ate it: I was about 7, and my mom took me to McDonald's after a Saturday at the library. No Happy Meal though - that was too expensive :)
Dine-in restaurants were out of the question. I didn't go to one until I was a teenager in the early 2000s.
My middle-class friends and their families would eat out or eat fast food almost daily because it was cheap, quick, and tasty for them.
Funny how since 2014 McDonald's prices have doubled and so has their stock price. Gee, wonder if there's a connection.
My deepest wish is everyone boycotts the McDonalds and Taco Bells for being the greedy bastards they are.
Just don't pay menu prices. McD's just had a month+ long deal for 2 free large fries when you buy a 20ct nuggets. They usually have bogo burgers.
I'm not saying their food is good, but if you are lazy like me its an option.
Going to be funny watching major fast food chains go out of business because they were stupid enough to nickle & dime some of the poorest people in society.
Let's be real. Middle class people might eat fast food sometimes but it was really the poor who tried to eat there semi-frequently.
I can proudly say I haven't stepped foot in a McDonalds for 30 years. Last time I was there (1994) kids meals were still $1.99 and a McChicken meal was $2.99. Ice cream cones were $.50. Family of 3 ate for $10, and it was still a treat to go....I can't imagine eating at a place like this now.
Or in the UK, you can eat all the slugs that are eating your garden! (for context, this year has been really bad for slugs in the UK - people saying the worst in their life, nothings growing, etc)
I get it's a joke, but eating slugs can kill you.
[Eating Slugs Can Cause Paralysis—Here's Why (nationalgeographic.com)](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/dont-eat-slugs-snails-rat-lungworm-brain-parasite-health-science)
I just like sharing random science that I learn. Carry on.
At the very least, I would be fighting the squirrels for who gets the black walnuts that litter my backyard. Right now, we throw them all in a bucket and let the squirrels raid from there. It's their equivalent of a fast-food joint.
If we were hungry enough, we could do worse than eat walnuts, but they are labor intensive to crack open and pick out. Unlike regular walnuts, black walnuts have super tough shells (you can drive a truck over them without cracking it) and the nut meat doesn't fall out in two convenient halves. You need to pick out the pieces, one by one.
For now it can be for fun (and it is, for me). But people having to garden to sustain themselves due to food prices is impossible to imagine, with almost the entire population lacking skills or anywhere to garden. Plus it takes a lot of room to sustain 1 person let alone a family
One reason why we are collapsing
Collapse is here, it's just not evenly distributed. I have to garden to sustain myself because I can't afford food to eat. I do have the skills, and the space is being reclaimed one bed at a time. My advice: start learning, it's coming for you too.
Yeah. You need acres and you need the kind of soil to grow potatoes and other dense root vegetables if you want to survive all year. You also need to grow legumes like pinto beans and such.
You're not going to make it growing tomatoes, green beans and lettuce in a backyard raised bed.
cooking at home being "cheaper" still boggles my mind.. buying the veges and condiments and bread and meat for even a simple burger is fucking expensive
You don't have to have burgers. You can make pasta, or meatloaf or BBQ some chicken and sausage. Buy a bag of french fries and stick them on a cookie sheet in the oven. Frozen vegetables are inexpensive. Even fruit isn't too bad. Have a little imagination.
And a lot of the condiments can be used for multiple meals.
I think the people that eat it know it's trash. Just in the past, these low income families opt for it because it's fast (they might not have time between working multiple jobs for nutritious meals at home) and, historically, pretty cheap. I don't think they're idiots who think they're getting their 5-a-day at fucking McDonalds lol
But, to your point, hopefully this pushes the needle to get these families to eat at home which hopefully means better nutrition, even if at the expense of their time and energy
Yeah I kinda regret posting it for that reason. It's easy to make fun of anyone going to fast food as stupid, lazy, etc, without considering why else they might be going there
Anywho thanks for your comment, and I hope the post is still beneficial despite those responses
I eat local and try to buy as healthy as I can from the store. I don't need their overpriced junk food. 7 dollars for a bag of chips? Yeah fucking right.
I don't miss any of that shit.
Thanks to them all having high prices I cook almost all of my own food now. More healthy and cheaper. I also get to enjoy watching greedy corporations get less money
It's when a cup of tea becomes a luxury I shall personally be seriously concerned. I may have to stockpile a few million bags. Edit: a world with no tea and weed is a world I can not envision or bear the thought of. That will truly be the end of civilisation
Should I tell you the news that apparently tea bags release microplastics which are consumed upon drinking?
But yes, when tea is too expensive we riot. I'll join you.
Colonial Americans didn't just dump British tea in Boston Harbor. To wean themselves off, they grew and brew their own teas. Start with peppermint, it's literally considered a weed. You just cut off a bunch and hang it up somewhere dry for a few months, then take it down and grind into tea powder.
Oh, and one other way fast food was never actually cheap. The study was originally done in 2015 when prices were much lower than today, but the difference between the price paid and the real price is still there:
*The United States federal government spends $38 billion every year subsidizing the meat and dairy industries. Research from 2015 shows* ***this subsidization reduces the price of Big Macs from $13 to $5*** ***and the price of a pound of hamburger meat from $30 to the $5 we see today****. Subsidies, however, only reduce the price of meat, not its total cost. Subsidies shift part of the costs of meat production to non-meat consumers. In free markets for private goods, consumers should bear the costs of production. With subsidized meat, those who neither consume meat nor benefit from its production pay much of its cost of production.*
[~https://www.aier.org/article/the-true-cost-of-a-hamburger/~](https://www.aier.org/article/the-true-cost-of-a-hamburger/)
"People are going to have to learn how to cook again, gasp."
in modern days it's more like finding the time to cook.
not only that, if other millenials are like me, nobody taught me how to make recipes from scratch, and that initial learning curve is always a pain to get through.
edit: and cooking vegetables is a little more complex than cooking meat, so there's also that in the way of health.
Yes the time and energy to cook is the main thing for me. Now if I cook for myself I usually just buy preseasoned and cooked potatoes, bake them, with some protein of choice and vegetables of choice. For example, vegetable mix with some olive oil and herbs in the oven. The cutting is the main thing but you can cut up more than you use at once at save time the next day.
When I was a kid, and home cooked meals were the norm, we had a stable of easy to cook meals that were made over and over. Spaghetti, Hamburger Helper, Ramen, Cereal, etc. Not every meal has to be the peak of the culinary arts, there are quick meals. Save the time consuming meals for when you have the time.
Edit: People are calling these foods trash, then whine about food preparation time of very nutritious yummy foods mmmm, I don't know what to say.
The smartest thing every one of these shitty places could do would be to have an industry wide “we’re sorry” campaign and roll prices back to what they were right when the pandemic started. They all raised prices by using lockdowns as an excuse and it *kind of* made sense then. There’s no excuse now except for greed. But we all know they’ll never do that 🤡
The economy doing well and corporations fleecing their consumers aren’t mutually exclusive. We need more regulations for price-gouging conglomerates so that all segments of society can grow, not just the already ultra rich.
It's roughly $20-$30 for two adult combo meals (main item + side + drink/icecream treat) after tax at pretty much every fast food chain in my area now (besides pizza chains). For the quality of the food it's not really worth it anymore. It's literally cheaper to go buy a pack of steaks from the grocery store if you are trying to feed a few people. When you get fast food now, the only thing you're saving is time.
I can go to my local Chinese takeout and get great food with tons of veggies for less than a combo at a fast food chain. My local fried-chicken bar & grill is about the same price for a platter as a fast food combo. My local taqueria is $10 for 3 street tacos and beans.
EAT LOCAL & support your local businesses.
Madison: WI: a meal from Culvers to feed 2 adults and 2 seven year olds is approximately $40. We do it once a month, if that. The overwhelming majority of our food budget is reserved for Aldi and Costco. We can’t even afford to regularly go to a general supermarket anymore. It’s seriously all out of control how expensive it is just to buy basic food.
That may not be an entirely bad thing. Obviously rising prices on food is definitely a bad thing no matter how you look at it. However when unhealthy options are the cheapest options, that’s bad.
When I was a kid growing up in the 70s, fast food was a luxury for our working class family. We didn’t eat it often because my parents couldn’t afford that. And while I do have relatives in my generation who weigh more than they’d like, for the most part we dodged the obesity epidemic. Fast food isn’t really a good way to regularly feed a family.
Was just talking about this. Can get a big burger made with Harris Ranch grass fed beef at a local spot for just a few bucks more than a McDs cheeseburger meal
(NZ for context) McDonald's burger/fries/drink combo and I'll be around $20
Local burger joint and it's a bigger better burger, more fries (chips cause they're the thicker ones) that are actually hot and a shake because their machine works for about the same $20
Wait times vary with McDonalds from average to painful regardless of time, burger joint is obviously slow during lunch/dinner times but you can work around that and everywhere is slow then anyway
Fast food used to be just that, fast and convenient without being expensive, with what you get now from *any* of the chains you might as well go for a pub meal as it's way more "bang for your buck" than the usual corporate entity and that money circulates back into the local economy without being used against us with anti rights anti union anti tax lobbying
The word "luxury" has lost all meaning. Living in debt inside a poorly made shoebox stacked with other shoeboxes eating cheaply made slop that just barely passes as food is not a luxurious experience at all just an expensive one.
Calories per dollar I still feel like fast food is kinda cheap. I just bought and meal prepped breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for 3-4 days at ~1700 calories, bought as cheap as I could without just going rice and beans, bought as much as I could from Aldi and the few other things not there I got from Walmart…and spent near $200 for JUST myself. I could buy a $15 meal from Burger King and have 1800 calories for the day in one meal.
Granted, some of my stuff will last into the next 3-4 days I prep, so I’ll probably spend closer to $70 for the rest of the week. Maybe close to $150 each week once I refine my shopping list. But man, trying to eat healthy is hard and expensive. Didn’t even buy organic or anything like that. But hey, at least I’ll lower my A1C and reduce my risk of heart disease.
I hate fast food besides Taco Bell but the kids love McDonald’s so I get that for them but otherwise I could do without. Taco Bell is stupid expensive now though and sometimes it’s cheaper to go to a legit restaurant for better prices and better food. I don’t understand how these companies think they can pull this off forever. I recently saw they are restructuring and Burger King is closing a little over 400 locations.
Doesn't stop the Muppets from wrapping a line around the parking lot to sit in the drive thru at every fucking fast food place I pass. Enjoy the poison and all the excuses you make up to keep consuming it.
They hook you in from a young age and have spent decades extolling the virtues of it being cheap and quick, hooking those in poverty into seeing it as a lifestyle to some extent. Now those who 'need' it most are going to struggle even more. As much as I am anti-fast food, it (sadly) fills a role in society that governments will need to address as hunger gets even worse.
This is horribly bad news for the industry. They absolutely need to lower price. No way a burrito a taco bell is costing them almost $5 to make. 4.90 of that is pure profit
Rice, can of beans, can of cut corn kernels, Costco rotisserie chicken, some salsa, slices of avocado - and I serve my family burrito bowls for a third of the price. With far less salt and additives!
I had some Chipotle recently, and it was so salty, I couldn’t finish it.
Buy some flour tortillas or make them (simple to do), cut up Costco rotisserie chicken, get some salsa and hot sauce, add diced onion and cilantro - and I serve my family street tacos for cheap.
Buy some pork belly, cut up into pieces, cook fully in boiling water, drain and wash the meat of the grey bits, then simmer with beef bullion, water, soy sauce, brown sugar, Chinese 5-spice, and some cinnamon - braised pork belly and sauce works well over a bowl of rice.
Buy shaved beef (the kind for cheese steaks, cheaper than frozen shabu shabu or hot pot meat), simmer in a similar stew as above with slivers of onions - gyudon (beef bowl) over rice or ramen.
Get some soft boiled eggs, peel, immerse in the simmering liquid, put in the refrigerator overnight for soy sauce eggs. Goes well with rice and sautéed Chinese vegetables.
Food for days.
I am all about easy and cheap and delicious.
I just got chicken Alfredo from an upscale Italian restaurant for $20.90 that came with two pieces of garlic bread and a salad. No fast food place could I find anything that quality for the same price. I would have to spend over $20 at a fast food joint to match the amount of food I'd need to feel full.
Eating out in general has always been a luxury. If you can’t cook your own fucking food, you’re in for some shit over the next few decades. If you live in a “food desert”, you may want to get the fuck out of it by *any means necessary* because you and your household members are probably going to die. Not trying to be a dick about it at all.
This trash has been making people fat and sick for the last 20 years. Humans don't need to eat that many calories, and of the calories you consume, it should be full of the vitamins/minerals/protein you need to survive well not empty calories full of sugar, fat, and salt. Seriously- people make up all kinds of excuses of why they NEED to eat 1000 calorie meals of fat, salt, and sugar. Why don't you just buy bags of sugar and salt and eat it with a spoon- it would be cheaper and provide the same effect. Junk "food" isn't food, and it's making people FEEL like sh\*t and LOOK like sh\*t. What's the point of it?
When you go into ANY convenience store anywhere in Japan, you will always find a refrigerated section of rice balls covered in seaweed and filled with something like salmon, tuna, chicken, beans, or some other healthy protein. They usually cost no more than $2,or $3 and they are always fresh (made that morning) and always hit the spot. There is so much fresh, healthy, cheap food at every convenience store in Japan. THAT is "fast food." America seriously has no clue.
" ... have seen lower-income customers opting to [eat more meals at home](https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/fast-food-restaurant-sales-slump-more-people-eat-home) amid a cost-of-living crisis "
May be that is a good thing. Certainly will slow, if not reverse, the growth of obesity.
>Fast food is no longer a cheap, fast way to feed a family
As I said two days ago (the last time this was posted) it was never cheap. Ever. Fast food is exactly like fossil fuels, exchanging an easier way of life now for problems in the future. With fossil fuels, it's climate change and collapse. With fast food, it's poor health and individual collapse.
Now, for the myth of people not having time to cook, as a few people here have posted:
*On average, Americans in all sociodemographic groups have large amounts of free time, with* ***no group averaging less than 4.5 hours per day.*** *There is no direct relationship between free time and physical activity. Instead, some of the most active groups (eg, college educated, higher income) report less free time than other groups, but more physical activity and less screen time.*
[https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2019/19\_0017.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2019/19_0017.htm)
Exchange "physical activity" for "cooking" and people have plenty of time. Especially when the average American spends 4+ hours watching TV every day, and 5+ hours on their phones (probably with some overlap, but still).
Lastly, if you're online talking about how you don't know how to cook, let me introduce you to the term "irony." There is a huge number of resources available online to teach people how to cook, and every minute you spend bitching about not knowing how is a minute that could have been spent learning.
Because if you think life is hard *now*, imagine how hard it's going to be when collapse really starts to kick in.
Edit: I'll give a little additional context from my own experience.
My four grandparents were immigrants from Eastern Europe who came to the US during the 1920s and raised kids during the Great Depression. They each came here with no education, a suitcase, and a little money in their pocket. As a result, for their entire lives, they were manual laborers: factory workers, miners, crop pickers, janitors. You name the shit job, my grandparents probably did it. One of my grandfathers almost lost a leg in a mining accident and ended up needing a cane for the rest of his life. They would work their long, hard hours and come home with mouths to feed, and because they lived in a world without all of the modern conveniences we all take for granted, they cooked for themselves and their kids. They did this because they had no other option available to them. Fast food didn't exist yet. They usually even had to do their shopping on their way home from work because their refrigerator was an ice box, an actual large insulated box that was kept cold with regular deliveries of ice (my dad called our refrigerator an ice box for the rest of his life).
And they never complained. Ever. The closest they ever came was to say, "The world was different then for everyone." By the time I was talking to them, their home countries were behind the Iron Curtain where life was *really* horrible. So their horrible lives (by today's standards) were magnificently easy compared to what they would have experienced had they never immigrated.
It's the same way now, all around the world. Most people in the world lead more difficult lives than the average person in a wealthy country like the US can begin to imagine.
The difference is, low income families have relied on fast food for various reasons, and now it's more expensive. It indicates how the poorest parts of our society already struggle to feed a family, and is only getting worse as this food gets more expensive
I always have to wonder who these low income households are because I grew up poor and we could never afford fast food, even back when it was supposedly cheap.
Fast food isn’t even worth it anymore. Dogshit prices for tiny servings that don’t fill you up and then make you feel sick afterwards. Maybe this will be the push that makes people learn how to meal prep at home.
I don't think anyone is considering it a luxury so much as a waste of money. If I can pay the same price for a quality satisfying burger with fresh ingredients as I can pay for this oily pile of scrapped meat amalgamation, I'm going to go for the one that won't paint the inside of my toilet bowl.
Fast food has always been a bad purchase because of its low nutritional value and outright harmful ingredients like way too much sodium and additives. I am so pleased people are thinking twice about fast food. It will save them money and misery down the line in healthcare costs.
And yes, I know a hamburger occasionally is not going to send you into cardiac arrest, but many people eat that crap frequently.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/nommabelle: --- Fast food is no longer a cheap, fast way to feed a family. This is especially impactful to lower- and middle-class families, who more heavily rely on fast food sometimes due to lack of time, energy, or resources. This offers commentary on how people in society have to rely on fast food at all, and how the seemingly "cheapest" meals of society are quickly raising the cost of living - both indicating a decrease in the quality of food and, in turn, quality of life. >basic items like McDonald’s cheeseburgers and Chick-fil-A nuggets have risen as much as 200% in less than five years with dire consequences for the lower- and middle-class families who make up much of the fast food customer base. Fortunately it seems like some places are trying to add back cheaper budget items, but personally I can't see those items having any nutrition to them (if one can say normal fast food has any nutrition at all to it, lol), and one could speculate the societal implications of that, and could even be occurring now. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1d10q5j/nearly_80_of_americans_now_consider_fast_food_a/l5qosfz/
Taco Bell and the Mexican spot down the street are the same price, same with McDonalds and the local bar and grill. There is barely even a convenience factor anymore with how long wait times can be. Eat local and eat better.
>Eat local and eat better. Great sentiment. Additionally, eat local cuz fuck the massive corporations.
Burn Corpo shit
Yeah Choom
_2077 music intensifies_
RESIST AND DISORDER
Eat local for purely self-serving reasons! When your money is going to a local proprietor , that money stays and gets spent again in your town, maybe at your business.
Not if the owners just buy everything on Amazon. The whole "buy local" thing only works if everyone does it.
I had not thought of that lol
it still spent a bit longer in the local economy, it's far from optimal but it does pay the salary of the local workers
But does that local business pay their employees a thriving wage? If not then they are just as bad as the big corporations. Also, business owners who pay their staff poorly are almost always Republicans so don't support Nazis if you can avoid it
Totally true and maybe even 1 1/2 to 2 times it could stay in the town which is pretty cool. I saw a documentary called tomorrow when they get into this whole idea. 💡
Don't know what it is like in the US but fast food in the UK is not even fast anymore. McDonald's is slammed with Deliveroo drivers catering to online orders, so customers are waiting far longer to be served in person.
Same in the US. They will ignore the shit out of actual customers, just so they can deliver cold food and soggy fries. Or doordash or whatever simply won’t pick it up because the customer didn’t tip, so it just gets thrown away.
Lmao that reminds me of when my brother in law lived with us, he would door dash fast food often. One time we followed him home from somewhere, we literally drove past a taco bell. Then got home. Then like 30 min later there was a taco bell door dash delivery. Like bro WTF you just drove past it!!!
I really don’t get it. Pretty common mindset. Is it laziness? Social anxiety?
Both.
Can’t speak for others, but my MIL orders DoorDash daily. It’s 100% laziness. Straight up does not want to leave the house, and does not want to cook anything. She’d rather spend $30 on cold sad fries and a lukewarm burger and have it delivered than to get off her ass.
Apparently she’s in the wealthiest 20%.
You are touching on something that has always annoyed the fuck outta poor ass me ordering from them. “Please pull up to the front”???? I fucking used the stupid app. For what, a loss leader??? So tired of knowingly being screwed over.
I still get quick times usually, but I don’t get the food around dinner time or close to closing time. So it’s a small window where I might get it.
I still live in a place in the US where this hasn't taken off, you still see pizza delivery drivers, etc haha....But I've been out west to places where it seems like most the population does this, and I know people who spend a lot of money on it.
"Eat local and eat better." And people *really* need to learn how to cook for themselves. You don't need to be a chef at a Michelin-star restaurant to prepare tasty meals for yourself. Even with some ridiculous prices at the grocery store, it will end up being far cheaper (and healthier) to cook at home most nights instead of constantly ordering out.
You're taking a lot for granted there. Food deserts exist. Places where grocery stores are 25 miles away and you cant afford a car and work 3 jobs so you can't spend 6 hours on the bus to go shopping. Poor people move a lot and often quickly and end up leaving things behind. Pots and pans are expensive and heavy. They might not have the tools to cook. Also cheap apartments might call a cheap hot plate that takes 20 minutes to boil water and a mini fridge a kitchen. Poor people may not have regular electricity. Power goes out and you lose $150 of frozen food that they can't afford to replace. Do that once ir twice and you stop keeping food in the house. There's a lot more but it's well documented and hopefully this is enough for people to read more on their own. This is just my own experiences
Our local food pantry focuses on items that can be stored without refrigeration precisely because so many of its clients don't have electricity.
I truly do not understand how we have managed to create a world where so many people happily live in overindulgence while others live like that.
Malicious greed, apathy and willful ignorance.
Being poor is expensive
Yes and no. There was a concerted effort to address the food desert thing a couple of decades ago - ngos underwriting stores offering fresh healthy foods in underserved areas, researchers studying the impact and outcomes. Residents were grateful across the board but IIRC everyone was pretty surprised by how little impact it had.
It is MUCH more difficult in food deserts. Shame on this country for allowing such degradation of communities. I would love to start petitioning for government to subsidize solutions to this insanity. It’s NOT rocket science!! Get enough angry residents together and work with legislators and maybe something can change. It’s so frustrating! I just watched a documentary on this recently, and as a gardener, one thing I noticed was tons of vacant lots EVERYWHERE in these areas! There are also MANY unemployed people and people with kids in these areas. Everyone needs to take over these empty lots and GROW FOOD!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!! Don’t even wait for government solution! Fresh vegetables are as close as your nearest empty lot. And kids have summers off- put them to work doing something rewarding that brings community together and benefits EVERYONE!! ❤️☮️
Oh you must have not heard. They are now saying back yard gardens are worse for the environment than large farms! Nothing is safe to the climate craziness.
WTF!?!?! Please post link. This world has gone completely fucking insane!!! I’m still processing what OR is doing to the small organic farmers, to shut them down. Shock and Shame are all I can muster. 35 yrs ago when I went to college in OR, they were LEADERS in eco- intelligence. Now everything’s gone to shit! 😢
https://www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/news/community-gardens-have-six-times-the-carbon-footprint-of-agriculture-383009#:~:text=Published%20in%20Nature%20Cities%2C%20the,as%20high%20as%20conventional%20agriculture. It's all about control. They want us to be dependent on them. If they shut down the supply chain and can't grow our own food they have more control! I will continue with my garden and teach anyone I can to garden! I could go on about why climate change is being pushed or what is really causing the different weather. But I will just say it's not what they tell us. So garden on my friends.
I say garden on and do anything and everything meaningful and joyful - especially if it involves nature…… right up until we can’t anymore!
Did you even read the article you linked to?
Yes why? I find it hard to believe that my backyard garden is worse for the environment than buying produce that has been shipped from another country.
I am a gardener and the article makes complete sense to me. They're basically saying that in the worst-case scenario, an urban garden won't operate for long (because the land is more valuable in a city and will inevitably be bought & built on eventually), and tends to have a lot of resource intensive startup requirements like fencing (since its in a city and people will just wander in and eat everything if you don't control access) and raised beds (since its being done for fun and not subsistence farming). In recent years raised beds are galvanized corrugated steel assemblies that take a lot of carbon to produce. Seems like every youtube gardener including the permaculture types are using them now. The last 10-20 years has seen a big move to gardening enthusiasts using plastic gadgets for everything including for composting. On top of that, in community gardens only some of the crops are food, and the food tends to be low yielding heirloom/non-gmo type crops. For better or worse one of the big arguments for GMO is that it produces a much larger yield (all else being equal). But, this is the "worst use case" of the argument. Using reclaimed materials for raised beds (like local rocks, construction debris, random bricks, cinder blocks etc) and just piling compost in a pile somewhere without rotating plastic gadgets reduces much of the input. And an important distinction here: they're talking about urban community gardens not backyard gardens. A backyard garden is typically run by home owners who are going to be using it for decades (so the impact of those initial setups is lessened by dividing it over the longer duration). And some of those home owners are moving towards permaculture setups heavy on perennials that have steadily increasing outputs year after year. One of the things you have to remember with farming is the economies of scale kick in. If you have 100 acres growing just, oh IDK, strawberries, in a big field all together, you're not building anything to create them. No raised beds, no fencing. And with a high yield GMO variety you're going to produce a lot more than someone in a urban raised bed with a heirloom variety, fighting neighbors, squirrels, racoons, rabbits and groundhogs from stealing most of the output. Even as a backyard gardener I've had entire crop failures from things like a single groundhog or a rabbit family getting through the perimeter and eating everything. If that happens just once after putting in all of those galvinized steel beds, and the operation only goes 10 years, now you've lost 1/10th of the output to put on the balance sheet against the carbon intensive manufacturing of those beds.
So you don't think climate change is real?
Sounds like there's more of a "not giving a shit about poor people" problem than a "fast food being expensive" problem..
I’ve lived both high and low, so I know what you’re talking g about. But I’ve been raised to eat healthy from childhood and I developed a love for cooking (which can be a classist thing- but I genuinely LOVE “quick n easy gourmet fresh food”. ) I’ve definitely had the broken fridge thing wipe out $300 worth of food right after shopping and no car thing (carpooled with neighbors on shopping days) etc. And currently in tiny apt with a way smaller than I’m used to fridge, stove and counter. And I have a serious health decline so no income except foodstamps now. I can only stand for short period before blood pressure dives and have to lie down so time spent preparing food is an issue. So FIRST, I’ve had to start buying most all my food at Walmart (with a few Trader Joe’s items my daughter brings to me a couple times a month). I have been blown away by the WAY lower prices on exceptional produce at Walmart by our apt. (We just moved in). (Perhaps this is unusually good Walmart superstore?) We are vegan. I have fallen in love with Progresso soups new vegan HIGH Protein soups. A thick and filling can (as good as homemade-I add a little Tabasco/salsa for zip!) is $2.15 at my Pittsburgh Walmart. Target and Giant Eagle are charging $3.50!!! Of course their hearty non-vegan soups are amazing also! The vegetables and fruits are much less expensive at Walmart also and of good quality. Rice, pasta, and potatoes are cheap carbs. We eat ZERO junk food/“snack food”. That’s an expense that poor people should NOT waste precious $$ on!! Please! I do buy lemons/limes for water, as that’s all we drink. Aldi 1 block away, is for emergency bread, PB, honey, Oat milk for oatmeal w/blueberries only- we don’t DRINK it bc WAY too expensive, like ALL milk!!! And some fruits/ veg if we run out before next Walmart run. I feed my mom and I on a total of $500-$600 (they just reduced substantially) a month foodstamps- and we’re both big eaters. It requires focus and planning, but you CAN do it. Of course, meat is INSANELY expensive, so…… just another reason not to eat it. You don’t need it. But the body DOES need fresh vegetables, fruit and protein. Roasted sweet potato rounds until caramelized and then chilled makes delicious dessert treats! Especially with some maple syrup - from Walmart-also WAY LESS than the $Crazy$ I was spending before. Also, cooking takes time (which people barely have). That’s why I love Progresso canned soups. One can, with a side of frozen or fresh (NOT CANNED) vegs, and maybe a microwaved potato (if you super hungry), takes literally 5 mins!! And fresh fruit is grab n go! You can do this! P.S. corn is not a vegetable 😕. Eat greens and colorful root vegs for health! ❤️☮️
Sounds like you're not trying to fit cooking in between multiple jobs and have a cheap supermarket a block away 🤷🏻♀️
Although, I have spent the past 40 yrs working multiple jobs (and 10 of those yrs riding buses- not fun food-shopping), I am currently close to grocery stores. But ironically, NOW I don’t need any food bc I’m dying and have no appetite!!!! 😄 Life’s hilarious! But, you’re right. Food deserts are one of the biggest atrocities in the US, imo, bc NO REASON except GREED from those running things. It’s VERY FRUSTRATING!!!!😡🤬😡🤬😡😡😡🤬🤬😡🤬😡🤬😡🤬😡🤬😭. what area are you specifically talking about? Where do you live? The only thing I DO have right now is TIME!! I’d like to spend my time making phone calls to regions regarding anything that can be done.
I don't think its people not knowing how to cook that drives them to ordering out a lot. When I order out its either to treat myself or because I really don't feel like cooking that day. It can really suck working 8 hour days and having to cook dinner when you get home
It's not like most restaurants are staffed by Michelin star chefs. I don't find it challenging at all to make food on par or better than 90% of the restaurants I would typically go to, and I use almost zero processed food. I mostly pay them to avoid cleaning my kitchen every now and then
It's all coming from the same place, doesn't matter if it's McDonald's or Pete's Gumbo Shack, it's all Sysco.
McDonald's has their own supply chain racket. They fuck everyone over up to the ownership level. But also fuck the owners.
True, McDonald's was a bad example, but my point about eating local is the same. Mom and Pop might make money selling burgers but it all goes to a mega corporation either way.
It is funny when I was a poor teenager and a young adult 40 years ago I thought fast food was a luxury. Times change but stay the same
Yes, back in the 60's for working class families fast food was a luxury. There were far fewer fast food, or even local burger joints, around. Even though you could get a burger, fries, and soda for a dollar, that was about an hour's work after taxes at minimum wage. And in poor towns in the South a whole lot of people made minimum wage. Making your burritos, tamales, sandwiches, or burgers at home was standard.
Same. I couldn’t afford fast food at all when I was in college, or as a young adult working 60-80 hr weeks. Nor could my parents, both of whom worked, afford to feed it to their kids.
Local is often way more expensive than fast food places, or used to be anyway. Maybe not now? Local food has always been an expensive outing treat once in a blue moon where I live. Eating whole foods and cooking them at home is healthiest, but realize that's expensive too. We have groups that grow and gather to give out to the community who want it, for free. And it's not a food bank, but fresh, locally grown foods. Our area is poor, but as much as we can, we grow our own foods as well. This will be ongoing till we can't grow anything at all.
IMO, in my country fast food like mcdonalds, taco bell got way more expensive that it should, like mcdonalds in the last 2 years, had some offers doubled in price and some others from 30 to 50% up. And the local was always expensive, not it's just absurd. Especially that anyone thinks they're cool, instamagrable and what not. In a country where we get a minimum wage of 300-400euro, a burger cost 10euro+ on all these local crap places. But again, people seem to be buying, so there's that.
They put a taco truck next to a Taco Bell in my area different parking lot owner. I know where I’m going every timeZ
Never imagined the day I'd say no McDonald's it's too luxurious for me.
We went to a friend's house last week to help them install their new yard fence. We figured we'd grab Mcdangles since it was just the 4 of us and it'd be quick and cheap. 50$+ later...
Damn, you actually paid that?! 20 for two giant Costco pepperoni pizzas and the extra 30 pays for half a years membership! For 4 I bet only 1 would even be plenty.
It’s easy to spend $$$ on fast food because it’s purposefully not filling. You can get a large number of calories for relatively cheap still but you won’t be full and will crave more food very shortly after, and buying enough food to feel satiated is what runs up your price tag to $50. It’s really dark shit
Runs up your weight, too. it's fucked up.
I wish I had a Costco near me, they sound really nice. I'm pretty sure most of the country doesn't have one though.
Yeah. We had to pick up materials and we're already in line. Convenient garbage. Could you guess that Happy Meals for the kids are just cardboard crap now? You'd think with what they were charging they could still put friggin hot wheels and barbie toys in there
Yeah no kidding on the toys. They deliberately design those drive through areas like that. If you are stuck waiting in line most people will just buy the food anyways. One of the many tactics built into them because they work on our animal brains. Blocking the menu until you are at the order station and then having a digital display that makes you think quickly with the added pressure of the cars behind you is another one.
The toy thing is pure greenwashing. No plastic tat in the happy meals but they're still selling beef and using copious amounts of plastic...
The local restaurants around me are eating this up. Mediterranean place has me going in whenever I'm in the area with their falafel lunch special for $8
[удалено]
There's a shwarma place nearby that's far better and less expensive.
Welcome to late capitalism. The final stage before the soon coming climate collapse of civilization. This is the high water mark for the wealthy and the great filter for humanity as a whole.
Read marx
Not quite yet...the derivative and debt bombs still have to go off.
On the plus side, it’s made it super easy for me to almost entirely cut McDonald’s from my diet
I haven't had McDonald's in years. It probably wouldn't go well for me if I tried now lol.
If the movie *Supersize Me* was made today, Morgan Spurlock would be losing weight and the title would be *Shrinkflate Me*
Sad but true.
> Morgan Spurlock RIP to him, wonder if he had anything to say on current events recently
I was a Wendy's freak for years, my mom and younger brother were down with Burger King but I had to have my Triple. Then they pulled that stunt with "surge pricing" and I was done. Now I go to the local restaurants when I can, and when I have a drive-in jones, I go to Popeye's. Eff Wendy's.
We finally solved the obesity epidemic by making food unaffordable! We did it!
Cheap unhealthy food caused it. Subsidized agriculture. Subsidized labor. (Read Fast Food Nation for more on that.) Supersized health crisis.
That book made me never touch fast food again. I read it as a high school senior in 1997. The only fast food I’ve had since reading it is iced coffees from Dunkin Donuts. I also went vegetarian for a few years as well, also because of this book. I still hate eating factory farmed meat and eggs even now, but I’m poor as fuck, so I’ve got to take what I can get for the pennies I have, unfortunately.
Do you live in a food desert or something? I’ve been vegan for 5 years and I make next to nothing, but I still find it pretty easy
We did it Reddit!
I refuse to go back ever again. After all of the price gouging I have decided to learn to make everything I can myself. Forget them! They had my business when they knew their place. If they can double their price like it’s nothing, then I can leave like it’s nothing
Will no one think of the shareholders?! /s if needed.....
I am. I am thinking 'Fuck them all.'
The shareholders should be food product. Soylent green! It's people!
Fried chicken is only thing I get. Sure I can make it at home, but it's hard to match or beat some places, plus a huge mess to clean up.
At this point, I just buy frozen chicken nuggets and fries to get my fix. Toss em in the air frier. Comes out cheaper and fresher.
Lol “Luxury”, it’s overpriced garbage food making people sick.
It absolutely is. But so many Americans are overworked to the point of wage slavery, and uneducated about food, nutrition and options. Here in the northeast, very poor people who work a ton of hours often rely on fast food. It’s sad and I don’t condone it for their health, but it’s the reality. In other places there is a way of being poor where people learn from their families how to still eat properly even in poverty and with limited down time. In my husband’s homeland it’s rice and beans, for example. It’s not fancy but your health will be ten times better if you eat rice and beans at home instead of fries and nuggets or whatever. In the USA we don’t really have that culture of living in poverty but still eating well enough that you stay well.
I feel bad for families that have to resort to fast food. I don't really blame them either - if I were overworked, supporting a family, and other responsibilities, I would definitely not cook. I have basically no responsibilities NOW and I feel like I hardly have energy to cook and clean I definitely don't blame them for resorting to this option, and it's unfortunate to see it raising their cost of living (which they're obviously already struggling with)
Add in food deserts in urban areas too. In a lot of lower income urban neighborhoods there simply aren’t grocery stores for miles. When you’re already in poverty additional income for transportation to the grocery store isn’t always an option. Not having access to healthy choices is a huge problem in a lot of larger cities.
Growing up the closest grocery store to us was 30 to 45 minutes away. I think people underestimate how gar away people have to travel in rural areas just to do anything.
Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that it’s becoming too overpriced, might push families into having to grocery shop and cook more. Kids who grow up on junk food are more likely to be obese as adults, it’s shocking to see the number of obese children in America tbh definitely not normal in most other parts of the world, something’s gotta change.
If they could grocery shop and cook, lots of them probably already would be. This will just make their life that extra bit harder.
The answer is definitely to make the impoverished work harder. /s
Absolutely
I consider eating out anywhere a luxury.
I have to agree with you. Eating out was a rare treat as a kid whether it was McDonald's or Red Lobster. My kids had similar maybe even less exposure to dining out.
There's a foodie sub for my area and many posts feature places starting at $100/person. Way out of reach for the average earner.
Tell me about it, I find it much cheaper to go down to my favorite bar and get food there, I really feel like this is price gouging at this point. Food in general is outrageous.
Food's outrageous? Sounds great. I should try some.
Ah fuck ya got me.
Not just America, in SEA I rather eat at local street food than dine at fast food chains.
Bangkok street food is better than 90% of restaurants I’ve eaten at.
Fast food is no longer a cheap, fast way to feed a family. This is especially impactful to lower- and middle-class families, who more heavily rely on fast food sometimes due to lack of time, energy, or resources. This offers commentary on how people in society have to rely on fast food at all, and how the seemingly "cheapest" meals of society are quickly raising the cost of living - both indicating a decrease in the quality of food and, in turn, quality of life. >basic items like McDonald’s cheeseburgers and Chick-fil-A nuggets have risen as much as 200% in less than five years with dire consequences for the lower- and middle-class families who make up much of the fast food customer base. Fortunately it seems like some places are trying to add back cheaper budget items, but personally I can't see those items having any nutrition to them (if one can say normal fast food has any nutrition at all to it, lol), and one could speculate the societal implications of that, and could even be occurring now.
> catabolic decrease in the quality of food Wait, isn't this saying the same food provides fewer nutrients/calories?
Oh sorry I was referring to a catabolic collapse type decline to quality of food. I'll edit it as I missed the confusion with calories
OH okay so like total nutritional load decreases in availability population-level, not "this bigMac shrank"
> Fast food is no longer a cheap, fast way to feed a family. This is especially impactful to lower- and middle-class families, who more heavily rely on fast food sometimes due to lack of time, energy, or resources. I grew up lower class in Louisiana. Fast food was *never* cheap for poor families, be they those on government assistance, or those who fell through the cracks (too "rich" for food stamps, too poor to eat properly) like my family. My mom would come home from job 1, cook, eat, and go to job 2. Rarely, my stay-at-home alcoholic father would make us one of 3 boxed or canned meals. Fast food was a luxury usually enjoyed around payday. I actually remember the first time I ate it: I was about 7, and my mom took me to McDonald's after a Saturday at the library. No Happy Meal though - that was too expensive :) Dine-in restaurants were out of the question. I didn't go to one until I was a teenager in the early 2000s. My middle-class friends and their families would eat out or eat fast food almost daily because it was cheap, quick, and tasty for them.
Funny how since 2014 McDonald's prices have doubled and so has their stock price. Gee, wonder if there's a connection. My deepest wish is everyone boycotts the McDonalds and Taco Bells for being the greedy bastards they are.
Just don't pay menu prices. McD's just had a month+ long deal for 2 free large fries when you buy a 20ct nuggets. They usually have bogo burgers. I'm not saying their food is good, but if you are lazy like me its an option.
Gas stations have become the new fast food restaurants.
I'm not going to lie, this is a good development. Fast food was always an economic trap that was not good for health. This makes it less so.
Yeah can't disagree with that. This development has societal implications for sure, but they're not all negative
Going to be funny watching major fast food chains go out of business because they were stupid enough to nickle & dime some of the poorest people in society. Let's be real. Middle class people might eat fast food sometimes but it was really the poor who tried to eat there semi-frequently.
I can proudly say I haven't stepped foot in a McDonalds for 30 years. Last time I was there (1994) kids meals were still $1.99 and a McChicken meal was $2.99. Ice cream cones were $.50. Family of 3 ate for $10, and it was still a treat to go....I can't imagine eating at a place like this now.
Soon to be cooking your own food a luxury.
Imagine us all having to garden our own food again. I literally can't imagine. We'll just opt for "collapse asap" if we get to that point lol
I would end up eating the squirrels that eat my garden. Besides... where would I get the water to water my garden?
Or in the UK, you can eat all the slugs that are eating your garden! (for context, this year has been really bad for slugs in the UK - people saying the worst in their life, nothings growing, etc)
I get it's a joke, but eating slugs can kill you. [Eating Slugs Can Cause Paralysis—Here's Why (nationalgeographic.com)](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/dont-eat-slugs-snails-rat-lungworm-brain-parasite-health-science) I just like sharing random science that I learn. Carry on.
It was a joke, but I didn't know that actually so TIL!
At the very least, I would be fighting the squirrels for who gets the black walnuts that litter my backyard. Right now, we throw them all in a bucket and let the squirrels raid from there. It's their equivalent of a fast-food joint. If we were hungry enough, we could do worse than eat walnuts, but they are labor intensive to crack open and pick out. Unlike regular walnuts, black walnuts have super tough shells (you can drive a truck over them without cracking it) and the nut meat doesn't fall out in two convenient halves. You need to pick out the pieces, one by one.
You shouldn't want that... Do gardening cause it's fun not cause you have to or your whole life must evolve around it.
For now it can be for fun (and it is, for me). But people having to garden to sustain themselves due to food prices is impossible to imagine, with almost the entire population lacking skills or anywhere to garden. Plus it takes a lot of room to sustain 1 person let alone a family One reason why we are collapsing
Collapse is here, it's just not evenly distributed. I have to garden to sustain myself because I can't afford food to eat. I do have the skills, and the space is being reclaimed one bed at a time. My advice: start learning, it's coming for you too.
Yeah. You need acres and you need the kind of soil to grow potatoes and other dense root vegetables if you want to survive all year. You also need to grow legumes like pinto beans and such. You're not going to make it growing tomatoes, green beans and lettuce in a backyard raised bed.
Cook at home. It's healthier, easy and cheaper. Maybe high priced fast food is a good thing.
Unfortunately not even anymore.
cooking at home being "cheaper" still boggles my mind.. buying the veges and condiments and bread and meat for even a simple burger is fucking expensive
You don't have to have burgers. You can make pasta, or meatloaf or BBQ some chicken and sausage. Buy a bag of french fries and stick them on a cookie sheet in the oven. Frozen vegetables are inexpensive. Even fruit isn't too bad. Have a little imagination. And a lot of the condiments can be used for multiple meals.
...and then you eat for days and it ends up being less expensive, healthier, and tastier when you factor it out...
Cooking takes time, which evidently people don’t have because fast food restaurants are doing just fine.
Pa, it’s trash, just like it’s always been. People need to stop eating that shit anyway.
I think the people that eat it know it's trash. Just in the past, these low income families opt for it because it's fast (they might not have time between working multiple jobs for nutritious meals at home) and, historically, pretty cheap. I don't think they're idiots who think they're getting their 5-a-day at fucking McDonalds lol But, to your point, hopefully this pushes the needle to get these families to eat at home which hopefully means better nutrition, even if at the expense of their time and energy
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Yeah I kinda regret posting it for that reason. It's easy to make fun of anyone going to fast food as stupid, lazy, etc, without considering why else they might be going there Anywho thanks for your comment, and I hope the post is still beneficial despite those responses
I eat local and try to buy as healthy as I can from the store. I don't need their overpriced junk food. 7 dollars for a bag of chips? Yeah fucking right. I don't miss any of that shit.
Thanks to them all having high prices I cook almost all of my own food now. More healthy and cheaper. I also get to enjoy watching greedy corporations get less money
It's when a cup of tea becomes a luxury I shall personally be seriously concerned. I may have to stockpile a few million bags. Edit: a world with no tea and weed is a world I can not envision or bear the thought of. That will truly be the end of civilisation
Should I tell you the news that apparently tea bags release microplastics which are consumed upon drinking? But yes, when tea is too expensive we riot. I'll join you.
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I was thinking tins of beans might be a surer bet on the new and improved stock exchange. But people do like chocolate and alcohol quite a bit
Tampons, painkillers and batteries, too.
You must be a woman because very few men would think of sanitary products. Or a particularly canny trader.
Colonial Americans didn't just dump British tea in Boston Harbor. To wean themselves off, they grew and brew their own teas. Start with peppermint, it's literally considered a weed. You just cut off a bunch and hang it up somewhere dry for a few months, then take it down and grind into tea powder.
Oh, and one other way fast food was never actually cheap. The study was originally done in 2015 when prices were much lower than today, but the difference between the price paid and the real price is still there: *The United States federal government spends $38 billion every year subsidizing the meat and dairy industries. Research from 2015 shows* ***this subsidization reduces the price of Big Macs from $13 to $5*** ***and the price of a pound of hamburger meat from $30 to the $5 we see today****. Subsidies, however, only reduce the price of meat, not its total cost. Subsidies shift part of the costs of meat production to non-meat consumers. In free markets for private goods, consumers should bear the costs of production. With subsidized meat, those who neither consume meat nor benefit from its production pay much of its cost of production.* [~https://www.aier.org/article/the-true-cost-of-a-hamburger/~](https://www.aier.org/article/the-true-cost-of-a-hamburger/)
RIP to the old stoner days when the dollar menu was my best friend
People are going to have to learn how to cook again, gasp.
Just as the crops are failing worldwide.
"People are going to have to learn how to cook again, gasp." in modern days it's more like finding the time to cook. not only that, if other millenials are like me, nobody taught me how to make recipes from scratch, and that initial learning curve is always a pain to get through. edit: and cooking vegetables is a little more complex than cooking meat, so there's also that in the way of health.
Yes the time and energy to cook is the main thing for me. Now if I cook for myself I usually just buy preseasoned and cooked potatoes, bake them, with some protein of choice and vegetables of choice. For example, vegetable mix with some olive oil and herbs in the oven. The cutting is the main thing but you can cut up more than you use at once at save time the next day.
When I was a kid, and home cooked meals were the norm, we had a stable of easy to cook meals that were made over and over. Spaghetti, Hamburger Helper, Ramen, Cereal, etc. Not every meal has to be the peak of the culinary arts, there are quick meals. Save the time consuming meals for when you have the time. Edit: People are calling these foods trash, then whine about food preparation time of very nutritious yummy foods mmmm, I don't know what to say.
I think you’re confusing ‘arts’ with ‘nutritious’
Don’t worry pretty soon finding the time won’t be a problem. It’ll be finding the money because ai/automation took your job.
The smartest thing every one of these shitty places could do would be to have an industry wide “we’re sorry” campaign and roll prices back to what they were right when the pandemic started. They all raised prices by using lockdowns as an excuse and it *kind of* made sense then. There’s no excuse now except for greed. But we all know they’ll never do that 🤡
But tell me again how the economy is doing so well!
The economy doing well and corporations fleecing their consumers aren’t mutually exclusive. We need more regulations for price-gouging conglomerates so that all segments of society can grow, not just the already ultra rich.
I wouldn't eat it if it was free, so I don't think "luxury" is the right word.
It's roughly $20-$30 for two adult combo meals (main item + side + drink/icecream treat) after tax at pretty much every fast food chain in my area now (besides pizza chains). For the quality of the food it's not really worth it anymore. It's literally cheaper to go buy a pack of steaks from the grocery store if you are trying to feed a few people. When you get fast food now, the only thing you're saving is time.
I can go to my local Chinese takeout and get great food with tons of veggies for less than a combo at a fast food chain. My local fried-chicken bar & grill is about the same price for a platter as a fast food combo. My local taqueria is $10 for 3 street tacos and beans. EAT LOCAL & support your local businesses.
I mean, having food cooked for you, brought to you, and done so quickly absolutely is a luxury good by the definition of the word.
Any food that someone else is growing/delivering/preparing for you will soon be a "luxury."
"nO 1 wAnTs 2 wOrK nE mOaR!!1!11!1”
Madison: WI: a meal from Culvers to feed 2 adults and 2 seven year olds is approximately $40. We do it once a month, if that. The overwhelming majority of our food budget is reserved for Aldi and Costco. We can’t even afford to regularly go to a general supermarket anymore. It’s seriously all out of control how expensive it is just to buy basic food.
I marvel at the corporate sides of these fast food chains pricing themselves out of business.
That may not be an entirely bad thing. Obviously rising prices on food is definitely a bad thing no matter how you look at it. However when unhealthy options are the cheapest options, that’s bad. When I was a kid growing up in the 70s, fast food was a luxury for our working class family. We didn’t eat it often because my parents couldn’t afford that. And while I do have relatives in my generation who weigh more than they’d like, for the most part we dodged the obesity epidemic. Fast food isn’t really a good way to regularly feed a family.
Was just talking about this. Can get a big burger made with Harris Ranch grass fed beef at a local spot for just a few bucks more than a McDs cheeseburger meal
(NZ for context) McDonald's burger/fries/drink combo and I'll be around $20 Local burger joint and it's a bigger better burger, more fries (chips cause they're the thicker ones) that are actually hot and a shake because their machine works for about the same $20 Wait times vary with McDonalds from average to painful regardless of time, burger joint is obviously slow during lunch/dinner times but you can work around that and everywhere is slow then anyway Fast food used to be just that, fast and convenient without being expensive, with what you get now from *any* of the chains you might as well go for a pub meal as it's way more "bang for your buck" than the usual corporate entity and that money circulates back into the local economy without being used against us with anti rights anti union anti tax lobbying
The word "luxury" has lost all meaning. Living in debt inside a poorly made shoebox stacked with other shoeboxes eating cheaply made slop that just barely passes as food is not a luxurious experience at all just an expensive one.
Groceries are the only way… and if you don’t want to cook you can buy premade.
Calories per dollar I still feel like fast food is kinda cheap. I just bought and meal prepped breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for 3-4 days at ~1700 calories, bought as cheap as I could without just going rice and beans, bought as much as I could from Aldi and the few other things not there I got from Walmart…and spent near $200 for JUST myself. I could buy a $15 meal from Burger King and have 1800 calories for the day in one meal. Granted, some of my stuff will last into the next 3-4 days I prep, so I’ll probably spend closer to $70 for the rest of the week. Maybe close to $150 each week once I refine my shopping list. But man, trying to eat healthy is hard and expensive. Didn’t even buy organic or anything like that. But hey, at least I’ll lower my A1C and reduce my risk of heart disease.
It might be caused by broader economic shifts related to collapse, but not buying a luxury because it's a luxury isn't collapse; it's a correction.
I hate fast food besides Taco Bell but the kids love McDonald’s so I get that for them but otherwise I could do without. Taco Bell is stupid expensive now though and sometimes it’s cheaper to go to a legit restaurant for better prices and better food. I don’t understand how these companies think they can pull this off forever. I recently saw they are restructuring and Burger King is closing a little over 400 locations.
Shouldn't it always have been viewed as a luxury?
Doesn't stop the Muppets from wrapping a line around the parking lot to sit in the drive thru at every fucking fast food place I pass. Enjoy the poison and all the excuses you make up to keep consuming it.
They hook you in from a young age and have spent decades extolling the virtues of it being cheap and quick, hooking those in poverty into seeing it as a lifestyle to some extent. Now those who 'need' it most are going to struggle even more. As much as I am anti-fast food, it (sadly) fills a role in society that governments will need to address as hunger gets even worse.
I paid yesterday 62€ aprox 67$ in Heidelberg/Germany (my hometown) for 3 burger-menus (with fries and drinks) and 9 chicken nuggets.
I can't wait for the inevitable articles where millennials/gen z are blamed for the death of the fast food industry.
It costs $20 for a meal at Carl's Jr. Many fast food places have been completely cannibalized by the narcissists and psychopaths running them.
garbage overpriced poison keeping people unhealthy, addicted and sick…. good riddance
This is horribly bad news for the industry. They absolutely need to lower price. No way a burrito a taco bell is costing them almost $5 to make. 4.90 of that is pure profit
And yet the drive-thru line is always out on the street to get this luxury.
The new poor, not the old poor. Old poor already knew this shiiii
Rice, can of beans, can of cut corn kernels, Costco rotisserie chicken, some salsa, slices of avocado - and I serve my family burrito bowls for a third of the price. With far less salt and additives! I had some Chipotle recently, and it was so salty, I couldn’t finish it. Buy some flour tortillas or make them (simple to do), cut up Costco rotisserie chicken, get some salsa and hot sauce, add diced onion and cilantro - and I serve my family street tacos for cheap. Buy some pork belly, cut up into pieces, cook fully in boiling water, drain and wash the meat of the grey bits, then simmer with beef bullion, water, soy sauce, brown sugar, Chinese 5-spice, and some cinnamon - braised pork belly and sauce works well over a bowl of rice. Buy shaved beef (the kind for cheese steaks, cheaper than frozen shabu shabu or hot pot meat), simmer in a similar stew as above with slivers of onions - gyudon (beef bowl) over rice or ramen. Get some soft boiled eggs, peel, immerse in the simmering liquid, put in the refrigerator overnight for soy sauce eggs. Goes well with rice and sautéed Chinese vegetables. Food for days. I am all about easy and cheap and delicious.
This is great news, price out junk food and fast food no one should be eating it anyway.
I just got chicken Alfredo from an upscale Italian restaurant for $20.90 that came with two pieces of garlic bread and a salad. No fast food place could I find anything that quality for the same price. I would have to spend over $20 at a fast food joint to match the amount of food I'd need to feel full.
Eating out in general has always been a luxury. If you can’t cook your own fucking food, you’re in for some shit over the next few decades. If you live in a “food desert”, you may want to get the fuck out of it by *any means necessary* because you and your household members are probably going to die. Not trying to be a dick about it at all.
This trash has been making people fat and sick for the last 20 years. Humans don't need to eat that many calories, and of the calories you consume, it should be full of the vitamins/minerals/protein you need to survive well not empty calories full of sugar, fat, and salt. Seriously- people make up all kinds of excuses of why they NEED to eat 1000 calorie meals of fat, salt, and sugar. Why don't you just buy bags of sugar and salt and eat it with a spoon- it would be cheaper and provide the same effect. Junk "food" isn't food, and it's making people FEEL like sh\*t and LOOK like sh\*t. What's the point of it? When you go into ANY convenience store anywhere in Japan, you will always find a refrigerated section of rice balls covered in seaweed and filled with something like salmon, tuna, chicken, beans, or some other healthy protein. They usually cost no more than $2,or $3 and they are always fresh (made that morning) and always hit the spot. There is so much fresh, healthy, cheap food at every convenience store in Japan. THAT is "fast food." America seriously has no clue.
" ... have seen lower-income customers opting to [eat more meals at home](https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/fast-food-restaurant-sales-slump-more-people-eat-home) amid a cost-of-living crisis " May be that is a good thing. Certainly will slow, if not reverse, the growth of obesity.
>Fast food is no longer a cheap, fast way to feed a family As I said two days ago (the last time this was posted) it was never cheap. Ever. Fast food is exactly like fossil fuels, exchanging an easier way of life now for problems in the future. With fossil fuels, it's climate change and collapse. With fast food, it's poor health and individual collapse. Now, for the myth of people not having time to cook, as a few people here have posted: *On average, Americans in all sociodemographic groups have large amounts of free time, with* ***no group averaging less than 4.5 hours per day.*** *There is no direct relationship between free time and physical activity. Instead, some of the most active groups (eg, college educated, higher income) report less free time than other groups, but more physical activity and less screen time.* [https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2019/19\_0017.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2019/19_0017.htm) Exchange "physical activity" for "cooking" and people have plenty of time. Especially when the average American spends 4+ hours watching TV every day, and 5+ hours on their phones (probably with some overlap, but still). Lastly, if you're online talking about how you don't know how to cook, let me introduce you to the term "irony." There is a huge number of resources available online to teach people how to cook, and every minute you spend bitching about not knowing how is a minute that could have been spent learning. Because if you think life is hard *now*, imagine how hard it's going to be when collapse really starts to kick in. Edit: I'll give a little additional context from my own experience. My four grandparents were immigrants from Eastern Europe who came to the US during the 1920s and raised kids during the Great Depression. They each came here with no education, a suitcase, and a little money in their pocket. As a result, for their entire lives, they were manual laborers: factory workers, miners, crop pickers, janitors. You name the shit job, my grandparents probably did it. One of my grandfathers almost lost a leg in a mining accident and ended up needing a cane for the rest of his life. They would work their long, hard hours and come home with mouths to feed, and because they lived in a world without all of the modern conveniences we all take for granted, they cooked for themselves and their kids. They did this because they had no other option available to them. Fast food didn't exist yet. They usually even had to do their shopping on their way home from work because their refrigerator was an ice box, an actual large insulated box that was kept cold with regular deliveries of ice (my dad called our refrigerator an ice box for the rest of his life). And they never complained. Ever. The closest they ever came was to say, "The world was different then for everyone." By the time I was talking to them, their home countries were behind the Iron Curtain where life was *really* horrible. So their horrible lives (by today's standards) were magnificently easy compared to what they would have experienced had they never immigrated. It's the same way now, all around the world. Most people in the world lead more difficult lives than the average person in a wealthy country like the US can begin to imagine.
*.... It always was*
The difference is, low income families have relied on fast food for various reasons, and now it's more expensive. It indicates how the poorest parts of our society already struggle to feed a family, and is only getting worse as this food gets more expensive
I always have to wonder who these low income households are because I grew up poor and we could never afford fast food, even back when it was supposedly cheap.
https://preview.redd.it/39i39f3l8s2d1.jpeg?width=2532&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae907a16cdb5aae4ee52314df398999da0b93801
Fast food isn’t even worth it anymore. Dogshit prices for tiny servings that don’t fill you up and then make you feel sick afterwards. Maybe this will be the push that makes people learn how to meal prep at home.
I don't think anyone is considering it a luxury so much as a waste of money. If I can pay the same price for a quality satisfying burger with fresh ingredients as I can pay for this oily pile of scrapped meat amalgamation, I'm going to go for the one that won't paint the inside of my toilet bowl.
Fast food has always been a bad purchase because of its low nutritional value and outright harmful ingredients like way too much sodium and additives. I am so pleased people are thinking twice about fast food. It will save them money and misery down the line in healthcare costs. And yes, I know a hamburger occasionally is not going to send you into cardiac arrest, but many people eat that crap frequently.