Yeah for what I’d pay for a burrito at Chipotle I can go get a burrito at a local place instead. I am not a chain restaurant person anyway, but the prices are equivalent now, there’s no point to them.
I do go to Panera sometimes because it’s across the street from my work, it’s so expensive but do feel like I get some nutrition at least. But my kids who used to eat more junk food from chains are meal prepping their lunches now to save money, with no input from me they just got tired of it. I don’t think they’d go back now they are used to making food that they like.
Chipotle: Increases price of a burrito from $6.99 to $12.00.
Customers: eat elsewhere.
Chipotle: Pickachu Face!
So they are failing their customers expectations, and all they know to do is cry for help?
Wait that’s communism! They should calm down, the market will regulate itself /s
the market will regulate itself
Success! It actually does!
It hurt itself in confusion…
If you’re in the business of selling slop, it has to be cheap and readily available. Nobody is paying restaurant prices for warmed over garbage.
I haven’t ate McDonald’s in over a year and I don’t plan on it ever again. Doing my part!
They must be desperate since they’re rolling out the McRob nationwide in a few days. NGL it’s tempting…
McRibs are disgusting, I stopped eating them like a decade ago after every other one I bought had a big chunk of cartilage in it.
https://www.theawl.com/2011/11/a-conspiracy-of-hogs-the-mcrib-as-arbitrage/
Not necessarily fascinating, but an interesting article.
McRob is how they rob banks in Scotland
These restaurant g suite idiots just can’t figure out how they tripled prices and people are staying away.
Household names like Chipotle and McDonald’s cautioned about flagging purchases among low-income customers.
“Flagging purchases” is an interesting way to phrase “we tripled our prices and cut staffing to the bare minimum and are surprised that it didn’t result in infinite money”.
But the M.B.A. told us to focus on our high dollar customers…
Businesses: How can we pay our staff as little as humanly possible?
Also businesses: Why don’t people have any money to spend in my store?
It would be comical if it wasn’t so absurd.
Right? A burrito is $10+ and they wonder why people don’t go there as often.
I’m so thankful the local halal place around the corner from my house is there… and gyro and fries is only like 9 USD. I commented to the owner about how cheap his food is; he said he’s seen a bit of an uptick in business over the summer and he thinks it’s because the chain places have gone mad with pricing.
Fast food is too expensive and people aren’t willing to pay top dollar for shit quality. Who knew?
the whole good, fast and cheap, you can only have two at once is true. when this formula is violated things fall apart. fast food is now only fast (it was never good but it used to be cheap).
Fast food isn’t even fast anymore.
It’s a humiliation ritual for all involved, except the people making the decisions.
Can confirm. In the UK, and a few years back me and my grad school buddies had a habit of going to McD after the bars closed, and it was so chaotic with almost no staff, broken kiosks, and no feasible queue amidst the crowd of people (in the UK) that it felt more like being stuck waiting for an appointment at a government office. We literally had to be drunk out of our minds to even consider it.
Taco Bell was an even worse nightmare. I swear, even drunk that place feels like purgatory. Seen people literally lose their minds waiting lmfao
I would question if it’s fast anymore either. In my days of working fast food long ago we had parameters of customer quality and speed we had to meet. I do not see any evidence that any of the chains care about any of that anymore. Why would they? They give shit for shit prices and shit speed, and people keep coming back for more. Capitalism rule, why do better when it’s not needed or required?
yeah, I was gonna say that but I live in europe where the whole drive thru scene has never been as fast as how it used to be in the states. I do recall mcdonalds drive through being so quick you were scared of holding up the line. here, you are told to go park in one of the waiting bays 1:3 times, or you just wait 3-4 mins sitting at the window at a minimum.
I was in the states in summer 2021 and things definitely took longer than they once did, but I was so grateful to the kids working those shit jobs when covid was still prominent that I was tipping them $10 in cash at the window, not complaining.
I’ll be back over in a few months and will 100% get both Arby’s and Wendy’s as you cant get those over here, so I guess I’ll see what the pace is like.
Just to say though, prices have definitely gone down at the bigger chains, I dont think we’re the only two people who feel this way and the companies realized they went past their ceiling in terms of how much they could charge for their mediocre food
They cut costs as much as possible and now they think it’s the consumer because their food is shite. See the cost cutting.
They may have cut costs, but they also raised prices
It’s interesting that McDonalds saw increased traffic among higher-income shoppers. Apparently even high income people are feeling the pressure because they’re apparently choosing to eat McDonald’s over their usual restaurants.
Mcds is so expensive now. You might as well get actual food.
And the portions are half of what they used to be. Shrinkflation is insane, a burger is the size of a slider these days.
I went to Taco Bell the other week and spent $20 on processed crap.
I went to a local burger joint and spent $16 on a damn good burger and fries.
Taco bell died when they got rid of the $1 beef burrito a few years ago.
Also when they discontinued the Verde sauce 🫠
You can still get it around me
Shit, for real?! Now i went from sad to angry. Honestly it was probably just as well though, i was having a hard time justifying the price of their food anyway, stopped eating there a couple years ago… Not that i was a frequent customer to begin with
You can also go to Taco Bell and get the $5 meal box, it’s one of the last fast food chains that still has a reasonably priced option.
I’d rather eat at home than eat at McDonalds.
Maybe they’re not used to cooking.
But sometimes you just want a sloppy, shitty burger that you didn’t have to cook.
Then I’ll spend the same amount at a local place instead and get something that’s actually edible
Fast food is like a nasty lay that you are ashamed of the morning after, but you were feeling feral and wanted to get dirty.
Das some funny shit
I don’t think people are eating at McDs bendy they want it.
We’re eating it because we have no time, and little money. We’re running behind and trying to get somewhere. If we had the time we would be eating at home.
Maybe people are realizing how terrible a value it is, you can make the place look as fancy as you want, you’re still serving what’s supposed to be cheap food for crazy prices. There is no possible way you can justify blaming the consumer when the CEO is making tens of millions of dollars, he doesn’t do that fucking much, no one does.
this is a recession indicator
Woe is me if all these fast casual places go under.
If you’re housed you can buy the exact same shit they heat up from frozen at a restaurant supply store and heat it yourself.
I’ve never seen a restaurant supply store in my life. What?
Use a search engine, you’ll find one near you.
Best prices on cookware, frozen food, bdsm gear …
No, that last one you get at the hardware store. Best rates on ropes, chains, lumber, and eye bolts.
They’re like 1 and 1a in some order for sure.
If you’ve never needed restaurant supplies, that makes sense. There’s lots of businesses out there you never hear of because you don’t need their services.
As a side topic, that’s something that’s always fascinated me. Looking around at the various vehicles and shops that most people just see as background noise, there are so many industries that we take for granted unless we need that particular product or service. Lots of things done in the middle of the supply chain that the average consumer never sees. Commerce is an enormous machine with billions of hidden parts to it, and it’s amazing it functions like it does even in times of crisis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_It’s_Made is about how everyday items are made and it’s surprising what goes into things that we take for granted.
You might be interested in this More Perfect Union video about how Sysco is ruining restaurant culture and is about to form a monopoly over the industry.
What does he mean about to? Doesn’t everyone know that Sysco provides all the crap for the mediocre restaurants? It’s been this way for a very long time.
It should be obvious when you eat at garbage restaurants like olive garden, outback, chili’s, probably damn near all hotel restaurants and on and on.
Right now it exists as an oligopoly as oppose to a monopoly.
The giveaway is how they all have the same base flavor and they give you very distinctive burps.
Oh I thought you meant a literal store
https://www.restaurantdepot.com/
I don’t know if this is a regional only thing but there are brick and mortar restaurant supply stores. You usually need a membership to buy from them but you can bulk buy the same food and supplies that restaurants buy.
There are also literal stores. I regularly visit a nearby US Foods “Chef’store”
Yes Chipotle, consumer demand is the issue, not the fact that your food safety track record reads like a Chinese bio lab
My hubby refuses to eat there since he gets sick about 65% of the time. Definitely questionable food safety. Probably safer to just lick you cell phone.
…
Reminder: disinfect your cell phones often!
Reminder, licking your cell phone is free level ups for your immune system
I’ve never gotten sick from then, but doubling the prices while halving the serving sizes made it pointless to go there any more
Wages basically stopped rising (compared to asset prices) a couple of decades or so ago
Funny that people without any more money, aren’t able to buy as much stuff now it’s more expensive
In the US, wage growth has been above inflation for a long time with the exception of a couple of years. Since 2021, real wages have only shrunk a small amount.
That doesn’t mean that individual sectors (e.g. fast food) haven’t gone up more than other things, but this is more relevant than asset prices.
Then why is 15/hr still such a hot topic of resistance when that number was a living wage minimum amount decades ago? And what is the federal minimum wage still at? Then there’s the issue of underemployment in both lowered expectations of what’s available for a person’s skill set, and also how many hours are actually available at whatever the rate is offered (i.e., if you give an employee a job at 20/hr but only give them 15 hours a week, that’s not a living wage).
There’s a lot of problems beyond just wage growth, and I would suggest that even if wages did start increasing faster than inflation for a while now, that just means they’re “only” too low a little less. People wouldn’t be working multiple jobs for each household member to make ends meet if wages were close to appropriate for cost of living needs.
Tbh I’m not sure what the minimum wage has to do with the overall picture. Obviously it should keep pace with wage increases.
The picture for wages overall is not what you say - annual incomes, not just hourly incomes, are not down over the last ten years. Yes, some people are having to worry multiple jobs or are unable to find enough work or specific costs in their life mean the overall picture doesn’t reflect their situation, and there is a need to fix that.
But explaining reduced revenue at fast food places with “everyone is poor now due to inflation” is in contradiction with the facts, and you haven’t brought up anything to rescue it.
Why are you any different? I haven’t seen you back up a single claim you’ve made in response.
Are you asking for references on US real wages? I can find em when I’m at a computer but it’s pretty easy to search for. (I use image search to find charts usually)
That’s a strange way to say they aren’t selling as much as they were expecting to, even a few months ago. How about, “Some restaurant chains are reporting decreased consumer spending”
Chipotle Mexican Grill, which operates thousands of U.S.-based stores, faulted consumer weakness for disappointing sales…
There ya go. Blame the very people for something that’s not their fault that you depend on for your overpriced luxury foods, clothing, houses, and yachts.
~That sounds like a good strategy to win them back.~
